A blog I like to read, mostly because it keeps me informed about what is going on in the world of the ECUSA as well as others, politically, just a bit of morbid curiosity, because I don't think I'd rejoin the church for any reason, but maybe a touch of schadenfreude. That being said, I can't say I really agree with his lambasting of some of the holdiay tips given by the "keep Christmas GREEN" bunch. Some of them are downright silly and of course there is the obligatory "plant a tree to save the planet" crap. We did that when I was a kid and frankly, you start to run our of room in your yard for large native tree species. I personally think the rampant commercialism of the holidays has little or nothing to do with Christ and everything to do with retailing and advertising moguls who only care about getting me to spend more. I would much rather have someone make a donation in my name to a cause dear to me than to get more junk I don't need. I love homemmade gift, I even love home made paper. My cute little Welsh gramma who grew up in the depression instilled a hate of waste, I admit I even reuse the wrapping paper if it's not to messed up, and I certain reuse the gift bags. I love buying locally, whenever possible. I makes me happy to know I am helping out my neighbor, right her and right now. Ok, here the heart of it, the point of the holiday is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it's all about him, not about our traditions, what worked in the 40's and 50's is very likely not the same as what works today. What does not change is God, what ought to change is us. If what we are doing to honor him has an impact in a bad way, it's not really very honoring. I wouldn't want people going out and making a huge mess in my name and then telling me, "but we did it for you!". Not that we have to toss every near and dear tradition, but I don't see anything wrong with being mindful of what we do. Heavy sigh. I am not in any way a liberal greeny eco warrior person. I think that should be glaringly obvious. I just feel strongly that continuing to do things we know are not good for the world we live in just because we have always done them, once we know better, seems kind of juvenile. You don't have to be religious about it to be thoughful about your actions. That's all I'm saying, don't make environmentalism a religion, we have no god besides God, but we are to be good stewards.