Not to mention, the premise of the film was not all that controversial.  It appears that some Christians felt that Jesus was too human and could not have resisted, equating Christ being tempted with Christ sinning.  The two are not the same thing.

Also, some of the greatest Christmas standards were written by Jewish composers:  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” composed by Johnny Marks, “White Christmas” composed by Irving Berlin and the awesome instrumental version of “Sleigh Ride” conducted by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra.  Finally, the tune for “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was composed by Felix Mendelssohn.

Do we want Christmas associated with the Gap? with commerce in general? When a business sends me a Christmas card, and a corporation wishes me a Merry Christmas, what does it really mean? I not sure it wouldn’t be a good example of taking the Lord’s name in vain. Wouldn’t it? Isn’t it?

This boycott is another example of the tortured, inward vision of so many Christian organizations: let’s do something to make ourselves feel better about us, and find an external scape-goat for our own failure to make our ideas and values convincing and attractive to society. It just reinforces the popular image of Christians being people who are against everything and opposed to everyone.

The Gap is not our biggest problem. Personally, I keep trying to boycott See’s Chocolates, but… well, the spirit is willing…

Gap is going to do what makes them more money, and AFA knows that.  This is fund raising.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Yeah, it’s a complicated thing. On one hand, it’s great that someone is making an effort out there and expending their own energy and resources with the intent to defend Christ. In a vacuum, that’s a noble thing. However, I think it’s along the lines of Christians getting ticked at unbelievers for acting like…well…unbelievers.

The Gap and it’s related companies are for-profit businesses and were not created with a Christian, evangelical end-game in mind. It’s like when large groups do the latest ban on the Disney parks, here in Florida. It’s kookoo talk. It doesn’t net anything for the kingdom of God, and folks from churches still go to the mouse house. It does, however, serve to harden sceptics of the faith from hearing about how Christ can turn them into a more loving individual – which of course, should be a part of sanctification.

To quote from a non-believer – Woody Allen – in one of his older movies, his character has subconsciously created an imaginary character to help him cope with his life and the deep, existential issues facing him. At one point, Woody tells his imaginary character that he feels like he isn’t doing anything meaningful with his life as a filmmaker and that maybe he should become a missionary or something (he actually says “missionary”). The imaginary character retorts with the following: “Ehhh…you’re not really the missionary type. You want to make the world a better place? Tell better jokes.”

What I glean from Woody here is that instead of attempting to do something grandiose like halt all profits for Gap via a para-faith organized ban during Christmas, to doing something relational like telling jokes to your co-worker and just being a genuine, caring person who is flawed but driven by the Holy Spirit to share the truth of Jesus with our neighbors, co-workers, etc. Whatsay we ban apathy and a lack of sharing our faith with those around us and then when we’ve accomplished that, we can talk about banning Walmart or maybe Red Bull…?

Why does it take a negative action to bring about our positive message about Jesus?  Heres another way – for example, Focus on the Family buying the lastest 3 D UltraSound machines and donating these to family planning centers as a way to reduce abortions.  If the mother sees the baby, she’s less likely to go ahead. Never thought I would be bragging on Focus on the Family, but they’re doing good work.

Sorry, but this report got me wound up.  Take this idea/thought to the end and:  We should only buy from people/companies who sign up to the apostles creed  – look out, turn off the cable tv because it also has porn on it.