The Advent Conspiracy

by Ian Doescher

When I was a kid, Christmas meant presents, and now as a parent I’m hoping that association isn’t being made for my own children. A couple of years ago, Jennifer and I learned about The Advent Conspiracy. If you haven’t heard of it, The Advent Conspiracy is a movement to encourage people to give money to relief and aid organizations in lieu of giving gifts. (The Advent Conspiracy itself doesn’t ask for or accept donations.) In other words, make a donation in someone’s honor rather than giving them that plastic Christmas tree they don’t want or need. The Advent Conspiracy’s web site (www.adventconspiracy.org) has excellent videos explaining what the project is all about. One of these says, “Everyone wants Christmas to be meaningful, but instead it turns into shop, shop, shop—credit cards, traffic jams, to-do lists, useless gifts. Then off to church. Sometimes we’re just glad to survive it. Did you know Americans spend $450 billion on Christmas every year? So we ask—how did Jesus celebrate? Jesus gave himself.” The video goes on to talk about the worldwide problem of lack of clean water, saying, “The estimated cost to make clean water available to everyone is $10 billion. $10 billion to solve world water, $450 billion spent on Christmas. Do you see what could happen?"

This year, we (meaning both my family and the St. Luke's church family) are trying to take more seriously than ever the goals and ideas of The Advent Conspiracy. Look for announcements soon about special Advent Conspiracy groups at St. Luke's. I also invite you to visit the web site and watch the videos for yourself, and think about your own giving this Christmas season. And may we all have a blessed Advent and Christmas season.