Recent Podcasts.

I was really swamped this weekend and haven’t been able to prepare anything of content. So in the meantime, until I quit scrambling . . . check out some of our recent podcasts that I haven’t had a chance to blog about yet. I’ve also got to respond to some very good comments a few posts back, so don’t get offended. Just yet.

Check out the A.J. Jacobs podcast, the author of The Year of Living Biblically.

And the Zach Lind podcast, the drummer from Jimmy Eat World.

If you haven’t subscribed to our podcast, I kindly ask that you consider doing so. And if you belong to the Facebook community, consider adding our new application to your Facebook page.

A Heretic’s Guide To Christmas (non-confrontational alternative title: Clap Your Hands! It’s Christmas Time!).

Just to make sure we’re on the same page . . . I’m not a communist, despite my long hair (that I’m giving to kids who don’t have any), our scooter (gas prices are lame), our free-range turkey (it’s going to taste better), and any other lifestyle choice that Anna and I have made jointly. Just giving a proper disclaimer because I’m not a huge fan of getting labeled a hippie/communist/anarchist or any other derogatory term.

But Anna and I have started to formulate some of our thoughts on Christmas. In our searching for “back to the meaning of Christmas” types of things we’ve stumbled across some really great resources that I would be remiss if I didn’t share.

I fully understand that by recommending some of these things it might appear that we’re snobbish or condemning of others who do things differently. From the bottom of my bleeding little heart I would encourage you to give us the benefit of the doubt and know that we’re not trying to put anyone on a guilt trip or to make us look better than we actually are. In reality, we’re foolish dreamers on our best days and hypocrites every other day. These are just our thoughts and plans for Christmas. And we’d love for you to join in on any level.

First of all, we made the decision about 2 months ago to incorporate a traceability (borrowed from Plenty and the 100 Mile Diet) factor into all of our gift buying during the holidays. Meaning, that we wanted to buy local products from people and places that we could physically know the story of. If we bought jewelry, we wanted to know the designer and where they got the materials to make it. So we made a commitment to buy local, create something ourselves, or buy arts & crafts from someone we knew or could trace back locally. Essentially, hand-made, storied, artistic gifts. This sounded like a great idea when we first talked about it. Now it seems rather foolish and difficult. But we’ve gone to a few arts & crafts festival and picked up some gifts there. And we’ve bought a few from some local stores. I’m making my grandmother a cattail pillow. And that’s about as far as we’ve gotten. But this weekend, we’re going to the Indie Craft Experience (ICE-Atlanta) and wanted to invite all of you Atlantians out. My friend, Troy Bronsink of Church As Art, tipped me off to it. So we hope to play catch up on all the gifts we haven’t bought yet.

I’d also like to tip you off to a few Facebook Groups and other movements that we’ve found. There is the Advent Conspiracy (Facebook Group, Main Website), who my friend Scott is behind, which is a group seeking to reclaim Christmas from credit card debt and consumerism and reimagine it at as the relational, giving, serving, reflective season that it is.

Then from the fine folks over at Adbusters, the Culture Jammers bring you Buy Nothing Day (Facebook page). Which is effectively a 24 hour “shopping fast”. Which most people could probably get on board with. Except Buy Nothing Day is the day after Thanksgiving. Serving as a critique to Black Friday and the busiest shopping day of the year. I won’t give you any more commentary on this because I don’t want to piss anybody and come off like more of an ass than I already do. I’ll just say that Anna and I will be participating this year.

But instead of just being a grumpy anti-consumer, we’re going to participate in something positive and constructive in it’s place. My friend Mike Morrel invited me to this and we’ll be joining in with others to create something for others instead of consuming something for others. Subtle shift but one that I think is huge. You can find out more info on this one by checking out the Make Something Day website or by joining the Facebook group.

Bottomline . . . why are we doing this?

It just seems kind of crazy for us that a holiday that is supposed to about Jesus has now forced him out of the picture and co-opted spending and consumption in his place. For us, the Jesus of Christmas is not just a fragile little baby in a manger. But the wild, subversive prophet who challenged an empire and practiced justice. It doesn’t make much sense for as followers of the Way for us to buy gifts made by people overseas in factories that treat them contrary to the way Jesus would. Or to buy gifts made by detached machines.

This could blow up in our face. But it is one more experiment that we are attempting in the face of a suffocating narrative that is antithetical to Jesus. So if you don’t think I’m an ass or a snob, please join us and come with us on Saturday or explore some of the sites we listed.

Thank you and good day.