[Vision2020] "forbidding stores"?

[keely emerinemix]

The Seattle newspapers recently ran a story about calls for people of faith 
to stay away from WalMart, especially during the holidays, by asking "Where 
Would Jesus Shop?"  Not surprisingly, a local blogmeister on the pro-WalMart 
front (because his virulent Libertarianism is surpassed only by his concern 
for the poor, it appears), has suggested today that what we liberal people 
of faith want is to "forbid stores from saving poor people $2300 a year" -- 
and so we oppose WalMart.

We evidently don't want to stop stores THAT save poor people money, like 
WalMart; now we want to keep stores FROM saving the poor money.  As part of  
a breathtakingly unprecedented political and social movement, folks like me 
are trying to now shame all stores for ever lowering their prices, so 
vicious is our disregard for the poor, and only by denying them a WalMart 
can we fully show the depth of our contempt.  I guess Tri-State's Dutch 
Auction is next in my sites . . .

I'm glad we have this guy to keep you all informed of what we religious 
lefties are doing, because our scheme is getting so complicated, I can 
hardly keep up.  Pity.  For me it seemed so simple once:  spending money on 
stuff to celebrate the birth of a homeless, itinerate Savior seems like a 
contradiction, and spending money at places that exploit people seems like 
an affirmation, if not a collaboration, in that oppression.

This year I bought the majority of gifts from Third-World artisans, knowing 
they were fairly paid.  (Someone hand Dale a tissue; I know MY nose always 
runs when I laugh too much).  I confess that the Far Side Gallery and the 
power drill for my kids and husband were not produced by indigenous worker 
co-ops, but I think God likes the Far Side and also wants the door to the 
garage to shur properly.  Some guy from eBay and a seller from Amazon 
benefited, and I don't feel too bad.  Still, the point of Christmas for me 
is Christ, and the goal is to honor the poor.  I can't quite fit WalMart or 
excessive consumerism into that . . .

keely

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