Finnegan's Awake

Bringing back Thanksgiving

As the recession has crushed the retail market in the past few years, stores have been pushing the holiday shopping season earlier and earlier in an attempt to stay in the black. (The term Black Friday is based on the fact that stores used to count on the day after Thanksgiving to get them out of the red for the year and into the black, making a profit.) In New York City, the 34th Street Macy's had its display windows decked out for Christmas before Halloween, and giant holiday ads have been up for weeks in Times Square.

Thanksgiving has almost been swallowed whole by the Christmas Money-Generating Machine, but it's more important than ever to take it back. As the country muddles through a difficult economic time, focusing on a holiday that transcends religious difference and is about being thankful can only be a good thing. Thanksgiving is about gratefulness for what we already have, whereas Christmas, as wonderful as it can be, has also become about anticipating what we will receive.

Working across the aisle and pulpit - how religion can inform political participation?

It's looking like we're all in for a fight here in the United States after the midterm elections. If you're a Republican, the fight is to repeal everything Obama and the Democratic Congress achieved since 2008. If you're a Democrat, the fight is against the Republicans who see it as their job to stonewall any efforts to move the agenda forward in the next two years. If you are on neither side, consider yourself lucky.

I've been thinking about how religion can inform political participation, beyond the seemingly obvious issues that religious organizations rally around (abortion, mostly).