Easter Trinkets in Dubai
Stopped by Choithrams Grocery store a couple days ago and found these Christian Easter "trinkets". This is really interesting on a number of levels.
First, to have items of distinct Christian symbolism sold in the UAE is amazing. This was not happening when I arrived 5 years ago. What's more, Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus which is denied by Muslims (primarily his death is denied and so the resurrection is also). So, in some sense, I'm very pleased to see greater openness in the UAE to the free expression of religion other than Islam.
Secondly, the items are mostly Roman Catholic in nature. You'll notice the statues on the left picture Jesus with a visable red heart. This is a Roman Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It represents a Roman Catholic reverence or even worship of Jesus' physical heart as representing love for God. It originated with a Catholic nun who claimed visions from Jesus in the 1600's. You'll also notice the statues of Mary. They place a divine halo over her and give her the same flaming heart. This is distinctly Catholic and has references to the their belief that Mary was sinless and shared some characteristics with Jesus. Some Catholics believe that Mary was also taken up into heaven like Jesus, thus not experiencing a normal death. And some even go so far as to declare her "co-redemptrix" or co-redeemer with Jesus. All three of these specific doctrine of the Roman Catholic church were officially declared well over 1000 years after the life of Jesus. The Immaculate Conception (sinlessness) came in 1854, The Assumption (ascending to heaven) was approved in 1950, and Mary as Co-Redemptrix was mentioned though not officially declared as late as 1985 by Pope John Paul II.
I find no evidence for these beliefs in the Bible and find them to be corrosive to faith in Jesus as Savior alone. So, having these items for sale in the UAE is also disturbing to me because it will tend to represent Christianity as a whole and add to the notion that Christians are idolaters. I think many who buy these statues could very well be committing idolatry if they think they have power in and of themselves, if they worship them in any way, or if they think that God will look on them with favor for owning one.
Lastly, I find it disturbing that Christianity is reduced to items to be sold in the store. This is the greatest danger to the faith. The tendency among all Christians to reduce their faith to some external rituals, adornments, or 'extra' thing is great. Faith in Christ has external consequences but it primarily changes their ulimate destiny, the character of a person and how they live. Religious trinkets show an unhealthy focus on the external rather than internal change.
4 comments:
Fascinating read.
Perhaps the reason it is focussed on RC is the number of Philippinos here, who I expect are mostly Catholics (?)
You may have noticed other faiths here, too: I have seen many turban'd Sikhs (they also display a logo - don't know what it is called - on their cars, etc) and I just had lunch at a place which was being dawbed with the Hindu Swastika motif.
Linked with your point about avoiding idolatry, some also mention the third commandment about making images (I just checked Wiki for clarification and see two versions of #3: one relating to images, the other to idolatry. How apt!) Hence, the avoidance (generally) of making images of Muhammad, and the muslim outrage with the cartoons. It was not just the ridicule of his person, but also that "graven images" were portrayed.
Also, apart from the idol-worship angle, the other point (which many Christians also make) is that Jesus did not look like that! He had Middle-Eastern/Mediterranean features. He was coloured.
Just a general question, out of interest, relating to Easter: can you fill me in on the background to the Easter Egg and the Easter Bunny. Thanks!!
Hi Mohammed! Thanks for the post. I've had the hardest time getting back into blogging since my vacation/holiday. And I hurt my back the other day... but I'm on the mend.
In reference to your comments above... The Easter bunny and easter eggs are non-biblical additions to Easter traditions. And you usually do not find these practices or teachings in any churches that regularly teach from the Bible. The bunny and egg have their roots in Paganism and are motifs of fertility. You can read the wiki about "Easter Bunny". It seems to be accurate as far as I can tell.
The Christian celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus originates from the weekly first century practice of celebrating the risen Messiah. Eventually a yearly celebration was added near the time of the Passover, to emphasize his death and resurrection. The annual Easter celebration is mentioned in middle 2nd century letters sent between two church leaders... (~155 A.D.)
But I have a question for you as well. You mention the Danish cartoons of Muhammad and the Ten Commandments. Though the commandment against making images is the 2nd commandment and not the third. The commandments are mentioned specifically in two places in the Christian Old Testament... Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. And here is my question: You mention Muslims being upset with the images of Muhammad but the commandments seem to very clearly refer to a ban on the making idols for the purpose of worshiping them. It doesn't necessarily say that statues or pictures couldn't be made. So help me understand the Muslim connection between the commandment and a ban on all images of Muhammad. Granted the cartoons were meant to mock... that is offensive. But I'm not sure how it (or any other representation of Mohammad) would violate the 2nd commandment.
Cheers!
You know when I was growing up in Saudi Arabia, some of the imams/ teachers at school would tell me to not make any pictures with people in it. So as a young kid, I was often confused as to how I could depict the rest of my family in my drawing of my dad, mom and siblings alongside the house and trees and birds and the smiling sun. I would have to resort to drawing stick figures, with no eyes, nose or mouth.
The reasoning they gave to me was that it was "haram" to recreate something that God has made- so in effect, this reasoning also ruled out photography of any human beings-- and so I had two questions for them:
1. i am drawing pictures of my family for drawing's sake- it's not like i am drawing idols and will worship them (that didn't get me anywhere!) so why stop me?
2. and then I would ask them why they have pictures of King Fahd posted everywhere if photography/ depcition of human beings is allowed?
Yanking me out of that Arabic school to put me in the British school was the best thing that happened then! :-)
Mansur
Got to say you have a great blog. It's pretty stupid how the media here repeatedly paints the gulf as a strict totalitarian region. They should show more stuff like this. I heard Christmas is allowed to be celebrated there too?
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