IN THEORY:

Retailers refer to the day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday” because it’s the day they hope will attract enough customers to put them back into the black for the year. This year, it was also known as “Buy Nothing Day” to anti-consumerism activists like filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of “Supersize Me” fame. Spurlock has produced a new movie that features a performance artist who assumes the persona of Rev. Billy, an evangelist who tries to convert people to his “Church of Stop Shopping.” Do you think this is just a cheap stunt to promote a movie, or do you think the filmmakers have a point that we’ve become too obsessed with material goods?

Years ago, in an episode of “The Goldbergs,” Jake Goldberg arrived home for supper and excitedly told his wife, Molly, about a great business idea he had. At the dinner table, Jake enthusiastically discussed the future and said, “Molly, some day we’ll be eating off of golden plates!” Molly looked at him and replied, “Jake, darling, will it taste any better?”

Many are afflicted with “materio-sclerosis.” The acquisition of things offers us the illusion of achievement. We confuse needs with wants. Things promise us the world, but the world can never satisfy. Only when we come to think of money in religious terms, as a sacred symbol of mutual human support, will we see ourselves more as distributors of an abundance God has lent to us for His purposes.

Golden plates or paper plates — it is the gratitude for food, relationships with fellow diners and a life of sharing that provides one’s riches. May we appreciate that which truly appreciates in value: thankfulness, character and generosity.

Rabbi Mark S. Miller

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

If this is a “cheap stunt,” the Bible is full of them. Prophets would shave their hair and eat animal dung, among all kinds of extreme behavior to get people to listen to what God had to say. I wish I had the courage to do the same.

Spurlock is right, regardless of whether he follows Jesus for real. I fight this battle on a daily basis with my family.

We don’t open gifts on Christmas. We are asking our daughters’ friends to donate to a child sponsorship/AIDS orphan charity instead of birthday gifts this year. We don’t step foot in shopping malls from Thanksgiving through the New Year, except to remind ourselves that it was the right decision to stay away.

We participate in programs like Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse and others to show our kids that is not about us, but it is so hard when surrounded by excess.

Worse, many of the products come from countries using slave, prison and child labor. Not too long ago, a Chinese pastor who had been imprisoned in China for his faith was released and came to the U.S. The first thing he saw were palm trees lit with lights he was forced to make while a prisoner in China. He was so angry.

Our excess was a part of his imprisonment. And our addictive shopping puts unsafe products into the hands of our children (count the recalls this year).

Add the carbon footprint created by shipping these products, and it’s obvious that our shopping habits are slowly killing us. I haven’t seen the movie; but as you can tell, it will only fuel my fires.

Ric Olsen

Lead Pastor, The Beacon

Honestly, I sometimes feel as if Christmas has been hijacked.

I haven’t seen this film, so I can’t comment on it directly; but I do feel that Jesus likely wouldn’t wake up at 3:30 a.m after Thanksgiving for the sale on that 12-foot, flat-screen!

Contrary to our society’s actions, Christmas is not about buying gifts or decorating houses. We have forgotten the significance of the divine found in a baby born into poverty in a dirty stable.

His is the Christmas story. Consumerist obsession is not. I have not shopped on “Black Friday” for years. I’m not saying we should not give gifts, but many suffer from our having too much!

I love to give gifts through organizations, like the Heifer Project, which shows my family I love them, but contribute to the well-being of the world. Giving fairly traded gifts, environmentally friendly items or donations in their honor are gifts that reflect the giving spirit of Christmas!

Rev. Sarah Halverson

Fairview Community Church

Costa Mesa