People of faith are finally getting their act together and developing a consensus around global warming and other environmental concerns.  It’s no longer a radical-fringe idea that people, individually and collectively, have a moral duty to do all we can to stop destroying our environment.  With all the Earth Day talk going on this week, it might seem like the whole country is on board.  Which is a good thing, right?

But there’s a new twist:  what about when companies try to sell stuff by using Earth Day itself as a marketing tool?  Maybe you’re too sophisticated to fall for that, but what about when the pitch is aimed at preschoolers?

This is the concern behind a recent piece in the Huffington Post, “Marketing Earth Day (and Other Stuff) to Children,” by Susan Linn and Josh Golin of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.  (Sounds quixotic, doesn’t it?  I don’t mean to…

Image courtesy of the New York Daily News

I will admit a little sheepishly that although I dislike shopping I love receiving presents. Certain creature comforts can momentarily delight–a soft new sweater, a sip of really good bourbon, or an exquisite chocolate will all leave me swearing “I’m in heaven.” At moments I feel more like Madonna than the Madonna: a material girl living in a material world.

I know none of this makes me sound like a very religious person, but religion doesn’t always entail an outright rejection of worldly things. I fervently believe that God gave us bodies and a physical, tangible world in which to live for a reason, and that He wants us to experience and be grateful for their goodness. That being said, there is the truth of the phrase “too much of a good thing.” We have been living in a culture of excess for a…