LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_oreilly)

Hope this is topic appropriate for this community.  

Long story short, last week I overheard my Evangelical Presbyterian father call my cousin Jay to ask if he would read a Bible verse at Thanksgiving. Jay is not religious and my father knows this. He asked anyway. Twice. Jay politely turned him down. I called immediately afterward and got the whole scoop - my parents are having the "heads of the households" in our family to read a Bible verse, if they would, on Thanksgiving. There's a lot of hypocrisy involved with who they asked to read, but I digress.

This is completely bizarre to me. We've never done anything like this before in our family at all. Not even at Christmas or Easter gatherings. So I vented in my personal LJ and a friend said they had read something about the equivalent of the "War on Christmas" now being waged on Thanksgiving. This sounded crazy to me, but apparently Slate Magazine has an article on it:

My church (ETA: I posted recently about steeplejacking worries) must have something to do with my parents suddenly wanting to make this gathering of the family (half are Christian, half are not) a more Christian religious situation than past holidays. Two of my Aunts want to read passages from things they have more belief in like Buddhism, but I dunno if they've talked to my father about it or not. In any case, this Thanksgiving is going to go 1 of 2 ways: smoothly or utter disaster. lol *sigh*

Is this "war" on Thanksgiving new? It's new to me. I've heard about the "war on Christmas," but not Thanksgiving.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY or_mabinogi)

What Would Jesus Buy? [link goes to Apple Movie Trailers, you may need Quicktime to view the trailer]

From producer Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and director Rob VanAlkemade, “What Would Jesus Buy?” examines the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands - Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement. Rev. Billy’s epic journey takes us to chilling exorcisms at Wal-Mart headquarters, to retail interventions at the Mall of America, and all the way to the Promised Land on Christmas Day. The Stop Shopping mission reminds us that even though we may be “hypnotized and consumerized,” we still have a chance to save ourselves this Christmas.

I can't tell. Is this a piece of arsenal in the "War on Christmas" or is this satirical parody? Part of it looks to be legitimate, professional documentary. Another part looks to be over-the-top acting/mockery. But then, the religionistas who push the idea of a "War on Christmas" tend to come off as over-the-top anyway. I'm not familiar with any of the names associated with the film. Does anyone know?