i was watching the news just recently, and a story came on that was about a group of christains *whipping* a man in an rabbit suit in front of a crowd of children, telling them that easter is not about rabbits and eggs and such. is it me, or am i the only one that thinks that they damaged their plan to tell kids what easter is all about more then help it?

Whipping people is not a good way to teach children anything, apart from how to whip people. And possibly fear.

You mean fear isn't the true meaning of Easter!?

*Is shocked and awed*

And yes, that's a pretty screwed up way of dispelling pagan traditions. Apparently sitting down and talking is not the done thing any more.

I think that the commercialism/materialism of Easter is getting way out of hand, but I agree that flogging the Easter Bunny is not helping the problem. It would probably distort the meaning of Easter even more. Now the children will think Easter is about violence, which is even further than Easter being about Jesus than it was before.

Did they actually whip him? Meaning, did the man in the Easter Bunny costume hobble away scarred and bleeding from this?

Because doing a fake show of this would be bad enough, but to do it for real... Kids see enough violence on TV. They don't need to see it real life too.

just another example of how some americans still seem to live in the dark ages...with air conditioning and big cars

It's in my Favorite Places on the other computer. Yeah, it did disturb a lot of people - and no, it was just a show. (I give. I couldn't help getting a laugh out of it.) I should try to find the link...

edit: whipped bunny

(That would be so awesome if it were Trigger Happy TV, Max. )

I might be grasping at straws here, but if it was a joke, could it have been trigger happy tv?

Okay, that's just a load of crap. Seriously. What the hell is the point of that? If anything, they'll traumatize the kids into becoming pagan and any religious significance will be further buried by corporate America.

I'd like to find whoever thought this up and kick him/her in the genitals.

Trigger Happy TV no longer records new episodes, I believe. Though it does sound like them, I also doubt a news station would have failed to realise it was a joke.

WTF?

I mean, yes, the Easter Bunny is a pagan tradition, but... WTF???

These people are very very sick, and that's not what Christianity is about at all.

Not to mention that you're just going to confuse the subject more. "Jesus was whipped" and "the Easter Bunny was whipped." Hey kids! Jesus IS the Easter Bunny!

I knew it, why didn't you tell me that before?

People are sick. If you want to teach children that Jesus is the real meaning of Easter, you do it in a positive way by promoting that particular aspect-- not tearing down the other traditions in a violent display. Somehow, this reminds me of the people that take Harry Potter books away from kids in order to have book burnings and chant "burn the witch"-- to make sure they don't grow up worshipping Satan or something.