To my Christian friends:

[xiphias]

I'm glad your God got better from being dead! Wishing you a happy day of celebrating that!

Edited To Add: Because there was a question from someone who doesn't know me in person: I do mean this in a friendly and respectful way. My Christian friends, like my Jewish friends, atheist friends, Pagan friends, Buddhist friends, et. al., tend to be fairly silly people, even about things which they find important and holy, and therefore, I'm used to expressing genuine religious thoughts in silly ways.

I really hope that all of you who respect and cherish this holiday understand that I genuinely am wishing you well, and am talking about my happiness that my friends have this day of joy.

Comments

[bkwrrm-tx.livejournal.com]

DUDE! I am SO stealing that. :-)

[sethg]

PS: We didn’t do it! Really, we didn’t!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

chanaleh likes this.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Somewhere, amoungst my collection of CD-R's, I have a video of The Dead Jesus Sketch. Yes, it is a Monty Python parody about Easter, and I don't remember who did it so I can find it again.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I don't know you well enough to tell whether you mean this in a friendly and respectful way, or whether you want to make a point about how Christians sometimes say offensive clueless things to Jewish people on Jewish holidays.

I'm guessing the latter, because I can imagine that you would have lots of justification.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY mean it in a friendly and respectful way. I didn't even consider it the other way.

Most of my Christian friends -- okay, most of my friends, period -- are fairly silly people, including about their religion.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm really sorry for any offense I inadvertently caused you. I HATE causing inadvertent offense. I've been know to deliberately offend people, but this is not one of those times, and I'd much, much rather only offend people when I mean to. Accidental offense is pain which gives no benefit, and is therefore an unmitigated bad thing.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I accept your apology. I probably should have said something last year, but I thought that the people who objected last year had said enough that you would have been aware that you were offending some people.

I've been thinking about why it bothers me. Partly it's because we don't know each other very well - it's probably the kind of comment that would work better among close friends who already know that you respect their beliefs. What it sounds like to me is "Haha! Your religion is so ridiculous!" (or, as I said before, it could have been "I'm going to say something about Easter that's as strange as the things clueless Christians say to me about Passover, to make the point that I shouldn't have to know more about your religion than you know about mine.")

[fatpie42.livejournal.com]

I don't know if any of your Christian friends has commented yet. I'm not one of them (well, I'm an ex one. Ex-Christian, that is. Not ex-friend, of course).

I suppose the thing to note would be that they don't just think he got better from being dead, but that he managed to save the universe at the same time.

Now I'm getting an image in my head of Superman bursting out of an egg. Something like this, I guess:

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Er... the joke is getting tired... or maybe the culture is changing.

I know you've done this in the past, maybe have even done it every year... and in the past I've found it mildly amusing; but somehow this time my first, gut, reaction was that it was mildly offensive. I didn't say anything at first because well, I didn't want to offend you, or anyone who might think it was not my place to speak up when I wasn't officially Christian.

... I disagree with you about accidental offense being worse than deliberate offense. Accidental offense is easy to resolve, and then the pain goes away. It's like the difference between doing five points of damage once, vs. doing five points of damage every minute.

Kiralee

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Would you take this much offense at someone who said something mildly offensive about Judaism? I have long thought that people are more likely to scold someone in a minority group for being snide about a majority group than the reverse, and this is one of those times.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation. I could have read that either way -- unlike the comments I see sometimes about zombie-on-a-stick, which just feels mean. I don't think I have ever seen you be nasty or mean -- you're a mensch.

And chag sameach to you!

[(Anonymous)]

I like this (I'm not a christian). For me it is voiced in a child like way, and in a way that a) acknowledges that this is a big deal for christians, b) supports them in their celebration, and c) acknowledges that there is an enormous gulf between people of different belief systems when it comes to these particulars, and that this circumscribes how we can participate in one another's rites and rituals... but that we can still wish each other well even if we can't subscribe to each other's particular beliefs. I think that is honest.

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

I didn't take offense, I consider myself a Christian (although as I pointed out elsewhere, someone on LJ recently told me I'm not), and although I've never met you in person, I've read enough of your journal to believe you're a sweet, kind person. And that conclusion came before all your statements about this post.

I have a sense of humor about my faith. I have a wonderful memory of explaining the concept of communion to a Jewish friend of my daughter's. Her assessment:"That's FREAKY!" and I can completely see how it would strike someone that way. Oh my, did I ever laugh!

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Belatedly replying to thank you for this - it made me laugh out loud when I first saw it, and I meant to reply at the time, but got called away to deal with family stuff. I absolutely took it as you intended.