Driving home last night I saw a sign advertising an Easter pageant. When I got home and turned on Rede Globo (the Brasilian television network we get by satellite), I saw all the wild and almost frenzied preparation for Carnaval which will start on Friday. An interesting contrast and a sad commentary.

Carnaval is a pre-Lent, sensual, street revelry that occurs in Brasil seven weeks before Easter. It is said that between New Year’s Eve and Carnaval nothing really important is decided in Brasil. Quoting a popular Chico Buarque song, most people will say, “I’m saving myself for when Carnaval comes.” The weather is hot, people become more outgoing, and sensuality is in the air. Having lived there for seven years, I can vouch for the validity of the pervasiveness of all the craziness and frivolity. I’ve always found it interesting that there is a large increase in the birth of new babies occurring nine months after Carnaval.

So, what has this got to do with anything?

A church advertising an Easter Pageant and Carnaval in Brasil about to kick off.

How much money, time and effect is going to be expended on the pageant and how many folks who are lost will enter the Kingdom as a result? How many folks in Brasil are going to participate in debauchery in the streets, in the name of pagan gods, and will die this year without knowing the central character in this Easter pageant?

I know I’m weird. I have been ever since hitting my head on a windshield in a dune buggy crash years ago in Brasil (or at least that’s what my wife tells me 🙂 ). I have to make this disclaimer or else you’ll think that I’m some sort of wacky, weirdo, holier-than-thou Joe who sits around trying to figure out ways to rain on everybody’s parade.

What’s wrong with the stupid Easter pageant? Little kids put them on all the time. Churches do it every year at this time. It’s an established tradition.

I have no problem with the plays. I have a big problem with the deceit behind them. I have an enormous problem with the amount of money that is thrown away in the name of bringing people into the Kingdom, especially when I know that almost 1,500,000 people will die in Brasil this year and, according to statistics, less than 1% truly know who Jesus is.

It shows how far we are from the central core of the gospel here in the U.S. Reminds me of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning.