Christ and Commerce

"Remember when the faithful use to complain that Christmas was too commercial? Now they complain that commerce is insufficiently monotheist."

I've been thinking about Niebuhr's Christ and Culture and the whole "war against Christmas" nonsense, and I've decided that there needs to be a new addition to Niebuhr's relational models. I'll call it Christ and Commerce in Concert or Christ and Capitalism against Commonsense. This is the model of Christianity that is most fully expressed through the buying of goods and services. Christian music, books, t-shirts, self help seminars---the whole Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Jesus as my girlfriend crowd falls into this model. Most Americans now fall into this model and is best expressed in the maxim: "the faith that is best is the faith that is bought."

Santa and the War Against Christmas

When did a visit to Santa become "photos" with Santa. Last night I took my son to see Santa and it seemed like the whole point of the visit was to "get the picture". I'm cyncial enough to know that there isn't anything pure about the commericialization of Christmas, but I didn't realize how far it had gone until my son climbed into Santa's lap. No more is Santa interested in what Billy wants for Christmas. No, it seems Santa's only concern is smiling big for the camera so that Billy's grandparents can have a nice postcard to put on the refrigerator, and I can be out another $20-30 bucks.

Fox News is making a fuss out of the supposed war on Christmas, but it seems to me that
Christians everywhere should rejoice that Walmart and Sears and Target are focusing less on Christmas and more on the holidays. Maybe if Christians began to understand that the gift of Christmas is Jesus and not the diamond from the deBeers commercials, the faith quotient in our communities would rise.

Ember Days (?)

According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (every Anglican leaning Baptist needs one of these in their bookcase), Ember Days are four groups each of three days, in the church year, viz., the Wed., Fri., and Sat. after St. Lucy (13 Dec.), Ash Wednesday, Whitsunday, and Holy Cross Day (14 Sept.) respectively, which are observed as days of abstinence and fasting in the Churches of the West. The name is perhaps a corruption of quatuor tempora which in Latin means 'four seasons'. Their early history and original purpose is obscure, but they seem to be tied to seed time, harvest, and autumn vintage. The connexion (Oxford spelling, not mine) of the days with the crops has now been largely lost, and they are associated to-day almost entirely with the ordination of ministers.

On a practical matter, Bishops typically use the Ember Days as opportunities to check up on their postulants and candidates for Holy Orders. While in seminary I was required to write a letter to my Bishop on or around an Ember Day and he would respond on or around the following Ember Day. As for fasting and abstinence I don't know of anyone who still practices these on the Ember Days.