Can commerce and religion go their separate ways this Christmas? (COMMENTARY)

[hrmjustin]

Tom Ehrich


(RNS) I’ve decided not to worry about the earlier-than-ever start to Christmas commerce this year.

Shortly after Halloween, with hardly a nod to Thanksgiving, stores and advertisers began going full-bore on the supposed “Christmas package,” namely, gift-giving, family fun, decorating and entertaining.

It’s sad — this annual effort to derive profits from a facsimile of a 1950s Christmas — but other things are a lot sadder: an elusive economic recovery, continuing gun violence, racial violence, religious extremism, mounting rage and intolerance at home and echoes of the Cold War in Europe.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/11/18/can-commerce-religion-go-separate-ways-christmas-commentary/