A buddy of mine sent me this.  I had to double check it because I couldn’t believe it was real.

Group gives out glitter ashes for Ash Wednesday

An Episcopal group at Michigan State University spent Wednesday afternoon giving out glitter ashes at Wells Hall as part of Ash Wednesday.

They combined the glitter with the ashes from palm leaves and placed them in the shape of a cross on students’ foreheads and the backs of their hands.

The group said they used glitter to show support for the LGBTQ community.

What the actual fuck is this shit?

I went to an Episcopal middle and high school.  We had a school-wide convocation every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  For the major holy days, the school priest would do an extended convocation teaching us the meanings behind these practices.

He even did a washing of the feet in the school gym.

I remember my lessons about Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a period of fasting and repentance for Christians to commemorate and to a lesser degree experience the Temptation of Christ in the Desert.  Shrove Tuesday is the last party Christians get to have until they celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Lent is a period of living subdued and in reflection of one’s sins and asking for forgiveness.  Part of this is the call to make a Lenten sacrifice, giving up an earthly pleasure.  One that is significant enough to cause oneself to be acutely aware of it and to feel it and reflect on the meaning of the sacrifice.

Traditionally, Catholics gave up meat for Lent.  This is why you know it’s Lent when the fast-food commercials all go from advertising burgers to fish sandwiches.  Fish is not meat, because it comes from the Kosher tradition where fish is parve.  This is also why I get a hankering for a terrible square fish patty sandwich every Lent because from 7th through 12th grade, my cafeteria gave up serving meat for Lent.  Even my College toned down the meat during Lent.

MIxing glitter with ashes for Ash Wednesday does several things that are sacrilegious.  Yes, that word is appropriate.

The Adorning of the Ashes is not supposed to be an external political statement.  It is a reminder of internal reflection.  Glitter turns the Ashes into a political statement.  It turns the reflection into a virtue signal.

It perverts the Ashes with identity politics.  Rich and poor, every Christian is Adorned with the same ashes.  There are not golden ashes for the rich to wear to show that they are pious and fashionable.  You don’t mix your ashes with the colors of your favorite sports team.

The ashes are to remind you that “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

The Bible reminds us several times about the importance of ashes and dust as a symbol of death and repentance.  In the Book of Job, Job says “Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

From glitter, we did not come and to glitter, we will not return.  An identity is elevated over the meaning of the ashes.

The group that promotes this, Parity NYC, actually says this on their website:

You can make your own Glitter Ashes with blessed ashes that have been purchased from a store or made by a local church, mixed with purple glitter (biodegradable recommended but not required).

Mylar glitter that lasts forever goes against the very message of the ashes, that to ashes and dust we shall return.

And perhaps most significantly, the identity that they are showing solidarity with is one that identifies with a particular sin.  This literally shows solidarity with a sin.

Personally, I don’t really care what two consenting adults do.  This is America, and it’s not a theocracy.  Gays are entitled to equality under the law, I believe that to my bones.

But this isn’t politics, this is religion, and for thousands of years “don’t have sex with other people with the same genitalia as yourself” has been a rule.

This comes from the Jewish tradition.  As Jews, we were expected to live Holy, holy meaning separately.  We don’t do what other peoples do.  Many cultures of that region practiced recreational homosexuality or pederasty.  The ancient Greeks, the Persians, and others.  It’s still practiced in Central Asia today.

Ancient Jews said, “no butt-fuckery, the locals do this shit, we won’t.”

So glitter ashes show solidarity with a biblically prohibited sin.

All of this is the anthesis of the meaning of Ash Wednesday.  Just look at the home page of Parity NYC:

Parity helps congregations and faith organizations, clergy, seminarians, denominations and seminaries become more LGBTQia sensitive and celebratory.

Parity also helps families, parents, youth, adults and elders to navigate what it means to be (or love) an LGBTQia person, and to have faith and flourish, too!

So what do we do?:

We empower new queer faith and social justice leaders

We help faith communities affirm and connect with queer people

We help LGBTQia organizations and communities to affirm spirituality

We promote LGBTQia religious liberty and freedom

Not more spiritual.  Not more holy.  Not more in touch with the teachings of God or the love of Jesus Christ.  None of those actual religious things.

LGBTQia sensitive and celebratory.  This is putting the LGBT identity above faith.

Auburn Seminary published this opinion:

While Glitter Ashes were received with enthusiasm by most, there are also those who are sharply critical, saying that the action “mocks a somber time” and is “blasphemy.” Under these protestations is a common theme – that queer people aren’t allowed to be people of faith, to be followers of Jesus. And that is our point: queer Christians are deeply faithful, and too often hidden from view because of the hatred and rejection that they too often receive from both the faith community and the queer community. It’s not popular to be a queer Christian, and yet, millions persist.

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that the gray of the ashes was symbolic of heterosexual sex or that gays were not allowed to be Christians.  This statement absolutely shows that they think that gays people should use this somber day of reflection to advertise their sexual identity.

“I stood outside on the sidewalk in front of our church for an hour at noon and offered people ashes. I’ve done this for the last 3 years, but this year was different. If people stopped, I told them I had regular ashes and glitter ashes in solidarity with the queer Christian community. If they wanted to know more, I told them that if anyone can teach us how to live with boldness and flair and courage in the face of death, it is the queer community.

Well, I guess this makes sense.  The Progressive love to remind us that illegal immigrants are better Americans than citizens, so clearly gays must be better Christians worthy of special ashes.

I’m not saying that gays can’t be good people or practicing Christians, but that using a two millennia-old Christan symbol to advertise their sexuality not the purpose of the day.

This Ash Wednesday, is there a little bit of sparkle in your eye, if not on your forehead?  Sparkle and shine with us, as we celebrate queer lives of faith and courage.

No, Ash Wednesday is to remind of people of their mortality and the start of Christ’s Temptation by Satan, not to celebrate a sexuality.

Wearing glitter ashes isn’t done by someone who wants to spend Lent in subdued reflection.  It is done by someone who wants to be asked why their ashes are purple and sparkly so they can proselytize their support for a Progressive cause and be congratulated for being so Woke.

This is exactly the fucking opposite of the purpose of a period of atonement.

Identity politics uber alles.

I want to make this clear.

This is not an anti-gay post.  I have defended gay rights may times before in this blog, it is part of my natural libertarian leanings.

What I am against is the destruction of religion at the hands of Woke Progressives who join the clergy, not to uphold the faith but subjugate religious traditions to current political whims.

I have walked out of synagogue when the Rabbi explained how it was a Jewish value that we vote for Barack Obama because of Tikkun Olam.

I post the things I do about Judaism because I’m trying to save my own religion from the clutches of Progressives who have forsaken God in the name of their own politics.

Jews who use their Judaism to defend illegal immigrant child rapists from deportation, demand Muslim refugees be imported into America who turn around and literally stab Jews in the back, and side with the anti-Zionists who want to bring about another Jewish genocide.

Christianity is not immune to this usurpation of religion by Progressives.  Christians, you are going to have to clean your own house.