Black Friday Must Go

The Associated Press wrote this about Black Friday in America: "Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles. How did Black Friday devolve into this?"
       What has it devolved into? For one thing it is a competition to be the first in line to buy an item you probably don't need. It is the ultimate statement of American individualism.
       Second, it is about greed. In the name of gift-giving, Black Friday is all about consumption and having more stuff. In the simple world of my friend Lisa on her blog, it is GROSS.
        Third, it is about loss of something transcendent. That is to say, for many people the sales of Black Friday are an idol, a sort of god. My hunch is that Christians are just about as infected as non-Christians. I guess a $288 TV for the first 25 customers in Walmart is just too tempting.
       Many of us "religious" people become quite upset at specific social ills - homosexuality, high taxes, health care reform - to name a few. We then lose our voices on Black Friday and become part of the insanity. I just don't get that.