Would Jesus Shop At Walmart?

In the midst of the chaos and frustration of my recent troubles with my computer and with Apple I guess I was in the mood for considering the evidence for an even more egregious business monolith... WalMart. I have always had a problem with WalMart and I have been inside a WalMart store on less than a dozen occasions in my life. One of those occasions was a few years ago on a trip from San Francisco to LA when I needed to pick up batteries in the middle of nowhere and the only place to shop was the behemoth. What I was struck by on that visit was the sense that it was truly a plantation. The people working for almost no wages and the people shopping in the store were the very same people. It was as plain as day that the people shopping there were simply sending the money they earned from WalMart, back into WalMart... because they weren't paid enough to shop anywhere else if they wanted to.

Well, last night I got home to find a movie rented by my housemate that details everything (or at least much) that is wrong with WalMart, from their use of child labor, to the way they underpay their workers and use tax payer money to subsidize their massive profit margin, to the way they simply show no concern for anyone or anything once they've snagged your cash. The film, WalMart-The High Cost of Low Price is an absolute must see for anyone who tries to maintain an excuse that WalMart is a good place to shop. It isn't, it can't be, and to shop there is simply immoral.

The Quakers have a concept that a person is not responsible for something if they don't know about it. However, to have the knowledge and to still act as if you did not have that knowledge then makes you guilty. The evidence against WalMart is out there. To see it for yourself it only requires ordering up the movie on Netflix, or dropping into your local video store (I doubt if you'll find the movie available at the local WalMart) and checking it out for yourself.

In light of this, I was surprised to get up this morning and check my email to find a link to a new campaign featuring a Baptist preacher from Kentucky asking the very poignant question, Would Jesus Shop At WalMart? The commercial is viewable here. After you see it... go get the WalMart movie and answer the question for yourself.

It's the holiday season... and justice begins right here.