Posted 5/23/01 They used a fish as a symbol of their religion: Sunday Night, by MaryHelen Swanson The early Christians, I mean really early Christians, were forced to hide in upper rooms, nod and glance at each other discretely on the street and use the symbol of a fish to identify themselves. What symbol will we have today? I ask this because I think religion is dying. Sure, there are numbers out there to say that millions are attending church, but religion, especially Christianity, appears to be doomed. When you shopped for an Easter card in April, how many did you find that depicted the true meaning of the holiday? How many mentioned Jesus, the cross, the crucifixion or the risen Savior? One elderly woman and I searched far and wide to find one in the card section. There it was, in a tiny corner of rabbits, butterflies, and beautiful ěspringî messages, the sign that said ěreligious.î And sure enough, there were a couple of religious cards to send for Easter, a religious holiday. It was the same at Christmas. Most recently, however, I had an even more difficult task - finding a confirmation card - not a first communion card (which are not in much supply either), but a confirmation card. Once again, I had to search hard for the ěreligiousî section in the stores with rows and rows of cards with humorous messages, gross messages, silly, stupid, even mushy messages. All very good and nice, and often entertaining messages. But the religion message, itís hidden well. Even worse than trying to find a card, is try to finding a gift, especially for a young man, for this special occasion. I went to the specialty store, the one with Bible in its name, and asked for help in finding one of those inspirational books written by Christian athletes to give to the young man being confirmed who needed to know that church and God and religion are not just for stuffy people who sit in church each Sunday. Heís really into sports and I thought one of those inspirational books would be helpful. The store employee came up with two books, and when I got home I discovered that neither had the word God in, nor faith, nor one single mention of religion, just a lot of statistics and nice words about how these two athletes persevered to attain their goals by using their own wits. The books went back to the ěreligiousî store. I know these books exist, I know there are role models out there who rely on their religion to win at the game of life as well as their sporting games. Now I just wish I could find one of them to give as a gift. It is sad, and a shame that people have to work so hard to find a card to send for their most important religious celebrations. Whatís next? Having to use a symbol to identify ourselves in order to go into a back room to pick out a card? ©Post Review