I showed the “Advent Conspiracy” videos to some folks the other day – you know, the ones that call us to stop buying so much crap to celebrate the birth of Jesus and instead to love and serve others? Anyway, after the videos were through someone literally walked up to me and said (no joke), “Great video! It gave me a lot to think about.” To which I replied, “Want to talk about it?”

Their response: “Nah, I’ve got a ton of Christmas shopping to do and it’d just take too much time. But, really, great job preacher!”

Great job, indeed!

The other comment gently chastised you, and the point is well taken. But let me also say that I and the rest of the dismembered body of Christ can rightly be described as brain-dead idiots. We need Jesus to rub mud in our eyes, throw our tables over and tell us ‘Get behind me, Adversary!’

Any other love is Care Bear Liberalism. The crisis is too great. As long as our constitutive practices come more from corporations (even non-profits like the AFA) other than the Body of Christ, let’s not be too gentle in our correction.

I need to be judged, healed and restored. I want God to reason with me, but if I live among an unclean people, isn’t he likely to first place a burning coal on my lips?

Kyrie eleison.

I have to say that this post deeply troubles me because it seems that you have missed “the point” just as much as those misguided folks at the AFA. I think your assertion that American capitalism and Christianity should not be mixed is indeed accurate. However, your use of such pejorative words to describe your brothers and sisters in Christ (e.g., “idiots”) is just as unhelpful as the boycott originally called for by the AFA.

Such Christians are often the victims of inherited idolatries and cannot understand the politically subversive message of the Gospel unless people take the time to show them in a pastorally sensitive way. To assert that your misguided brothers and sisters are “idiots” and to imply that they don’t have “a brain” and to say that they suffer from “stunning stupidity” is just plain irresponsible—if not downright unchristian.

We need to be theologians who meet people where they are and love them, working to clash the idolatries that American Christians face and to reconcile each other to the peaceable gospel of Christ. This can only be done through humility; perhaps reflection upon Paul’s words in Philippians 2 would be helpful—we must, in all things, seek to have the mind of Christ. The Christians behind the AFA boycotts are our brothers and sisters—fellow members of Christ’s body—whether we like it or not. God loves them just as much as he loves anyone else, and those of us who have studied are responsible to show them what discipleship is. Let us do so in love.