'Buy Nothing Day as Advent Activism Against the Demon Mammon'

A 34-year-old Wal-mart worker was trampled to death. A young woman miscarried in the same frenzy. Two folks were shot in the Toys-R-Us. Fights broke out in stores around the country as people stepped on each other to save $40 on a plasma TV.
Some of the media stories simply looked in horror on the crowds, calling them “savages” and such things. But there are much deeper questions we must ask. We must ask questions of class, race, inequality, and the dynamics that create killing stampedes at Wal-marts. And certainly greed may look different inside the Neiman Marcus, but that does not mean it is any less dangerous or evil.
Suddenly the theatrics don’t seem like hyperbole –- the documentaries on the “affluenza epidemic” are not so far-fetched. The antics of theological stuntsters like Rev. Billy preaching about the “Shopocalypse” and casting demons out of Wal-marts don’t seems so over-the-top. It does seem we are up against a demon … Mammon.

Read Shane Claiborne's full article here.