Elaine Harris Spearman Commentary: Easter a time to reassess personal values
Happy Easter! Yes Virginia, there are still people around who actually say that rather than “Happy Resurrection Day.” Although there are those from the “old school” who use the Resurrection greeting; most or many of the greeters of a certain age fondly use Easter.
Either greeting is just fine, because the coming to life again after death is being acknowledged. In I Corinthians 15:14, Paul writes that if Christ is not alive, then “your trust in God is empty, worthless, hopeless.”
The resurrection is core to Christian faith. I am no theologian, but have had a lifetime of teaching and training from the Methodist church.
I would like to believe that church attendance and participation at all levels made me a better person, who can appreciate the differences in people, and that it is a good thing to be thoughtful, mannerable and respectful. This is in spite of how the world may treat you individually or as a group.
Easter is described as a “festival in the Christian Church commemorating the Resurrection of Christ, which is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or next after March 21.” Perhaps that is why growing up we, as children, never quite knew what Sunday Easter would fall on.
Many people of a certain age look back at the Easter Sundays of their youth with fondness. In those days, we were going to Sunday School and church, Easter or not. Easter Sunday was a bonus with a new outfit and an Easter basket with eggs and candy.
The church or some organization sponsored an Easter egg hunt. Nobody worried about poisoned candy or children being bothered attending these events.
Of course, we as children would snicker as all of the people showed up for church whom we never saw before or after Easter.
As we grow older, we learn that those who do show up on that special day really do need to be there, whatever brought them. The important and notable thing is that church was chosen, whether for the new outfit or fond memories of Easters gone by.
Church members can take the opportunity to show them what they have been missing, and extend a sincere wish for their return.
The fact must be faced that there is trouble lurking in many denominations. In many, lay people have made it their duty to operate a private club. No one that is not part of the clique is welcome.
It is a known fact that church attendance has dwindled and continues to do so. People offer a myriad of reasons why they no longer attend church services in person. It is true that COVID-19 changed a lot of large gatherings of people, particularly when so many deaths were traceable to church gatherings — the choir singing and preachers preaching.
Debate and voting over churches’ doctrine also changed church-going behavior.
Through all of this, and an attempt at finding a middle ground for what appears to be normal, most people appear to celebrate Easter in some form or fashion.
With America facing an onslaught of presidential candidates, Easter is an opportune time to reassess personal values. What do you mean when you say “Happy Resurrection Day?” Does it mean that Christ is alive in you, and you have pressed a restart button in how you behave, or how you treat people?
Can you honestly, and with the mission of spreading Christianity, view the presidential candidates and know that we as Americans need no leader who does not honestly espouse Christian principles? We do not need a national leader who cannot in any way at least honor the Ten Commandments.
America does not need a tyrant and his or her followers occupying public office. The followers who choose to turn a blind eye to those who run roughshod over the everyday citizen should leave public office to those who care about the public.
Never forget this: America has a basis, Christian principles. Our medium of exchange is money, not rocks and glass beads. Every bill and coin is engraved with “In God We Trust.”
Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The views reflected are her own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Elaine Harris Spearman looks at Easter
