I am annoyed with the various "marshmallow world" commercials for Target. They are trying to get us to go there and buy Christmas presents but they refuse to use the term Christmas in any of their ads or even the more secular Holiday. Now it is a marshmallow world in the winter! A winter festival in other words.
I dislike that commerce exploits Christmas to no end for financial gain, but I despise Target's attempt at making Christmas into something else altogether. Let's boycott Target!
31 comments:
The War On Christmas. Or X-mas, or holiday, or season, or merry, or jolly or whatever dances around the word -- Christ.
This "season" really gears up right before Halloween and becomes an orgy of "giving" (or self-giving as some advertisements encourage), bonuses and drinking.
About the only thing Christmas one will see on TV is the few minutes Linus is on stage to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. I'm surprised there isn't a lawsuit to have that segment removed from the show.
At least Charlie Brown wants to know. Others -- who knows? Maybe they're too busy busting down the doors of stores to notice.
Another reason to boycott Target:
Target is very actively Pro-Gay marriage. This is a well publicized piece of information.
Probably the reason they remove Christmas and Holiday from their commercials. It's a logical next step along that path.
It is what happens when one walks on that slippery slope.
Sheila
Target is pro-gay, anti-gun, anti-Christmas. I refuse to go in that stupid store. Crummy merchandise, anyway. Wal-Mart without the butt cracks and pink hair.
Sheila - Will you also lobby Good Father McDonald to switch from Blogger for hosting his blog? Blogger is owned by Google, one of the most pro-Gay rights companies out there.
Will you boycott Blogger by not reading or posting on any blog they host?
Honestly, I think commercial interests are eventually going to kill the Christmas greed fest (which they manufactured in the first place) by their own atheistic attitude. Whoever the commercial interests are have a dual motive to make it a God-less day AND sell as much as possible. So I believe eventually the day will lose it's meaning for the irreligious and be just another boring day of being with family they already can't stand. I think they will eventually just stop doing it. For most of them, they have lost the sense of joy already, and only go through it for the sake of children, of which they only have one or two, so that ends in a few years.
Also, remember the baby boomers are getting old, and although they may have grandchildren to spoil, once they get old enough to be out of the buying market, Christmas sales are going to go WAY down.
I wish I could blank out all the offensive ways Christmas is presented nowadays in the media and in our commercial venues, but I try to realize what is happening is that pagans think they have won a great victory by being anti-Christ. I find it a persecution that I can use to strengthen my commitment to Christ.
I'm not sure I see why secular corporations should be expected to promote liturgical feasts. Isn't that our job?
I do find it odd that a company with a target for both it's logo and name doesn't like guns? I suppose they think crossbows are harmless, as did King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.
JBS, Not to mention Richard the First.
JBS
There were no crossbows at the Battle of Hastings - they hadn't been invented then.
I do object, however, at TV commercials from supermarket chains wishing me a 'Merry Christmas' three weeks before Advent.
Xmas begins on Xmas Eve and lasts (according to the new calendar) until the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord which is the first Sunday after Epiphany. In the older calendar and particularly in the Sarum use the Xmas season ended on the Feast of the Purification (2 Feb).
But, the long bow was still superior... as the English demonstrated to the French on a couple of notable occasions…LOL!
John Nolan,
I was once told by a University of Texas historian that he believed it was the Norman use of the crossbow that won William the battle. However, I have no further familiarity with the topic beyond that, and may even have misunderstood him.
John, I believe you may be mistaken…I am reading that the crossbow was in use at Hastings. The weapon goes back to early AD China, Greece, and Rome. We need to check this out further.
JBS:
Your Texas historian was probably talking about Norman Crossbow, so named because of his fiery temper in battle when firing off his arrows, not to be confused of course with Saxon Longbow, so named because he used to receive the accolades of the spectators at length after a notable victory at archery contests. It’s easy to get confused by these historical details. One book that will set you straight on British history is “1066 and All That,” with the spirit of which my corrections are in full accord. I am sure that John Nolan is also familiar with it.
Seriously, though, it does seem as though the Normans at Hastings may have had crossbowmen in their ranks (I did not know this before researching it just now):
http://www.historynet.com/weaponry-norman-arms-and-armour.htm
As to the issues raised by Father’s post, and echoing some of Bee's comment, for most business enterprises aimed at the consumer market Christmas is mostly about worshiping Mammon, just like the rest of the year.
Bah, humbug!
Certainly retailers have exploited Christmas for financial prophets. I don't really fault them for this as they are in business to make money. Think of those who set up shops around Catholic shrines. They exploit Fatima or Lourdes, but they don't insult their customers by making Fatima and Lourdes into something else other than what it is.
Christmas and Christmas alone is the reason why people are buying gifts and religious people purchase gifts for religious reasons. For Target to call the season a marshmallow time of the year in the winter without any reference to the "holiday season" a benign sort of insult, really goes way beyond contempt.
It is like calling the Christmas tree the marshmallow time of the year in the winter tree. Give me holiday tree any time!
FYI, there are several very good historical novels by Bernard Cornwell…"The Archer," "Agincourt," "The Heretic" that deal with English history during the Middle Ages. "The Archer" is about a longbowman and details the archer culture and the fact that it was considered a craft and, much like the Japanese samurai, a lifetime study. A longbowman was a formidable weapon with an extremely high skill level.
William Tell was likely a true story and I love that song he wrote...
Well…now I see that some loon is starting an enterprise to place McDonald's in churches because "attendance is dropping and the church is outdated."
He is calling it "McMass." Funny, I thought we already had McMass and it is called there OF.
Fr. McDonald. is a "financial prophet" a person who can predict what the stock market will do?
Ha! I can tell you what the stock market will do. It will eventually go up, then down again, then up once more...
PI,
Not a bad idea about boycotting Google.
Kinda been on my mind.
Thanks for the input.
God Bless, Sheila
Sheila - You might include the following gay-friendly companies:
Alcoa, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola (Good Luck avoiding that one), Dell, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Eli Lilly, Ford, Freddie Mac, Hewlett Packard, Hyatt, JPMorgan, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, Orbitz, Prudential, Staples, Time Warner, UPS, Wells Fargo, Xerox, and Yahoo.
So, what is your point Ignotus? You say this in such a "yayayayaya nananana-boo-boo" manner. So, you are all in our face for gay rights? You are selling out to the secular/humanist society (which you obviously love) and telling us (implicitly) to give it up, there is nothing we can do. I cannot say to you what I would like because Fr. would not post it. But, you are no friend of the Church or the devout. You are a trickster.
Archbishop Vigneron prohibits speaker who promotes 'gay' agenda
http://te-deum.blogspot.com
I have not purchased anything from any of the companies you listed above for quite a number of years years. The interesting thing was that I was not intentionally boycotting them except for Coca-Cola (and yes that was not an easy one especially during the hot summer months). One other one I have boycotted which you failed to list is Home Depot.
The problem for me is not these companies hire homosexuals, but rather when they actively promote the lifestyle by participating (funding etc.) in events which promote that which goes against Church teaching(including same -sex "marriage"). Not everyone can engage in boycotts but everyone should do what they ar able to do. We should all be like the defenders of Jasna Gora.
I boycott companies that (1)contribute to Planned Parenthood and (2)promote the gay lifestyle and same-sex marriage.
Pin/Gene - The point is that we cannot "boycott" our societal way to holiness. Boycott all you want, but it won't change a thing.
This modern mania for boycotting is a silly waste of time and, I would suggest, untenable in the matter of changing the attitude/behavior of the very corporations we rely on for the continuance of life in the 21st century.
There's nothing tricky in seeing the reality of the vanity of boycotts against every company that is considered gay-friendly.
Boycotts are not always ineffective, but you are correct that you cannot boycott every corporation. One major one should be targeted by a huge, organized conservative bloc. If that has effect, it would serve as a warning to the others. So far, Catholics and conservatives have not become ruthless and aggressive enough to do things like that.
But, instead of taunting us on the blog, you should be lamenting the fact that we have come to this pass…where gay and perverted life styles are promoted by major sections of the American culture. Of course, that doesn't really bother you, does it?
There are two kinds of boycotts. One type is that which is organized and the other one is that which is done by an individual not specifically acting in concert with others. In both of these a person is acting out of personal conviction. With the first one there is an objective or multiple objectives which are to be met by the entity being boycotted in order to satisfy the concerns or demands of those doing the boycotting. I boycott out of religious conviction.I would like to see corporations take a neutral position on controversial issues (neither pro-active or re-active-such things as overtly promoting the homosexual lifestyle or same sex marriage or contributing corporate funds to groups such as Planned Parenthood). No one(that I'm aware of) is asking them to contribute to National Right to Life, Operation Rescue, or Priests for Life. Is this too much to ask?
You want to boycott companies whose advertisements don't mention Christmas? How many companies would that be, exactly? We honor Christ when we represent our beliefs and values best rather than attacking, boycotting, name calling against those with different beliefs.
Ah so, Daniel-san,it is not just a matter of those with "different beliefs." The secular culture is aggressively attacking and attempting to marginalize the Church and the Faith. The Church and Christians everywhere need to fight back.
Not getting props in the latest vapid TV commercial is a long way from being marginalized. I doubt Christ cares whether he gets a shoutout from Target.
Daniel, the concern for us is the shift in the secular culture, which up until rather recently was at least friendly and non-insulting to religious sentiments and our holy days, what secularists would call holidays.
Thus retailers certainly wouldn't use religious imagery (normally, but not exclusively) to sell their wears. However, they would use, in addition to Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Chanukah, etc.
Even poor Saint Nick, in the secular person of Santa Claus seems to be getting the boot too.
What this indicates is the need for the new evangelization and the hope that not only individuals will be converted or reconverted to Christ but the culture too, that secularism will have a friendly outlook on Christ and Christianity, rather than a hostile one.
Also, Daniel, ad orientem can be taken literally in the geographical sense as the major Basilicas in Rome do (except for Saint Paul Outside the Wall) or it can be taken symbolically with the priest and laity at Mass facing in one direction, toward the symbolic east and the rising of the sun.
Pope Benedict encouraged priests and laity facing the same direction (what some misinformed ideologues would call the priest with his back to the congregation) during Mass but also gave a compromise solution of the central crucifix facing the priest and laity in the center of the altar when the priest faced the nave and thus the crucifix itself becoming the symbolic east--symbolic!
Here are two songs from seminary days about the commercialization of Christmas:
"Hark, the pious peddlers say
X was born on Xmas Day
Peace on Earth and mercy mild,
Plastic guns to every child.
Give the little girls and boys,
Military guns and toys,
Next year may provide for them
Fallout over Bethlehem
Next year may provide for them
Fallout over Bethlehem."
'God rest ye Merry Businessmen
Let nothing ye dismay,
From leaving for Miami shortly after Xmas Day
To sit and bask in luxury while we all pay your way
Oh, tidings of Bradstreet and Dunn,
Bradstreet and Dunn, Oh tidings of Bradstreet and Dunn."
My politics do not agree with them, but cute and they do make a point...
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