Honoring Jesus the Wal-Mart way
The Heretik is riffing on Bill O'Reilly's boycott of stores whose personnel do not greet us by saying "Merry Christmas!"
He also reminds us that the Catholic League boycotted Wal-Mart, in part because it was displeased with how little Christmas it found on a Wal-Mart website search. If I weren't so tired, I'd fall down and laugh. Or weep.
Wal-Mart discriminates against women by not paying them what it pays male employees doing the same or comparable work. Wal-Mart is not very nice when an employee files a disability claim. Wal-Mart has locked its night employees in so that, in an emergency, that would die. Wal-Mart has refused to give employees their legally earned lunch breaks. Wal-Mart is accused of not paying proper overtime wages. The list goes on and on. The Catholic League is an organization whose purpose is to promote religious and civil rights, but the best it could come up with to get excited about was Wal-Mart's alleged multiculturism.
The Heretik asks us when the shopping madness will end, and I have no answer, but it is certainly a cold irony that all of the fighting about honoring Jesus, damn it, is focused on great big stores where people buy gazillions of things in order to properly honor Jesus.
How can I honor Jesus if, when I give my last dollar to the nation's biggest employee-abuser, the clerk doesn't say "Merry Christmas!" to me?
How can I honor Jesus if, when I buy all those clothes made by slave children in sweat shops, the clerk says "Happy Holidays!" to me?
How can I honor Jesus if, when I buy a cartload of cosmetic products tested by pouring acid into the eyes of imprisoned cats and rabbits, the clerk takes Christ out of Christmas?
How can I honor Jesus, if, when I buy all that factory farm meat, the product of horrifically tortured cows, pigs, and birds, the clerk implies that there are people in my community who are not Christians?
What's a good Christian to do nowadays?
He also reminds us that the Catholic League boycotted Wal-Mart, in part because it was displeased with how little Christmas it found on a Wal-Mart website search. If I weren't so tired, I'd fall down and laugh. Or weep.
Wal-Mart discriminates against women by not paying them what it pays male employees doing the same or comparable work. Wal-Mart is not very nice when an employee files a disability claim. Wal-Mart has locked its night employees in so that, in an emergency, that would die. Wal-Mart has refused to give employees their legally earned lunch breaks. Wal-Mart is accused of not paying proper overtime wages. The list goes on and on. The Catholic League is an organization whose purpose is to promote religious and civil rights, but the best it could come up with to get excited about was Wal-Mart's alleged multiculturism.
The Heretik asks us when the shopping madness will end, and I have no answer, but it is certainly a cold irony that all of the fighting about honoring Jesus, damn it, is focused on great big stores where people buy gazillions of things in order to properly honor Jesus.
How can I honor Jesus if, when I give my last dollar to the nation's biggest employee-abuser, the clerk doesn't say "Merry Christmas!" to me?
How can I honor Jesus if, when I buy all those clothes made by slave children in sweat shops, the clerk says "Happy Holidays!" to me?
How can I honor Jesus if, when I buy a cartload of cosmetic products tested by pouring acid into the eyes of imprisoned cats and rabbits, the clerk takes Christ out of Christmas?
How can I honor Jesus, if, when I buy all that factory farm meat, the product of horrifically tortured cows, pigs, and birds, the clerk implies that there are people in my community who are not Christians?
What's a good Christian to do nowadays?
posted by Diane at 10:55 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home