This story begins with a dead ipod. I had a wonderful Rob Bell sermon podcast I planned to listen to on my drive last night to a prenatal appointment. Instead, I found my ipod was dead. No battery power remaining. Shoot.
A nice phone conversation with my sister got me to the prenatal, but coming home I had to resort to the radio. I flipped through channels to catch the end of Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson. He was railing about retailers who do not display Christmas decorations or wish customers a “Merry Christmas.” Well folks, when Jim Dobson is riled up about something, he must do something . Usually the result is a ban or a petition. So Focus on the Family has created “Stand for Christmas” a website on which shoppers can report naughty stores and sign a petition. Naughty stores wish customers a “Happy Holiday” or put up other holiday signs to honor Kwanzaa or Hanukkah or [gasp] do nothing at all!
Did you know Walmart is “Christmas-Friendly?” That the giant mega-monster gets Dr. Dobson’s stamp of approval? Oh indeed.
What a bunch of drivel.
Here I am worried that my Christmas gifts are ethically produced; that they are not made by enslaved children or exploited adults and “America’s most influential evangelical leader” is guiding his followers to instead count the number of “Merry Christmas” signs as they fill their carts with slave-made chocolate.
I know he isn’t a scoundrel. He really isn’t. He is a good guy. But there are some very real issues surrounding American consumerism.
I just wish he would have gotten serious about something a little more in tune with the reason to celebrate the birth of Christ. Maybe promote something like Advent Conspiracy.
Inexplicable Ways 
We’ve done Advent Conspiracy and an alternative giving fair at church the last two years. It’s “ruined” Christmas for me. 🙂
Yes. THANK YOU. This drives me nuts. My in-laws asked us for a Christmas list and Jordan had put some pants from Old Navy on it. They called and asked if they could get him pants from somewhere else, because they did not shop there due to some practices they didn’t like. I googled it to see why, and sure enough, they don’t wish their customers a Merry Christmas. I guess some people like to celebrate Christmas by displaying their recalcitrant intolerance for people of other faiths. And then some of these people roll their eyes at ME for boycotting Nestle.
I saw this pic and thought of you and Jenny:
Yesterday in class (masters in Social Work) we were talking about how many parents don’t know how to set boundaries for their kids or teach them how to speak with respect, among other things. With hesitation, I mentioned a psychologist in the 70’s who found some creative ways to teach parenting skills but his work got sidetracked by political ambitions and a tight connection to fundamentalist Christianity. Today I’m tying together a blog post on the topic so I googled James Dobson… and this post showed up on the first page! Great (unplanned) positioning! I hadn’t seen this one yet… and I love the Advent Conspiracy clip. I’m making a note in my calendar to share it with classmates this fall. In the meantime, I will pass on some of your resources to my classmates who will have opportunities to pass them on to their clients. Bless you.
Pingback: Training Children is Hard Work–Always Has Been, Always Will « the rest of the story…