I confess, I hate Black Friday. I hate it when my cousins leave Thanksgiving evening to participate or even when the go during the day on Friday. I hate it when friends have to miss events to work that day. I hate it when it clutters up the media with hyperbolic claims about once-in-a-lifetime-but-really-twice-a-year deals. I hate it most of all when the inevitable death by trampling fills the news by the time Saturday morning rolls around. Forgive me Father, I have hatred in my heart…
And yet, this blog post is not just some angry rant. It’s an argument about why you should hate black Friday too. That is, if you’re a Christian. And the argument is fairly simple. Christians should only hate one thing: sin. And I’m saying that Black Friday is sinful.
Simply put, Black Friday is sinful because it violates a Commandment. So, you should hate it and avoid it too. Actually, I’m going to say it violates at least three commandments.
Honor Thy Father and Mother
It’s true, of course, that Thanksgiving is not really a Christian Holiday. By that I mean it has no liturgical origin and is not rooted in celebrating a specific mystery of the faith as the Holi-Days of the Church always are. It’s an American holiday, but it is largely inspired by Christian values (and owes its existence to a Catholic named Squanto).
Nonetheless, in our cultural context, it is a day of gratitude and carries strong connotations of family. To skip out on Thanksgiving with your family without serious reason is offensive to your family because it is the cultural norm to be there. So, when you leave dinner early to buy stuff, you are putting your family – father, mother, and all the rest – second to a material concern.
Keep Holy The Sabbath
It’s pretty common for people to reduce this commandment to mean “go to Church on Sunday,” but that is only half the commandment. The other half is the command to rest. It’s this half that gets broken by the increasing intrusion of Black Friday into Thanksgiving. Like I just said, Thanksgiving is not a liturgical Holy Day, so it’s certainly not a sin if you don’t got Mass on Thursday. It’s a great thing to do, especially since Eucharist means “thanksgiving,” but no need to confess skipping out because you were too busy cooking, eating, and hanging out.
Still, in addition to being a cultural incarnation of the principle of honoring father and mother, it is a cultural incarnation of the principle of adequate rest. We’re not talking mere passivity, but recreation, the practice of restorative activities like contemplation, community meals, and, yes, cooking with your loved ones. Wasting time with family and friends is not a waste, but an obligation. It’s an obligation because it reminds us that were are not mere cogs in an economic machine, but images of the divine sharing not just in Divine Work, but also Divine Knowledge and Love.
To be clear, if your job depends on you working Black Friday or Thursday evening, it’s not really your sin. The sin really lay upon the employer who requires people to work on a day of gratitude, family, and recreation. If you have the choice, choose not to, but put your conscience at rest if it’s an ox-in-the-pit situation where refusing to work puts your livelihood at risk.
Worst of All, It Violates the First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me/Thou shalt not commit idolatry. Black Friday is the great, sacred feast of a god name “Materialism” and his sordid consort “Consumerism.” It is the rank idolatry of a world that has forgotten the invisible God and replaced Him with an endless pursuit of physical, temporary things. This one applies even to those who don’t violate Thursday with their shopping.
The getting up early, the camping out, the rush, the way that sales dictate entire schedules and become the number one priority of the day… these are all signs of worship. Idolatry is not always bowing down to statues. In fact, for most people it’s never that. Idolatry is setting something in Place Number One in your heart and mind. It is putting something – anything that is not God – in a place that gives it power over the rest of your life. For the day of Black Friday, shopping generally rises to that level.
On top of all that, and perhaps worst of all, Black Friday directly implicates Christmas in it’s madness. Christmas, the second holiest day of the year, turns into a months long exercise in materialism and Black Friday is the chief unholy day of profanation. Christmas. does. not. start. until. December. Twenty-Fourth! There is another season before Christmas and it is called Advent. It is an act of sheer worldly arrogance to flatly ignore the ancient practice of prayer and preparation in order to serve the god of 4th-quarter earnings.
It is a shadow, an echo of the impulse to skip the cross and jump straight to the resurrection. Forget the pregnancy, forget the perilous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Let’s jump straight to the singing angels and gift-giving wise men. Black Friday violates the 1st commandment because it seeks to make God serve man’s material desires rather than reminding Man how he serves God. Mere days before we begin a time of remembering that only God can give us what we need, we dive headlong into trying to buy happiness for ourselves and others. Mere hours after being grateful for our gifts, we nearly kill people to make sure the gifts we give others cost us as little as possible. Quite the opposite of loving thy neighbor without counting the cost!
Hate, So That You May Love
Whoever comes to me without hating… cannot be my disciple. I’m well aware that some people are more or less genuine in their desire to give gifts to other people. Still, Black Friday is not the way to serve that noble desire. Christ calls us to “hate” our families and even our own lives in order to be his disciple. While doesn’t mean to wish for their destruction, he does mean we should hate anything that motivates us to put something above God, even the desire to give gifts to the people we love.
Discipleship is not loving Jesus on the side or sprinkling prayers into a life that looks like everyone else’s. If your life doesn’t look different than non-believers, you’re doing something wrong. What is the Christian way of giving gifts? What is the Christian way of celebrating the season of Christmas, rather than the world’s?
Black Friday is not the only instance of materialism and consumerism, but it is perhaps the most poignant. Sitting nearly opposite Good Friday on the calendar, it is a stark contrast to the God-Become-Man who gave up everything to die naked as a criminal. Christmas, once it actually begins, truly is a time of joy, warmth, and comfort. Yet, it too lay under the shadow of the Cross. Jesus Christ was born Mary’s baby boy… he took on that tiny body precisely so that he could one day offer that body on the Cross. If you call yourself Christian, then your life – even as you rejoice in the Incarnation – should resemble as much as possible the Friday we call Good, not the one fittingly called Black.
[Public domain]