Easter 2010

Even before today arrived, I'd been mulling over what tack to take on Easter, one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.

Do I talk about the Catholic Church and the ever-widening scandal of pedophile priests who were sheltered or passed along without the knowledge of unsuspecting parishioners?
Back when I was 10 years old, I got to participate in a single Mass as an altar boy-in-training. My "career," such as it was, ended after that one service because we moved to a new city and I never got involved in our new parish. I'd be dishonest if I tried to hang anything in this post on that short-lived experience.

Do I talk about the gap between words and deeds?

The Sunday Oregonian carried a feature on three Portland-area pastors who talked about how they prepare to preach and shared what they planned in today's sermons. I suppose it's my lack of familiarity with the Bible but their words rang hollow to me. I'm more impressed by people who put their faith into action, such as the group of Multnomah Bible College students who collected 15,000 books for a new theological library in Rwanda.

Or do I talk about secular acts of charity and kindness -- that is, actions unmotivated by religious beliefs?

Undoubtedly, like me, you've read and seen countless stories and photos about the Haiti earthquake and the continuing ripple effects of that catastrophe. So it was with a mild case of Haiti fatigue (sorry, folks) that I read of one young Oregon woman's effort to help in a very tangible way -- and in a manner not involving money or theology.

Ruby Sprengle, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Oregon, came up with an idea for a class last summer that challenged students to use found materials to construct a portable shelter. She took discarded plastic grocery bags, cut and fused them into a tarp and then, some months later, realized they could be put to use in Haiti. Thusly inspired, she expanded her efforts with a few work parties, including one yesterday in Portland, and hopes to be able to send more recycled tarps to the stricken nation.

Sprengle (pictured above) is a product design major at the UO and already she's decided she wants to put her skills to use internationally.

"I just jumped into this project and decided to give it a shot," she says. "I'm running into obstacles but this is an area I'm interested in pursuing. I want to design for the other 90 percent of the world that doesn't have Targets and malls and car dealerships. I'm more interested in traveling and going to these other countries and helping these people out. I thought this was a good way to put my feet in the water. It's kind of an experiment."

What a smart, resourceful individual, I marveled. And then I got to thinking of something I posted here three months ago on Christopher Hitchens, the noted atheist. In an interview with Portland Monthly magazine, he threw out this challenge:

[S]how me what there is, ethically, in any religion that can't be duplicated by humanism. a person of faith. In other words, can you name a single moral action performed or moral statement uttered by a person of faith that couldn't be just as well pronounced or undertaken by a civilian?

In my mind, Sprengle is a perfect example of what Hitchens was talking about. It doesn't matter if the calendar says it's Easter, Christmas or Halloween. And it doesn't matter if the person is Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist. I, for one, appreciate acts of charity and kindness like Sprengle's all the more when they're devoid of motive, whether religious, financial or self-aggrandizement.

Photograph by Ross William Hamilton, The Oregonian