Can We Make the Church into an Anti-Mall?
Saturday, December 10, 2005
At the risk of sounding like an even worse sectarian (than some critics claim I am), can I plead for all evangelical Christians to quit threatening Target and Wal-Mart with a boycott, if they don’t put “Christmas” on their advertisements? Us U.S. Americans can’t seem to come to grips with the reality that we have given away our culture, i.e. we are not the majority, and Christmas is a secular holiday. Christmas is not a Christian holiday in the United States or Canada. On my neighborhood walk yesterday I counted on the front lawns one crèche versus 24 blow up thingies of snowmen, Santa Claus’s and other assorted objects neutered of any religious meaning. By coming to the realization that U.S. is no longer a Christian nation we evangelicals might be forced to be witnesses to what it means to be Christians at Christmas. And this would mean to disavow ourselves of the association between Christmas and buying stuff. So for the sake of our witness to the birth of Christ, let’s boycott the stupid shopping craze entirely and let’s not associate Christmas with any advertising having to do with going to malls, Target or Wall Mart. And let us ask target and Wall-Mart to not desecrate the word “Christmas” by using it to advertise stupid stuff and entice people to buy things. And let the church be the anti mall. Instead of going to buy stupid things nobody wants, let us figure out how to gather and make thoughtful inexpensive crafts as expressions of joy and hope and then give them away, let us bring food, clothing and stuff we can’t use because we bought too much stuff last year, and give it to those who are broke. Let us advertise this as Christmas. Please don’t think we at Life on the Vine have arrived at this stage yet, I’m just thinking about how to make this into a great Christmas liturgy. Merry Christmas …
Posted by David Fitch | 9:25 AM
COMMENTS:
Amen Dave! Sometimes I think that American evangelicals are the silliest and shallowest bunch of people I've ever seen. As usual,we think that if we can bully some meaningless gesture out of the culture that makes us feel affirmed that we have won some great victory. The great irony of it all being, as your blog points out, that we often succeed in giving away the genuine witness of the gospel at the very point at which we succeed in getting what we want.
So many evangelicals seem to think that if our faith is not represented in the corridors of power or everywhere acknowledged in the culture, that somehow the mission of the church is completely thwarted and God is unable to accomplish his work on earth. This is completely ironic for a group of people who claim to hold the scripture in high regard, since it continually testifies to the fact that the gospel will always be an offense to the powers structures of this world and that Christ's church will prevail irregardless of this fact.
2:01 PM
David,
Great post! I long to see churches become anti-malls.
Mark Van Steenwyk
9:59 AM
Thanks for both comments ... if any one out there actually has been by God used to make something like this happen in a church .. I'd like to know about it ... and how you went about it
.. Mark ..I'll see you in April !
2:06 PM
Mennonites already are doing so
see Ten Thousand Villages
Deb B.
2:50 PM
Thanks for your post.
It occurs to me, too, that Christians don't seem to realize they've been whipped into this frenzy by the likes of Jerry Falwell, the AFA, and the Alliance Defense Fund, all of whom initiated this particular meme this season. I hear people repeating almost verbatim the talking points of these organizations and am just amazed at how effective those groups have become at making puppets of evangelicals.
Next, let's say we get Target, Wal-Mart, et al. to change all their signage over to "Merry Christmas." What have we won? Really, what is the victory for the kingdom? I don't hear anyone thinking beyond the "tut, tut" toward those terrible secular capitalists ruining the great Christian tradition of Christmas.
2:48 PM
Wow! This is amazing! This "Christmas" season, I had encountered this very notion of how commercialized the supposed holy season of Christmas is. Walking around a mall in metro Detroit, I was despairing at what a strange and unChristian thing this mass purchasing of manufacturred goods this season is. Is this whole idea of going out and buying mass-produced crap--forgive my french--that nobody really wants, all that part of what Christmas means? (My initial reaction to facing this madness this year was to give a gift of money to charity in place of gifts [except for kids]. I was talked out of it by a Christian friend.) Driving home from the mall, seriously, I started thinking about how their could be a Christian organization fighting this trend, coming up with CACH -- Christians Against Commercialized Holidays. I'm so glad to have found your blog and web site; i am going to get your book; I would be interested in helping with any effort to change Christian approaches to Christmas. Please e-mail me at ednote68@yahoo.com. Thank you!
11:03 AM
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11:08 AM
I just finished reading a book called "Receiving The Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time" by Dorothy Bass which had some good suggestions in this regard. While the book was less about practical suggestions and more about syncronizing our various years (academic, economic, sports, etc.) with the liturgical year something in it stuck a chord with me. Then, today I encountered in another book, "Real Faith, Real Kids", a similar idea which involved focusing more on the actual twelve days of Christmas through Epiphany with simple acts such as progressively completing the Nativity scene and dwelling progressively on each part. Having parties to bring together all that "stuff" that we don't need and preparing it to give to those who do need it. Metering out small gifts or acts of kindness and hospitality to one another. Let's seek to let Christmas be a time of Sabbath renewal at the beginning of a new year rather than a season of stress to shop more, eat more, be a little bit nicer and wear ourselves out to the point that we're happy its over.
5:45 AM
thanks "kid"... I'm already looking forward to next year's Christmas ... and trying these wonderful suggestions .. peace ...
7:52 PM
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