Something more than buns and eggs

Here are some letters to the editor over easter

Date: March 21 2008

DANNY Katz writes about the whacko differences between religions but there are also important similarities: all the great faiths look beyond this world and fret about what will happen when we die. All religions acknowledge that there is something wrong with humans and that something needs to be done to bring us back to God.
The distinctive message of Christianity — the "Good" of Friday — is that whatever is wrong between us and God, Jesus has already died to mend it. Because of Jesus' death we can be reconciled to God no matter what we have done. There is forgiveness without denial of guilt. There is liberation from the need to think of ourselves as better than others. There is something better than over-priced buns and tasteless chocolate eggs. I know, it all sounds strange, but if you think about it for a while it turns out to be the most sane thing of all.
Andrew Moody, Blackburn South

Try a little love
DANNY Katz's article "How religion can make us look like the Easter Bunny" (Metro, 20/3) highlights how our society's celebration of Easter masks its true significance. Christians remember and commemorate and celebrate Easter for similar reasons Australians commemorate Anzac Day.
The words of Jesus Christ in John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this to lay down his life for his friends", are repeated on innumerable rolls of honour throughout this country. Christians are in awe that God loves people so much that he died for us and paid the price for our sins. The good news of Easter is that this love offering is available to all who receive Jesus and believe in his name.
John Clarke, Dubbo, NSW

Costly consumerism
LAST year, my family toured a chocolate factory prior to Easter. After breathing in chocolate fumes for the greater part of a morning we were told of the huge amount of chocolate that Australians consumed each year, particularly during Easter. At the end we weakened and bought some discount chocolate to take home.
But something has changed. This year I have viewed the endless shelves of chocolate eggs in the shops with curiosity and pondered our culture and why Easter has become an excuse to indulge in chocolate. Unlike Danny Katz's argument (Metro, 20/3), I think it is our consumerist culture that encourages us to gorge ourselves, and, like Christmas, a religious holiday is perverted into another excuse to go on a spending frenzy.
At what cost does this come? How many of us question the effect our chocolate habit is having on vulnerable children who are forced to farm the cocoa beans in the developing world?
Katherine Thompson, Mitcham

Doubting Danny?
THREE things are certain in life: Good Friday, Easter Sunday and their denunciation. Bets on publicity-hungry clerics, writers or scholars stirring up some controversy with their dressing down of Jesus' divinity and resurrection. If it's not some esoteric discovery purporting to throw new doubts on Jesus then it's some reinterpretation of biblical material to assuage post-modern sensibilities. There is nothing new under the sun. Doubting Thomas will poke Jesus, perhaps with a different finger each time. Even so, it's the same pair of hands.
Hendry Wan, Matraville

I smell hypocrisy
I NOTICED that in his uproariously funny satire on religion, Danny Katz passed up the opportunity to take the micky out of Muslims. I presume that would have been due to lack of space?
Shane Hennessy, Toorak Gardens