America's temple
If you’re old enough you remember when Thanksgiving (of all America’s holidays) was about God, family, food, friends, and football. You couldn’t find a grocery store, department store, or even a gas station open. You got where you were going and you stayed there all day, enjoying family and food and ball games, and you gave thanks for it all.
Not so now. Now America has managed to commercialize even this day. Go shopping – spend money – forget thanks-giving and replace it with anything but. Because a lot of stores are open… because the altar that matters now isn’t the family altar around which people gather to express thanks to God, it’s the altar to the almighty dollar.
U.S. retailers trying to squeeze every extra cent out of shoppers are opening for Thanksgiving on Thursday, trying to get a jump on the holiday shopping season. Among the retailers that will open on Thursday are Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s U.S. discount stores, 850 of Gap Inc’s Old Navy stores, as well as some of its Gap and Banana Republic stores; and Sears Holdings Corp’s namesake department stores, and Kmart discount stores.
All hail the dollar… So if you can remember the days when something mattered more than money, be thankful. Your children won’t.
Related Articles
- If it’s Thanksgiving, you must be shopping … – Reuters (news.google.com)
- Stores Open On Thanksgiving 2010: Walmart, Sears And More (HOURS) (huffingtonpost.com)
- For Retail Workers, Black Friday Starts Thursday (abcnews.go.com)
Zwinglius Redivivus 
Pingback: The End of Thanksgiving | Unsettled Christianity
For all of those who are afraid that socialism is going to be the undoing of America’s moral fabric, this post provides more great proof that the real threat is, in fact, capitalism.
I always hear lots of “Christian” advocacy groups getting mad at every store that refuses to uses the term “Christmas” for its celebration of debt and gluttony … I haven’t heard any of them fussing about stores open on Thanksgiving day. Apparently, depravity for the sake of the dollar is okay.
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thats because for most christians their real god is the dollar too
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Pingback: Superfluous 7 – Things I Am Thankful For « The Manofesto
Hear, Hear!
I am very annoyed at all the pre-Thanksgiving push on Xmas Shopping. I really like the feeling of autumn winding down and turning into winter. The sense of the harvest and the time allowed to give thanks for what we got. I like the Catholic sermons and readings at Mass at this time of year about the end times as it prepares me for advent and the waiting time for XMAS. I like the walks in the woods at this time seeing the leaves on the ground and the bare trees.
My body and soul just doesn’t feel right without going through this cycle on a yearly basis.
I feel like I am hiding from the greater society as I deliberately turn my channel off as a radio station plays XMAS music or shopping ads before XMAS. I am hiding from stores as I don’t want to see the XMAS decorations before their time.
Well, tomorrow, I will tune in and become part of the greater society and start tuning in to XMAS. But today, I will give thanks and be with my family.
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To be fair, I was thankful that stores started staying open today when my mother-in-law forgot to bring the gravy.
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