Lent observance, not fundie?

[Irishy]

I've just been reading Sarah over at Heartsdesire. My local fundie with questionable farming skill and possibly the stupidest person on the island of Ireland. She mentions that as "bible believers" they do not observe lent. Is this a Protestant thing or just fundie? I'm surprised that fundies would miss an opportunity to inflict suffering on themselves. I mean, this is right up the maxwell's street....

[Guest Anonymous]

When I was an evangelical Christian, we didn't 'do' Lent. We had to 'present ourselves as living sacrifices' every day. It was the unsaved Catholics who busied themselves with rituals, in place of a real relationship with the living God.

[ladyaudley]

My guess would be that it's a "we live in catholic ireland and painfully try to be different" thing.

[formergothardite]

When I was an evangelical Christian, we didn't 'do' Lent. We had to 'present ourselves as living sacrifices' every day. It was the unsaved Catholics who busied themselves with rituals, in place of a real relationship with the living God.

Yep. This is what I was taught too. I always secretly thought all the Catholic rituals were cool, though.

[kpmom]

One thing I've noticed here in the U.S. though is some mainstream Protestant churches are doing Lent, complete with ashes on Ash Wednesday.

One is the Episcopal church I attend (which has a lot of rituals that the Catholic church has), and one is a Presbyterian church near me. As I said though, both very mainstream and decidedly unfundie.

[morfydd]

I was raised in the relatively liberal mainstream Presybterian church. We celebrated all the liturgical seasons, but with a fairly dispassionate, academic bent. So the pastor would talk about what Lent had meant in the history of the church, and suggest relevant Bible passages or other readings to meditate on, and the decorations in the church would change color. :)

People can give things up for Lent, but it's not by religious requirement - it's more the idea that it's good to practice self-discipline and quiet contemplation, and Lent is a clearly-delineated season in which to practice those.

[morfydd]

Re: Presbyterians doing Ash Wednesday

That seems weird to me, but Presbyterians have both a really-scary-conservative wing and a moderate-to-liberal wing, and individual pastors may choose to emphasize different rituals. Even so, if the pastor from my home church suggested an Ash Wednesday service complete with ashes on the forehead, I suspect he'd get a lot of "WTF, the Catholic church is down the street, dude," responses. :)

[Guest Anonymous]

Yep. This is what I was taught too. I always secretly thought all the Catholic rituals were cool, though.

They should never have used 'bells and smells' as a pejorative term. Just made it sound all so much more exciting than a plain emulsioned bible chapel, with a teeny plain baptistry up front. :lol:

[Ellimenopy]

My mom is Southern Baptist. She gave up computer games for Lent (to read her Bible more). A lot of her friends gave up stuff, too.

[salsa]

Observing Lent is becoming more common, in my experience. It certainly is within the "mainline" denominations, most of whom already observed it to begin with, to varying degrees. I've noticed an increasing observance among the more moderate Baptists, too, but it's more of an individual choice, as the liturgical year isn't followed in most Baptist churches.

Within the fundy and more conservative-evangelical churches, however, it is viewed as a human-inspired, rather than God-led practice. Whereas the mainlines and more mainstream churches would see the Lenten fast as a time to focus on spiritual discipline and extra time to meditate on our lives and who we are before God, fundies and con-evo churches would argue that we should be doing this every day, anyhow. I'll give them a point for that. I'll also give them a half point for the argument that this is not outlined as such in the Bible (I disagree with them, but can see how they might draw that conclusion). If one's theology is based on "sola scriptura,"* then church traditions and rituals are unnecessary and to engage in these traditions is to be relying on something other than scripture. I'm not "sola scriptura," but it's not hard to see that point of view, if we put ourselves in those shoes.

Where the anti-Lent (or anti-liturgical) attitude loses me is in the subtext (or overt text) of being very afraid of Catholics and all their practices. Take away 5 points for that.

* which is taking Luther to an extreme, IMO, but I'm not a "sola scriptura" sort of person.

edited because I didn't preview my post before clicking submit. :oops:

[Ali]

Some Protestants do observe lent, but it is not uncommon for a Protestant to not observe lent.

[tabitha2]

as a mainstream Episcopalian I have given up eating out all month, meditate on a different piece of scripture every day and once gave up eating every other day during lent .also, try to go to stations of the cross at least once.

[Irishy]

Interesting stuff. I guess the same goes for advent too if they don't follow the liturgical year. I guess I really ought to have known this stuff. But EVERYONE I ever grew up with in Ireland (apart from one muslim girl) was catholic so even though my parents were the worst, least observant Catholics, I have had little (personal) exposure to other faiths and their cultures. When Mackynzie was born, I assumed there'd be a big Duggar christening! For about 5 minutes in fairness. Then I copped that the Duggars are not piss-heads like the Irish and have no reason to baptise infants for the sake of a good party.* Tongue firmly in cheek *

Personally, I have not given up anything but my kids have and I think it's really no harm.

[freedomjesusfootball]

I'm Methodist, and our church does have an Ash Wednesday service complete with ashes on the forehead, and they do observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday and have services for each. There is usually a lenten study that people are welcome to joint, but we aren't required to "give up" anything for Lent. I was raised non-denominational superchurch Christian and we never had the ashes or anything, but there was not any speech against it, it just wasn't done.

[yewchapel]

I'm Anglican (admittedly Anglo-Catholic/High Church - we do smells and bells ;) ) and I just did your standard giving up meat. I'm not used to Lent though, not being raised a Christian. Also I've never encountered an Anglican (even a high-church one) who does an Advent fast, although in our church we do keep to purple vestments, with rose pink ones on Gaudete Sunday (and Laetare Sunday) and a coloured Advent Wreath to match.

[lilwriter85]

I live next to a Presbyterian couple whose church observes Lent and I saw them with ashes on Ash Wednesday. Their church isn't fundie.

[yewchapel]

Certainly, mainstream Presbyterianism in Scotland (and I presume there are Church of Scotland congregations in Northern Ireland too?) is not fundie at all and I have heard of them observing Lent and the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday.

[OkToBeTakei]

I'm Anglican (admittedly Anglo-Catholic/High Church - we do smells and bells ;) ) and I just did your standard giving up meat. I'm not used to Lent though, not being raised a Christian. Also I've never encountered an Anglican (even a high-church one) who does an Advent fast, although in our church we do keep to purple vestments, with rose pink ones on Gaudete Sunday (and Laetare Sunday) and a coloured Advent Wreath to match.

Being the expert on all things religious ,I for way too long thought all Anglicans came from East Anglia ha!

[Anxious Girl]

I live in America, and my family used to observe Lent until very recently. My great-grandmother on my grandmother's side was very traditional about Lent. Instead of not eating what the Roman Catholic Church considers to be meat on Fridays, she didn't eat meat every day during the Lent season. I still think it's stupid that the Church doesn't consider fish to be meat.

[Irishy]

I know! In our house, fish is way more of a treat than meat.

[Loveday]

I know! In our house, fish is way more of a treat than meat.

This! Crab cakes and steamed shrimp! That doesn't seem very sacrificial, does it? :lol:

[Joan of Snarc]

Lent means one thing to me:

:character-spongebobdance:

[tabitha2]

reminds me... at the taco bell down the road they had a special either lent or good Friday meal available. I have never seen that at a fast food place and found it interesting.

[yewchapel]

Interesting that I never see Lent specials at fast food places in the UK even though we have plenty of Anglicans and Catholics who observe Lent! The only fishy fast food items I can think of are Fillet O' Fish at McDonalds and the fish finger Happy Meal. Burger King probably has a fish sandwich too though.

[Fargood]

reminds me... at the taco bell down the road they had a special either lent or good Friday meal available. I have never seen that at a fast food place and found it interesting.

I went to a small town school that was half Catholic and half ELCA Lutheran. Every Friday during Lent we had grilled cheese and tomato soup so that the Catholic kids could keep Lent.

When I was in high school, I worked at the local fast food joint and pretty much all we served on Fridays was fish sandwiches. Even the Lutherans would order fish, because it just became a part of the culture that fish was always the lunch special on Fridays.