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I think his comments about the secularization of Christmas have some points, but I'd tend to agree with the apostle Paul on this and, regardless of the intentions, rejoice when Christ is preached. Sure, a lot of it is sentamentalized and seems to have little to do with Jesus' message, but there is still power in the way the season of Christmas turns us toward the concerns of others.

However, his remarks about the weeping statue and the grilled-cheese sandwich with the image of Mary on it were narrow-minded and came across as your standard protestant anti-Catholic prejudice. Anytime Christians start mocking or judging the devotional impulses of their brothers or sisters, they begin to miss the point of devotion. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone, but we should all seek to be more appreciative and respectful of our extended family-in-Christ and the way that millions of disciples of Christ encounter a deeper relationship with God.

Sorry, I mistakenly typed he. The blog is actually quoting something from a woman author.

He definetly had some good thoughts.

All hail the grilled cheese sandwich...

I love 'the big picture,' and he's got it. Popular culture is mostly crap and it lies to us all the time. Its hard not to buy into it, because to do so is 'thinking outside the box', and that is very hard to do. I've just been reading 'The Gift of the Jews' by Thomas Cahill. I'm really enjoying it; its sort of the 'big picture' about the Jews. Any of y'all read it?

I work in retail. It's been a very bad time for me. I lost most of my faith in the innate goodness and potential of humanity. People behave like pigs, and I'm supposed to be respectful and subservient. On the flip side I'm supposed to be respectful and subservient to my superiors even as they abuse us. People can whine and complain about consumerism and commercialism, but every individual has made themselves, allowed themselves, to become dependent on an abusive and inhumane retail system, you'll have to actually do something about it if you want to sleep the sleep of the just at night. I think that Jesus would probably go apeshit over this stuff if he were alive today.

I'm kinda with RLP on this one. However, its somewhat amusing that the right frets about the commercialization of Christmas as undercutting God, yet worry that the same commercialization of Halloween will help Sataan.

I live in a country that is not Christian. I live in Viet Nam, and except for the 6-8% of the populace who are Christian, Christmas is purely a secular day (and Christmas Eve is the big day, not Christmas Day itself) when people who have never seen snow sing "Jingle Bells." Yet, that alone was enough to spur one Vietnamese to go to church with me on Christmas Eve.

best comment on this issue i've seen came from Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis: "...it is so toxic for the gospel when Christians picket and boycott and complain about how bad the world is. This behavior doesn't help. It makes it worse. It isn't the kind of voice Jesus wants his followers to have in the world. Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn't as bright as it could be." i love that.

I was thrilled when I read that column the day I received my Newsweek. I was so happy to find words for some of the uneasyness I had been feeling about the concerns voiced by some Christians. Thank you, Anna Quindlen. I wondered if other believers of God would like it as I did. RLP and Nathan from Moral Contradictions, I am happy to find I am not alone. I also like the comments in 'Velvet Elvis'