Just asking.

Briggy

Another day at church. No palms and generally no reference to Jesus entering Jerusalem

Nothing special from what I remember.

I loved Palm Sunday in non-Mormon churches, as a child. I can remember (I was very young and lived in the frozen north) being so excited to be handed a leaflet from a *Real Palm Tree.* It seemed so exotic to me --- I'd take it home and pin it to the wall where I could see it all of the time.

Thinking about it, if you are going to be a Christian, the Mormon insistence on the BoM as being such a huge deal takes away so much of the heritage from the prior Christian tradition. Despite some bad parts, there are some nice little things that the religion does to mark the progress through the year. Most religions with a long-standing tradition do that. The culture of the people have developed little feasts and observances that add bit of color to the calendar.

And what does the Book of Mormon church offer? Severed heads, whole cities utterly destroyed, constant warfare, self-righteous speeches, fast and testimony, obedience, and tithing.

Every sunday is "palm" sunday in an LDS church. They palm your tithing. They palm your talents. They palm your time. They palm your family.

It's actually Jesus Facepalm Sunday in the Mormon church, as they barely mention Easter, let alone commemorating the events leading up to the resurrection. They would much rather focus on Joseph Smith, tithing, avoiding porn and coffee, and making sure that the toilets get scrubbed by members.

Yes, we did Palm Sunday with the palm fronds today. Most Catholics, Anglicans, and Protestants who follow the lectionary calendar will do so, even in SLC.

I attended both LDS and Episcopal services today. LDS was your standard run of the mill fast and testimony meeting. No mention of Palm Sunday.
Episcopal service was all about Palm Sunday, complete with children waving palm fronds at the congregation as they made their procession into their sanctuary and the complete Palm Sunday liturgy.
It was quite the contrasts.

When I was a kid I thought PS was cool, and hung my little cross-made-from-a-palm frond up in my room, but now that I'm older, I wonder why Jesus would enter Jerusalem that way, allowing himself to ride a donkey and be greeted with throngs throwing down palm fronds and coats in his way. Unless he was trying to make a joke about being anearthly "king" by riding in on a lowly donkey to show that he wasn't high-falutin', it seems to me he'd just walk in like a regular dude.

Mormons DON'T like Easter Eggs.

They also DON'T celebrate Christ's (claimed) resurrection, perhaps because the GAs know or think it's:

1. Junior to the (again Claimed) "Resoration of all things" (catchy phrase, 'eh?)

2. Part of a well-managed Hoax

I remember a neat incident when I was 10 or 11 years of age (Blazer-Valiant?). Mom started insisting that I not only dress in a white shirt, but start wearing a necktie with tie clip. I actually liked the tie clips because we had several "secular" ones to choose from versus those ghastly LDS ones (moroni and silly temples). I guess people never noticed or cared that I would wear tie clips for sports, but I had one with a small palm tree. Well, I wore it for Palm Sunday and it became a big fuss at church.

It started with a lot of teasing from my primary aged classmates. I was used to it, but one girl wouldn't leave it alone. "Why is Messy wearing a palm tree? Boy, that's real dumb. He never shows any respect at church." The primary teacher actually defended my decision to wear it; which infuriated her. So she left the classroom and returned a few minutes with her mother. Her mom, one of the counselors in primary, wanted a word with me. So outside in the hallway, the sister inspected me head to foot. She shook her head while making some ticking noises like a rattled clock. "Please hand over your tie pin, Messy. It is neither appropriate for primary nor for church." (Mind you that there are little boys and girls that are undressing from their church attire (shoes, shirts and one 7 year old girl would slink out of her dress and run wild during the singing throughout the 2 hour primary block) and this sister is pissed off over a small tie clip of a palm tree on Palm Sunday.

I refused to hand it over to her, but I removed it and stuffed it in my trouser's pocket. The sister gleefully charged that this incident would be brought to my mother's attention. It didn't matter to me as I later caught it from my mother while walking into the chapel. She jabbed me with her elbow as she accused me of skipping primary to go outside in order to wrestle in the grass. She thought that I had lost my palm tree tie clip.

I just mailed my bishop almost four months after I put in my request to resign:

Hello!

I wondered if you had my confirmation of record deletion yet?
It’s been a while! Perhaps you could check on it?


Hope you had a marvellous Palm Sunday, and have a fantastic Easter.

Regards,
Pickleweed

Maybe he'll sit there and scratch his head thinking "Palm...Sunday?? I don't have a porn addiction!!"

Oh Boy... Church in my area yesterday was nothing but the usual "talks about conference talks" with NO mention of Palm Sunday whatsoever.

Fortunately, I had prepared for this scenario by bringing a large palm frond with me to the meeting, which I waved gently whilst carrying it into the chapel. I then draped it across the corner of the pew as I sat down. I was given plenty of odd looks and stares, but met each one with a cheerful declarative of the fact that it was Palm Sunday and that I was tired of LDS folks never acknowledging this most-important advent of Holy Week.

It was a GREAT day!