Yes, But What About Leprechauns?

With another holiday coming around, the Christian blogosphere braces for another round of debates about the pagan trappings associated with many of our holidays. The debate has many versions: the Christmas tree version, the Easter Bunny version, the Jack-o-Lantern version. I'm sure I missed some. But the question is pretty basic: can a Christian participate in a practice that has traces of paganism interwoven into the fabric of its history?

Perhaps I'm naive, but it seems to me that Paul gives us a pretty helpful place to start in 1 Corinthians 8-10. Here the question is whether eating meat offered to idols constitutes participation in the idolatry interwoven in the history of the meat. And Paul's answer is a very emphatic "That depends." He supplies three scenarios: (1) eating meat in the pagan temple, (2) eating this meat far away from the temple precincts with people who think that eating meat sacrificed to idols promotes idolatry, and (3) eating this meat far away from the temple precincts with people who don't think that eating meat sacrificed to idols promotes idolatry. Here's Paul's response:

(1) In the first situation, the cultural practice of eating meat is so unavoidably and inextricably tied to idolatrous values that the practice itself cannot possibly avoid promoting idolatry. In this case, the practice is wrong (1 Cor 8:10–13; 10:14–22).

(2) In the second scenario, the cultural practice of eating meat is perceived to be an endorsement of idolatrous values--so much so that it will potentially cause another to embrace those wicked values (1 Cor 10:28–29) and so to reject Christ (or tumble into apostasy a la Rom 14:19-21). In this case the practice is dangerous and potentially destructive, and is thus for all practical purposes wrong.

(3) In the third scenario, the cultural practice of eating meat is substantially detached from idolatrous values. In this case Paul actually encourages the practice for the sake of the gospel (1 Cor 10:25-27 cf., I think, 1 Cor 9:22-23).

The Bible doesn't give explicit instructions about Christmas trees or Easter Bunnies or Jack-o-Lanterns or Leprechauns. But it does give us everything necessary for life and godliness. And in this case, it seems plausible to substitute for "eating meat" any of these cultural practices in order to discern God's moral expectations.

MAS