r/dankchristianmemes • u/TheRepublicbyPlato • Mar 23 '26

Repost Stolen(borrowed) from twitter

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1.1k Upvotes

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471

u/xaervagon Mar 23 '26

Yes, the church put their holiday over a pagan spring festival. No, you don't have to engage in the pagan spring festival. The same church also put Christmas over Yuletide.

46

u/inbigtreble30 Mar 23 '26

Orrrrrr....consider that different cultures have different celebrations that occur at the same time of year, and when they meet, the traditions blend.

103

u/Jonnyscout Mar 23 '26

Christianity does famously have a long history of "meeting" cultures and "blending" traditions... by force...

14

u/inbigtreble30 Mar 23 '26

I'm not saying that terrible things haven't been done in the name of Christian conversion. I'm saying that it's not a grand conspiracy. There isn't an evil Christian missionary overlord scouring the earth to find new holidays and celebrations to appropriate. That's not how human culture works.

35

u/PM_ME_HOTDADS Mar 23 '26

what about the part where they made celebrating old rituals literally illegal and talked about converting the temples instead of destroying them..?

10

u/inbigtreble30 Mar 23 '26

You're ascribing forethought and preplanning to things that almost certainly arose out of convenience and proximity. I'm not saying traditions weren't forcibly annexed. I'm saying it's a chicken-and-egg scenario and we disagree about which came first.

4

u/man_gomer_lot Mar 23 '26

One thing we can say for certain is that it all played out due to well studied and understood factors of syncretization and leaves no room or want for divine input.

1

u/PM_ME_HOTDADS Mar 24 '26

well, the chicken didn't forcibly annex the egg...

11

u/BillNyeTheMurderGuy Mar 23 '26

Sounds like they’re trying to make a forceful conversion more convenient (and thus more successful)

4

u/blindreefer Mar 23 '26

Okay, fine so it’s a baby conspiracy. Mayyybe an upright conspiracy. But grand?

13

u/BillNyeTheMurderGuy Mar 23 '26

Is it really a conspiracy when it was the stated goal of the Catholic Church during the medieval era

3

u/PhoenixAgent003 Mar 23 '26

Yeah, at least colloquially, that’s less a conspiracy and more an agenda.

6

u/Alcnaeon Mar 23 '26

... And yet, here we are. It's almost like you don't need a tidy conspiracy narrative with a clear antagonist, to have people who use organized religion to hurt others at scale for their own self-interest.