Made In China – Religious Hypocrisy (Squared)

I had a minor meltdown in a popular local craft store the other day. To be fair to myself, it wasn’t as much of a meltdown as it was a panic attack brought on by religious art.

I suppose some back-story is in order.

At Christmas Jenifer made one request: “Make something for me”. So, knowing the budget was tight, she asked me to try my hand at manufacturing rather than give me a laundry list of stuff to buy.

It’s almost laughable how UN-handy I am. I feel accomplished after putting a light switch cover on or flipping a circuit breaker back on. But I’m making an effort. I now know the difference between “standard” and “metric”. Go me.

Fortunately I remembered something I had read about being branded by the cross alone, and so decided to make crosses for everyone in the family. My friend Spanky helped me out some. I think they turned out well.

I even decided to keep making them, give some away, hang a few more on our wall, and maybe even sell a few. I’m making Spanky a partner in my new venture. He’s homeless and desperate for something to do. Making crosses seems like a good line of work for him.

I had a new hobby, as it seems I enjoy woodworking. But I needed a few supplies for my latest piece of “art”.

I have been noticing how hard it is to find American made products. Everywhere I look I find stickers saying “Made in China”. I don’t even mind – they need jobs so they can provide for their families, just as we do.

I’m not even commenting on materialism or greed – or our excessive spending habits, that’s a whole different blog.

My problem is that as a country we’ve passed a series of laws to protect our workers from unjust treatment. People who work hard should be treated fairly – well, as long as they’re American workers.

Everything in this store was made by people who suffer terrible oppression. Just so we can enjoy pretty knic-knacks. What happened to America that stands up to protect those being oppressed? Now we’re America the knic -knack collectors.

That makes me feel pretty bad about all my pretty knic-knacks. But that’s anti-American; soon to lead to Wal*Mart bashing and the collapse of Western Civilization as we know it. It’s also political, and could step on toes. Let’s not go there. Back to my primary point:

We buy religious art – art that says “I Love Jesus More Than Life” from people who DIE FOR THEIR FAITH.

I’ll let that settle in.