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Easter Perspectives: What is Lent?
A Baptist POV on a misunderstood practice
I grew up in St Louis County, Missouri. As religious affiliation went, I was in the minority. My parents were quite paranoid that I would choose to marry a Catholic boy. In fact, in college I did date someone who was Catholic. I thought my parents would stroke out. In a short time, we broke up. Not long after that I met a nice Baptist man and married him, almost 47 years ago.
All this to say, Lent was always a mystery to me. Some of the Baptist churches we attended over the years incorporated Advent into the Christmas celebration (my dad would have a heart attack over that!). Lent, however, did not come into my churches.
Lent was the day my classmates came to school with ashes on their foreheads. All the fraternal organizations threw Friday Fish Frys. The school cafeteria had meatless meals on Fridays. Asking my parents was terrifying, so I chose to become clueless.
As I grew up, I understood that Mardi Gras was part of the Lent tradition. Partying like there was no tomorrow was incongruous to me with the ashes the next day. This tradition stumped me. [Confession was the same thing, a mystery to me, but that’s another article.]
As an adult, I came to realize that Lent was a fast prior to Easter. People fasted from…
