Let me bring the tone of the discussion down for a moment.

It’s Good Friday today, the start of Easter weekend. For the first time in several years, all of the various Christian denominations are on the same Lenten calendar (Easter in the Orthodox branch of the faith tends to deviate from the Catholic and Protestant observation by anywhere from a week to a month), and for those who give more than lip service to Christian dogma, this is the most important of the religious observations, far more so than Christmas. It is, after all, Easter that is that the crux of Christian belief — the very definition of being a Christian is that you believe that a man named Ieshua bar Iossef was crucified by the Roman governors of Iudaea one thousand nine hundred eighty years ago (give or take a few) for sedition, that he rose from the dead three days later, appeared to his followers and ascended into heaven where he will remain until the end of days. Most of the rest of it is just icing on the cake.

Little known fact (to most Christians, anyway): an entire book of the Qur’an is devoted to the story of Maryam (the Arabic and Hebrew name for “Mary”). Muslims don’t believe in Jesus as the literal son of God, but he is still a venerated prophet and most of the rest of the story — including the virgin birth, the working of miracles, and an awaited second coming at the end of days — is pretty much the same. In the Islamic version of the crucifixion, Jesus (‘Issa in the Qur’an) was taken into heaven before the crucifixion, and replaced on the cross by an angel who took his form.

In the Christian community — as would be the case in the Islamic umma within seconds of Muhammad’s death six centuries later — divisions and arguments started immediately and those who formed the core group of followers began trying to one-up each other with the size of their belief and their devotion … and wrangling for the power and money that would eventually come with it.

All this in the name of a guy who had the revolutionary idea to tell people to be nice to one another. That’s what it was all about, when it comes right down to it. The path to finding inner peace is to live in harmony. The central message of Christianity is almost Buddhist when you think about it: be nice to other people and you will have your reward. That’s karma in a nutshell. Anyone who’s seen My Name is Earl knows that.

So, as I write this, people are slaughtering each other in the name of a guy who preached peace. His name is used to keep women, gays, ethnic and religious minorities and anyone else we don’t like ‘in line’ by threatening them with eternal hellfire if they don’t conform to a narrow and often twisted interpretation of his teachings. Somehow I think that if Jesus is out there somewhere, he’s pretty gosh-darned pissed off about it, too. You can almost see the furrowed brow: “That’s not what I meant!!”

I don’t really know where I fit in to all of this. I question religious myths — it’s what I do. I don’t know if I can buy into the whole ‘magical guy who lives in the sky and knows what you’re going to do before you do’ thing. I do know, however, that lots of people are taking today to reflect on Jesus, the sacrifice that they believe in, and the miraculous nature of his existence and teachings. It seems like an opportune time to encourage everyone to think about it a little deeper: Be nice to people. It’s that simple.

Regardless of whether you’re a devout Christian or a complete atheist, being nice to people just seems like the right thing to do, doesn’t it? So why can’t we actually manage to get it right? What’s wrong with us?

We now return to our regularly scheduled frivolity.

Tags: holidays, religion