Stephanie, An interesting, if as you have noted, set of weird correlations. To be Evangelical, is to be Christian yet, the Un-Catholic. Coming from mixed background, it has a number of conotations an ways of observing. And your close is a real kicker. It is very you…….. Multiple HaHa’s……..

Celebrating Easter as in “OMG WE’RE GOING TO HAVE 123425364 CHILDREN IN THE NURSERY WE NEED TO RECRUIT EVERYONE WE KNOW TO WORK SUNDAY SCHOOL THAT DAY.”

A friend of our family was a committed evangelical but was raised Catholic and still enjoyed some Catholic traditions. Boy did he “stumble” some people when he showed up to the Wednesday night service at our megachurch with ashes on his forehead. They just couldn’t grasp the idea that an intelligent, devout Christian might consider stopping by another church to mark his repentance with ashes. But they couldn’t grasp a lot of ideas.

I was so relieved to see that Mars Hill Church has taken a practical approach to the Lenten Season with their Lent Calendar: http://www.marshill.org/pdf/lent/lenten-experience-calendar.pdf
I’m pretty sure they’re right – God’s intention was for us to give up texting for a day in order for us grow deeper in relationship with Him. In the year 2020 I plan to walk everywhere instead of using my Personal Rapid Transport.
(I do plan on giving up Sarcasm on the 22nd of next month, which is why I’m getting out of my system today.)

Same goes for Good Friday – or any of depressing Holy Week, for that matter. When I was a kid we went from Palm Sunday Hosanna! waving palm branches for Jesus on a donkey to Easter and the resurrection. Resurrected from what? Unless just the grown ups went to something mid-week, because the cross and death part were too gory for us kids… And the crosses on foreheads for Ash Wed? It was a nice way (for one day, at least) to easily identify Catholics (so we’d know who to pray for and/or distrust).

Being a former Catholic (fourteen years of Catholic school), it’s always interesting to be approached by Evangelicals with questions about particular Church rituals or traditions. Believe it or not, everything the Church does has a reason behind it! Not only that, but it’s typically rooted in tradition, Doctrine or Dogma, or even Scripture! Even getting those silly ashes on your forehead have a purpose. Most Evangelicals seem surprised by this–that Catholics don’t repeat the same exact actions over several hundred years just for the sake of it.
Lent itself is particularly interesting the older one gets (if one hasn’t been beat over the head with it one’s whole life). While most people think of Lent as that annoying time when you can’t eat meat on Fridays, or when you give up candy for 40 days, it truly is about reflection and trying to better yourself as a person. It focuses on self-improvement and humility. Personally, I’d have thought Evangelicals would be all over it.

That pie chart is the funniest one I’ve ever seen!

@Greta
At first I thought that link was from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, but that is actually from Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Just posting this in case others were similarly confused.

Best I can tell, the true meaning of Lent is the opposite of trying to better oneself as a person but instead to focus on your sin and need for grace, and the point of fasting and/or giving something up is to take away some of the ‘noise’ in your life that can hinder you from self-reflection.

@Robb
lol, that’s because MH in Seattle doesn’t participate in Lent. (They are completely unable to give up their smugness for even a day.)

As a Catholic priest and son of an life-long Evangelical, I can attest that many Evangelicals could use a good dose of Lent for its humility, simplicity, contemplative quality and emphasis on interiority. These are things that all Christians, even all people need and are precisely what the noisy, preachy and praisy Evangelicals need to balance themselves out.
Fortunately there is a growing awareness among many Evangelicals that they are lacking much of the depth and richness that Sacred Tradition affords historic Christianity.

Greta, that was harsh but I like it.
Fr.J., Yes fortunately, and thankfully there is a growing awareness. While as a life-long evangelical (born and raised son of a Baptist preacher man) I feel a sense of loss for the years of this “lack,” I am sincerely thankful for becoming aware of these traditions and have begun to observe them as an evangelical and not as a Catholic. I hope that comes across the right way.

I will be participating in my first Lent tomorrow at our evangelical church, Imago Dei, here in PDX. I was raised being taught it was a “Catholic” thing as well.

I usually give up alcohol for Lent; not for any religious reason but just to give my body a rest. As chance would have it I finished taking medication that meant I havebn’t had a drink since November on Shrove Tuesday so this year I may be taking alcohol up for Lent.

My church, a Reformed Church, has Ash Wednesday, but apart from that, there’s not much to Lent in this congregation. I don’t know why. It’s just not stressed. Maybe it’s the usual protestant thing about not wanting to be like the Catholics. Our version of the Apostles’ Creed replaces “catholic church” with “Christian church,” if that tells you anything (I still say “catholic”).
Apart from that, I’ve never seen the point of “giving something up for Lent,” apart from the notion of not letting certain things control you. I try to live a life of moderation anyway.
When I was a pastor in another denomination, I preached one Ash Wednesday on Is. 58 (it was the lectionary text), which deals with the kinds of thinks from which we should be fasting: violence, oppression, greed, etc.–more important than giving up chocolate, coffee, booze, meat, or whatever.

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon starting last year. My former evangelical/baptist friends have started observing Lent, but only to give up facebook for 40 days.
However, we know evangelicals love technology so this might actually prove to be a significantly harder challenge than the one my chocolate-avoiding Catholic friends undergo.

We observe Lent religiously (pardon the pun) – I guess I’ll have to turn in my “evangelical” card.

But you’re Methodist, Thief, so you never really were a card-carrying member. Evangelicals actually tend to doubt Methodists’ salvation. Bummer, I know.

The title made me break into lolz, as did the pie chart.
And hey, Lutherans are pretty serious about Lent!
You could easily do a post on evangelicals not observing Advent, too. (Something I’ve always found strange, because there’s such depth of meaning to it – though maybe the meditative, reflective quality of it puts people off…)

Stephy, ‘Evangelicals actually tend to doubt Methodists’ salvation.’?? I bet they still the praises of the Wesley brothers.
Spinning, Good point about Advent which, traditionally, is also a fast.

Spinning: great point! I’m Episcopalian, and I have the hardest time explaining to my evangelical friends that Advent is, in fact, quite distinct from Christmas! There’s no concept of WHY we have (or need) Advent or Lent. But I just can’t imagine celebrating the feasts without the time of penitent preparation beforehand.

SB, I think it depends which kind of Methodists. In college I briefly attended a United Methodist church where the pastor, you know, quoted Ghandi and stuff. She might mean those.
You’re right on about the Wesleys, though. Well, those of us who weren’t raised Calvinists.

Still Breathing and Bill: Before plunging into unsaved waters by “going Catholic,” I briefly attended a really wonderful United Methodist Church pastored by a (GASP) woman! Definitely not cool in Christian culture books. Those Methodists, man…they’re way out there with the left-wing Catholics and the Unitarians. Peace, love and kindness are just too sketchy.
Fr. J., I really loved your description of evangelicals as “noisy, preachy and praisy.” I was feeling guilty the other day for gritting my teeth when my parents, at whose house I’m currently living, put on their Christian worship music station. I’ve never liked the lack of artistry in praise music, but the other day the whole concept of “praisiness” was making me grumpy and uncomfortable, and I’m relieved that I’m not the only one it bothers…Worship in Christian culture seems to lack a sense of reverence and instead is geared toward an emotionally manipulated (and self-manipulated) experience, the fervor from which is called the presence of God.
I like the austerity of Lent, and of Advent – instead of a pressure to whip oneself into an emotional frenzy to really “feel” God at Easter and Christmas, the Lenten and Advent seasons offer a time to be simple and quiet (“Teach us to care and not to care / teach us to sit still,” as Eliot writes in “Ash-Wednesday”). It’s…sobering, and surprisingly free of guilt and burdens, and refreshing.
I’ve been kind of baffled the last couple of years by my parents’ Baptist church, which is sort of getting into Lent. I’m not sure what all it involves – maybe giving something up, a few more fasts, and a special Bible study – but they seem to be grabbing onto it with some kind of fervor and I can’t tell what the motivation is. I should probably be happy that the concept is gaining ground, but I’m cynically figuring it’ll fit perfectly into the Doing Things and Avoiding Relationship paradigm.
Steve…loved your Isaiah reference and the intention of true fasting: love, purification and social justice. Beautiful. That being said, I’m still giving something up.

@ David: [smile] yeah… there’s a place I frequent where discussions of Advent come up every year, and every year, there are posts saying “I don’t celebrate Advent.” Just that, nothing more. The puzzling thing is that the statement isn’t coming from “evangelicals.” (At least, these folks don’t belong to churches/denominations that I think of as being evangelical per se.)
I’m thinking – quite seriously – that for some folks, this dates back to the period of the Covenanters and the English Civil War, and that certain ideas have been handed down re. “high” practices (i.e., don’t do them) without any real reasons as to *why* they should be avoided.

@ Sarah: I think maybe we’re long-lost twins. (Your comments on “Christian radio” and “worship music” are … well, I could’ve written them. )

I,ve never obsearved Lent. But I do know and understand the meaning of it. I attend a non-denom church. We dont entirely agree with all the rest of the Churches like ours though. I would be highly interested in participating in lent this year. We Americans fix our social disagreements by fully seperating our selves from anything that reminds us of those disagreements. This is a pitty. By doing this we tend to through the baby out with the bath water.

See the developing discussion over at the other “stuff” site:
http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/02/approaching-lent-in-4-ways/
Usually this site has some rather boring, predictable discussions from people with both feet in Christian culture, but this particular thread is very similar to the above. I posted a comment very similar to what I posted above.

Why is it more surprising that people wouldn’t participate during Lent than failing to observe the Jewish feasts? Why do we celebrate Easter on a Sunday and Good Friday?

Some Baptists do celebrate Lent – I’m American Baptist, and it’s unfair and incorrect to lump ABCUSA with the Southern Baptists or other small Baptist groups. We had two Ash Wednesday Services and have a Lenten daily devotional written by lay members. I love being a progressive and liberal Baptist, but it stinks to always get lumped in with Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, and non-denominational churches when it just isn’t true.

In the early days of the Evangelical movement, and on past that, they would often refer to Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian churches as “dead”. They did indeed doubt the salvation of anyone ho attended such churches, especially if they weren’t overtly enthusiastic about church attendance. There seems to be a deep suspicious of any sort of quiet contemplation.

Lent is when I go to a course of lectures. That seems to be the main thing that happens in the Anglican church at Lent. It’s nice to be an Anglican – you can pretty much do what you like, or as it’s Lent you may want to do something you don’t like. If you’re very high church (Anglo-Catholic) you may want to engage in some BDSM.

Too bad there has to be any denominations at all – including non. It reminds me of the No Name brand…

Re Sarah: Worship in Christian culture seems to lack a sense of reverence and instead is geared toward an emotionally manipulated (and self-manipulated) experience, the fervor from which is called the presence of God.
I’m so glad to hear someone else say something like that!!! This is has been bothering me for years, and is precisely why I left the charismatic church I was attending for a nice, reverent “frozen chosen” Presbyterian church instead. As it so happens, I was raised Baptist before I left that for the charismatics, so I am now being introduced to concepts like observing Lent for the first time. The Presbyterians don’t seem to do much with it, but at least they observe it and sort of imply that one _ought_ to be doing something. Given that I have been ditching church a lot recently to sleep in Sunday mornings, I decided my “sacrifice” for Lent would be NOT skipping church until after Easter. I thought about giving up junk food but I think giving up sleep may be a little more realistic.
Some Episcopalian friends of mine, for Lent last year, in view of the mounting environmental crisis, decided to give up “waste” for Lent. I thought that was one of the best ideas I’d ever heard of…

It’s all this mindless anti-Catholicism that makes me happy to be Orthodox, because we’re too enigmatic to be visibly hateable. (Plus, we do all the Lenten stuff to the max.)

“It is observed in the Protestant realm primarily by Anglicans and Episcopalians, and the Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians also pay attention to it.”
Oh dear, I hate to nitpick, but we Episcopalians aren’t Protestants. Strictly, we (“Anglicans”) are one of the four, major branches of Christendom – the others being the Orthodox churches, Roman Catholics, and the Protestant churches. But quite frankly, I consider us to be catholics, just not Roman Catholics
And yes, Lent is indeed the most “anti-Evangelical” part of the church calendar

Thanks for the nitpicking David H, honestly I didn’t know that!

David, Surely the Anglican Communion (which, at the moment, includes the Episcopalian Church) is, by definition, protestant as it was one of the churches that broke away from the Roman Catholic church during the Protestant Reformation?

Amen brother Ivan.
God Forgives!! May God grant you a blessed Great & Holy Lent!!

SB, I respectfully disagree – the matter is not nearly that cut and dried. Anglicanism is a “middle way” between the Catholic and Protestant traditions (our cherished “via media”)and represents the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
I could rehash a lot of church history here, but the Wikipedia articles on Anglicanism, Anglican Doctrine, and the Church of England are quite decent and full of enough fascinating linkage for any church history geek
And as an anecdotal aside, if you visited my parish any Sunday morning you’d be disabused of any notion of us being a Protestant church We celebrate the Holy Eucharist (Communion) every Sunday – with wine, mind you. And the 11:15 service is esp. a full-on catholic liturgical experience with a sung Eucharistic liturgy, candles, and frequently the presence of incense.

“Curiously, the denominations that do not observe Lent are the same ones that are more likely to joke about the wedding night during a wedding ceremony, and vice versa. This is an extremely random yet accurate correlation.”
I laughed out loud. It’s so true!

David H, As I know a lot of Anglicans who describe themselves as protestant I guess this is yet another area of dispute within the Anglican communion.
I found your emphasis on the word ‘wine’ rather amusing. The only reason we don’t use alcoholic wine for communion in the Baptist church is because we have teetotallers attending (although not as many as there used to be) and we do not wish to offend them or prevent them coming to that place of special grace that we call communion. The idea that Baptists and, other non-conformists, don’t drink is relatively modern arising out of the temperance movement of the late 1800s, before that alcoholic wine was used at communion. In fact when my brother was researching Baptist history he came across a Baptist church that needed 3 bottles of port for each communion service for a membership of less than 20!

Well, my emphasis on wine was done in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way ;-> (kind of hard to get that across on the Intertubes sometimes) But any church that needs three bottles of port for each communion service for a membership of less than 20 has other issues! Mmmmm…delicious issues…
And just out of curiosity, would those “protestant Anglicans” happen to be in the U.S. ?

David, No – here in the good old UK. I met them in my local Churches Together group- the hardest part of which was getting all the Anglicans in one room!

My personal observation from India is that lent is taken to be a once a year ritual. The rest of the year, the very same people “observing” lent displayed behaviours completely uncharacteristic of the one whom they professed to follow. Jesus Christ.
If Lent is a time of preparation of the believer through prayer, fasting, penitence, self-denial and alms, then isn’t that supposed to be what a Christian does ANYWAY? Aren’t we supposed to pray, deny ourselves, be charitable and pray continuously? All of it to keep ourselves pure in preparation of Christ’s return?
Would be nice if we stopped “doing” lent before “easter” and started doing it throughout the year.
But perhaps that is asking too much from us evangelicals?

Everyone loves Advent because it is the lead up to Christmas. So all they know are the Christmas songs that play over and over, performed by everyone who can hold an instrument or carry a tune. Of course, that is not Advent – that is simply a month of Christmas confections.
But the lead up to Easter is a downer. There is only one really popular Easter song (In Your Easter Bonnet)and one cute animal song (Here Come’s Peter Cottontail). The thing is – Easter without Lent is simply cotton candy & Cadbury egg theology. Of course, some folks love to wallow in the pain and suffering of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. But those two days without Lent is just a horror movie scare-fest.
There is a purpose to Lent for which denominational history and hostility should not interfere. But asking people to examine their own lives is scarier than Good Friday and more challenging than 40 days of dieting. They will never make the connection between the guy on the cross and the baby in the box until they make the 6 week “Amazing Race” through the obstacles within their own spirits.

Having grown up Baptist and now being part of a non-denomination church (which I love), I never understood the reasons why other religions celebrated Lent. Of course, being Baptist, they always said different things. No, in the bible it does not say we have to celebrate Lent. But, it does allow us to celebrate the RESSURECTION of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Just as we celebrate the BIRTH of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I’m not a theologist or even a person of bible knowledge, but I have learned that some things are just man traditions and not God traditions.
As a follower of Christ, I would rather not be a bad example throughout the rest of the year and give something up for only 40 days. If it is something that brings you down throughout the year, why only give it up for 40 days? Celebrate God for God, not for a tradition that was made up by man.