The fun never ceases in Living Church of God. If you bought a Valentines Day card for your sweetheart you were taking part in a ritual that allows for beating of women with bloody animal flesh. That ranks right up there with the other favorite of Meredithism - red ornaments on Christmas trees are bull's testicles. I have to say I have seen more "yucky" things at Armstrongite Feast of Tabernacles sites than I ever have on Valentines day.
What is with Meredithism that is is so focused on blood, guts and gore? They have went from beating women with animal skins to Meredith advocating spanking them. So what is really the difference here?
Whatever.
The origins of Valentine’s Day are very clearly pagan and pre-Christian. Research into the details of where it came from can take you all sorts of places (some very yucky places, frankly), but standing out among them is Lupercalia, a pagan fertility ritual celebrated in February that involved, among other things, animal sacrifices (goats and dogs, apparently) and whipping women with strips made from the animals’ bloody flesh. Yes, I wish I was kidding.
If you want to just dip your toes a wee bit into the origins of Valentine’s Day, the History channel website is making it easy, with an interactive graphic (I’m not sure why a graphic that doesn’t do anything but sit there is called “interactive,” but there you go) and a video that shows a painting (apparently by Jon Foster) of a fellow looking delightfully popish presiding over a sacrifice-the-critter-and-hit-the-ladies-with-carcass-straps ceremony. (Full disclosure: The History channel video also shows old “classic” paintings with naked people. What is it with “classic” artists and naked people?)
So, no pagan, hit-your-woman-with-bloody-animal-parts, Lupercalia-warmed-over, Jeremiah 10:2 (et al.)-violating Valentine’s Day for me, thanks!
Valentine’s Day: A day for beating women with bloody animal skins?
Wallace Smith
One thing I do have to hand to Wallace Smith is that he allows comments on his blog and he actually carries on a half way decent conversations with those that disagree with him, which is NOT something that would happen with Prophet Robert Thiel.
