Count Four

A Markedly Less Pleasant Piece Of Mail

I love this quote from a Slate article about why Easter has never quite caught on with marketers of presents quite like Christmas has. In comparing the two:

Despite the awesome theological implications (Christians believe that the infant lying in the manger is the son of God), the Christmas story is easily reduced to pablum. How pleasant it is in mid-December to open a Christmas card with a pretty picture of Mary and Joseph gazing beatifically at their son, with the shepherds and the angels beaming in delight. The Christmas story, with its friendly resonances of marriage, family, babies, animals, angels, and—thanks to the wise men—gifts, is eminently marketable to popular culture. It’s a Thomas Kinkade painting come to life.

On the other hand, a card bearing the image of a near-naked man being stripped, beaten, tortured, and nailed through his hands and feet onto a wooden crucifix is a markedly less pleasant piece of mail.

The other comparisons of the crucifiction to Abe Ghraib are completely over the top, but aside from that the article itself is a pretty good examination of why it’s not the gift-giving holiday it might be if Madison Avenue had its way.