Today is Ash Wednesday. Before I spent eight years in Louisiana, I would not even have known what Ash Wednesday was. I grew up in the Bible belt, so I knew plenty of Baptists, a few Methodists and Presbyterians, perhaps, but not many Catholics.
The first spring I spent in Louisiana, I was genuinely puzzled to hear all the talk of Lent. Lent? Lent? Who celebrates Lent? So I started asking around, talking to friends, asking them what Lent was and what it was for. They were always taken aback by my ignorance—assuming that as someone who spends a LOT of time doing church stuff—Christian church stuff—I had no excuse to not know what Lent was. But I did have an excuse.
I am Mormon.
We don’t do anything special for Epiphany, Lent, Pentecost, Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras (even now, I’m getting these all in the wrong order, huh).
I don’t know why we don’t, but we don’t. Mormons are always whining that other Christian denominations don’t accept us as Christians, but we don’t do a lot of stuff that most other Christians do. We don’t display crosses anywhere—in our scriptures, in our chapels, in printed materials, or on jewelry. (If you’re curious, the rationale for that is that we choose to focus on the resurrection and atonement rather than the crucifixion, and the cross represents the crucifixion.) We don’t believe in the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed and we don’t recite the Lord’s Prayer during our worship services. In fact, we don’t recite anything. Over Christmas, our family went to a beautiful candle light Christmas Eve ceremony at a local Methodist church where recitation was part of the program. After the service (that all of us enjoyed), one of our daughters said, “I didn’t like reciting all that stuff. It made me feel like a minion.” But I digress . . .
I recently read (and loved) The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. In it, Borg writes that “virtually all Christian” worship services include recitation of the Lord’s prayer, the creed, a confession of sin, and a few responses like ‘And also with you’ or ‘Thanks be to God’ (p. 158). But ours don’t.
So we don’t celebrate these holidays. I guess we feel like we don’t need to. We have a tradition of fasting for two meals on the first Sunday of every month and donating the money that we would have spent on those two meals to a fund that helps families in our local congregation with basic living expenses. So that’s sort of Lent-like in that it involves fasting and sacrifice. But that’s pretty much it.
I know we pride ourselves on being different than everyone else. We like to call ourselves a “peculiar people.” But I’d like to see us consider sharing this experience with the larger Christian family of which we wish to be considered a legitimate part. Joining other Christian denominations in parts of their worship services that we have traditionally eschewed might go a long way towards improving our dismal image with the American public.
What about you? Do you celebrate Lent? Did you give something up, or did you add something new? (Google tells me that people do both.)
And do you think that we’re better off sticking to our “peculiar people” claim, or would it do us some good to adopt some of the practices of mainstream Christianity?
I don’t think celebrating Lent is going to do anything for us in terms of being accepted into mainstream Christianity. But I actually really like the process. Religious rituals speak to me, and I’ve attended several services on Ash Wednesdays, my favorite of which was a pastor speaking about Lent as a season for removing things in your life that make you forget your real source and letting God breathe life into you. I find it beautiful, and much different than just not eating chocolate or bacon. Kind of like the difference between fasting and skipping breakfast and lunch.
I know Mormons respond a lot with “we like to celebrate the atonement ALL the time, not just at Lent” but I think the same thing could be said about any of our own rituals – shouldn’t we remember our covenants all the time, not just when we’re in the temple or taking the sacrament?
I have also experienced some people who treat my Lent participation to be almost a disloyal act as a Mormon, but I can’t figure out where that is really coming from.
As someone who finds so much beauty and meaning in communal ritual, I wish, too, that Mormons celebrated more Christian holidays and participated in world-wide rituals. As a religion who likes to welcome all and not trash talk (at least too much) other Christian denominations, I think that would be powerful and profound to commune with other religions on more ritualistic holidays and observances. In general, I think we need more ritual in the church, and I’m not talking about more correlation. Actual ritualistic rites.
Lent and so many of the other “Christian” holidays are not Christian at all. They come from Roman paganism when Constantine was trying to meld Christianity with paganism. So it makes sense that if Mormonism is a restoration of pure Christianity the way it was given by Christ and before it was changed by men, then Mormons would be free to not mix paganism into the mix.
Because the world is not so black and white, of course cultures incorporating non-religious cultural aspects into their religion happens. I think it creates a powerful and binding aspect of communal ritual within a religion. If we wanted to fully separate “pure” religion and culture, then Mormons wouldn’t celebrate Pioneer Day or sing “Come, Come Ye Saints”. But that’s a huge part of our shared past experience (even if you don’t have pioneer ancestors) and has become a part of our religion, culturally speaking.
Also, Christmas and Easter have pagan routes…Mormons still celebrate those holidays! Simply put, it’s what happens to religions when a new religion become more dominant in a culture. Aspects of the previous religion are incorporated to perpetuate belief and practice. We’re doing it still today, and it’ll keep on happening. And there’s nothing wrong with it.
I don’t think that explanation cuts it, jt8383829, as Mormons still celebrate the two most pagan Christian holidays of all – Easter and Christmas.
The LDS church’s non-recognition of these holy days stems from the environment in which the church was founded, and the church’s subsequent isolation from American Christianity in the Great Basin. In the early to mid-9th century, Protestant denominations were basically in a race to de-Romanize themselves, distancing themselves from anything whiffing of papacy. Many churches ceased the display of crosses, some stopped observing Christian holidays.The early LDS church just happened to be organized in this ferment of anti-Catholicism. The early LDS church bears so many similarities to other faddish religions and denominations of the day that it’s hard not to conclude that it too was swept up in the anti-Catholic fervor.
By the time the extreme anti-Catholicism had cooled, Mormons were far from the rest of American Christianity, and so didn’t re-adopt many of the traditions other denominations re-adopted, like the cross and the observance of certain holy days.
I agree with Amanda; observance of these holy days, along with the simple and elegant rituals accompanying them are moving and beautiful. And while jt’s comment about such holy days’ pagan origins may be true, it is the meaning with which we modern participants (as well as ancient participants) imbue these days that really matters (this could lead to a really interesting discussion about Masonry and the endowment. :) ).
I hope that one day the institutional church recognizes the spiritual power, beauty, and sense of brother- and sisterhood that comes from worship that transcends denominational lines.
Love this, gladdog: “worship that transcends denominational lines.”
It’s sad that worship cannot transcend different religions. I am always amazed how different Christian sects look at each other like different religions, and (some, not all) just look at the universe of Christian denominations as the religions on Earth and refuses to even acknowledge other non-Christian religions.
Guess what I mean is, for me, I roll my eyes when I hear methodists and episcopals talk as if their religions are very different, when they are really different sects of the same religion, Christianity. A different religion would be Buddhism, or Shinto for example. Even judaism and Islam has big time ties (Old Testament) to Christianity.
Different shoots of the same branch, yes, technically indeed. But the experience, the language, the theology, the way you approach God can be so different that it can seem a religion apart. Original sin, total depravity, the trinity, intercession, the nature of God and man, all these things are conceptualized differently and these differences do matter. Also, take the Catholic-Protestant divide – conceptually and experientially these are worlds apart (demonstrated by the fact that Protestant churches aren’t allowed to be and most won’t want to be in full communion with the Catholic church, even though they can recite the same creed). Religion is so much about experience and language that taking into account the same roots of different religions doesn’t say that much (especially when you come to the relationship Judaism-Islam-Christianity but that’s a whole other discussion).
Well said, gladdog! Much better than my reply. :)
I think that the 13th Article of Faith provides a justification for adding Lent (or any of these holidays and rituals, really) into one’s personal practice, given that we claim to seek after that which is “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy”. For me, this year I am adding religious inquiry to my life. I realized that I don’t really get anything spiritual out of going to church, or my other acts of observance. So for Lent, I am going to look for ways to bring meaning and engagement back to my religious experience. I think it will be really interesting. If any of you have suggestions about things to read or listen to, I welcome any input.
We definitely celebrate elements of Lent during the Lenten season. It’s a perfect time to focus our personal and family study on the increased light that Christ brings, on the blessings of salvation, on our remorse for sin, on increased charity, on putting off the “natural man.” I agree with Anselma; taking time to celebrate foundational gospel principles is definitely virtuous, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy.
I just wanted to say that I recognize this as a non-Mormon. I’m from a reformed church, and we do Easter, Christmas, Good Friday, and Pentecost. We have very few rituals, especially when compared to other more liturgical churches. Technically, Lent isn’t part of the reformed consciousness, but you can see the practice spreading. Although Ash Wednesday is still too scary! ;-) I wish we could incorporate more high holy days into our church calendar, but I’m afraid that so many years of being staunchly protestant and consciously not being Catholic makes for very ingrained habits!
I’m a new Mormon–one month new to be exact. My wife had been going to Church for 12 years (as a Mormon) by herself. I finally reached the point where I was able to reconcile my Catholic and Episcopal traditions (69 years in all) with LDS beliefs sufficiently to make the move to join her. But I haven’t just abandoned my heritage. There still is truth and beauty within the traditional Church..
Tears came to my eyes as I read here about others in my LDS Church who can appreciate the significance of observing the Lenten Season in some way. And I intend to have some kind of Christmas Eve gathering in our home if Christmas falls on other than a Sunday. I find that many of the differences of belief between LDS and the more traditional churches are a matter of viewing the same truth through different lens. Others are different, but hardly worth getting all worked up about. Whether or not God the Father has a physical body or not is not going to affect how I live my life….and even Catholics will admit that if the Father wanted to take on a body he could do so; after all the Bible is full of angels who have done so. What is important is that we all worship Jesus Christ as our savior who atoned for our sins–and we strive to become like him.
I’m ashamed to admit that I do still have some secret habits from my past. No, I don’t have a concealed tin full of coffee. But I do still make the Sign of the Cross when I pray by myself–but not in front of my new church members. I don’t know if I fear their criticism or just don’t want to unnecessarily scandalize or aggravate anyone–but I don’t apologize for honoring the Trinity in this manner. I also pray to Jesus and the Holy Spirit as well as to Father in Heaven–which works for me.. But it’s OK. I love my new religion and its members–such good, kind, devout folk. But I’ll still carry some of my old ways of interacting with God as well — including trying in some way to especially remember Christ’s suffering during Lent.
I’m gratful for this blog.
Wow, Mike. What a beautiful comment! I’m so glad you stopped by. I’m glad you are keeping some of your religious heritage. I hope you will share it with your ward members, wherever you are.
Thank you. I live in Pella, Iowa and attend the Branch in Knoxville, IA. I appreciate your words of encouragement.
Mike – I love your comment as well. Kudos to you for having “different lenses.” :)