Little Chocolate Crosses

Everyone probably asked the question at one point or another we all reach that moment in their young lives where we question what colored eggs and confused rabbits have to do with the resurrection of Jesus. Even the name "Easter" probably derives its origins from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility, Eostre.

During the consumer driven Christmas season you probably also questioned the relevance of a fat man in a red suit delivering presents around a dead evergreen tree littered with lights. Yes, the secret is out, most of the holiday traditions we hold near and dear to our hearts have pagan (or simply, non-Christian) origins.

But what does that mean?

So far it seems skeptics have decided to use theses holiday add-ons as a basis for their contempt for Christianity as a whole. Since we paint eggs and pass out chocolate bunnies, Christ was not raised from the dead, right? Or since we decorate dead trees with lights and top them with a "pagan" pentagram, God did wasn't born of a virgin as Jesus here to save us from our sins.

I digress...

This leads me on a journey of perspective... Hundreds of years from now, I wonder what the modern skeptics will say about the state of the church in 2007. Maybe they will see the addition of the "devil's music" to popular Christian worship services the same way we now see the Easter Bunny and Santa. After all, it wasn't too long ago that the official position of the church was to discourage individuals from reading the Bible.

Luckily, Christianity has been trying to find ways to stay relevant to the culture of the time. All of these elements were added to make the transition to following Christ easier for believers of different (mostly pagan) religions. To me, its only natural to draw the conclusion to Christian rock. Using rock/pop/rap (whatever) to appeal to the current culture is just our generations way of adapting the secular culture to the church.

Note: I said "adapt" not "change"...

The basic precepts of Christianity do not change, but the way we present Christ to people needs to continue to evolve and adapt to new generations of people. Sure, Easter peeps and the Christmas season's slow assimilation of all other winter and late fall holidays may be taking it too far but I never said all "Contemporary Christian Music" was good either...