For many Christians, today — Ash Wednesday — marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day fasting season preceding Easter Sunday. These days, practitioners are ceremoniously designated with a smear of ashes on their foreheads, and in recent years, priests have attempted to spread the Word by posting selfies with #ashtag and #shareyourashes hashtags.
While the photos may seem harmless enough, there are many critics of the priests' promotion of their own good deeds. "If people find it meaningful to trumpet their inevitable death on social media, I'm not opposed. Just strikes me as odd," tweeted Greg Hills, an associate theology professor at Bellarmine University.
So far, none of the priests have drawn an actual hashtag with the ashes, but maybe next year.—Stephanie Talmadge
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Quiz of The Week: 6 – 12 SeptemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures A palace on fire, a shopping cart protest, and more
-
The Week Unwrapped: Why is horse-racing going on strike?Podcast Plus, will the South Korean women who worked in state-run brothels set up for US soldiers succeed? And what’s behind a surge in leg-lengthening surgery?
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
