Priest at Holy Cross Family Ministry
Priest at Holy Cross Family Ministry and Director of Family Theater Productions in Hollywood, California
PROFILE
Willy Raymond
Guest
FROM Willy Raymond
Which Way, L.A.?
The Commercialization of Christmas With Christmas less than a week away, a lot of people are thinking about the hype, the commercialization and the consequent loss of Christian meaning. There are campaigns afoot to discourage Christmas shopping altogether. In this week's New Yorker magazine, James Surowiecki suggests a kind of compromise: "We might actually be happier--and we'd certainly be wealthier--if we exchanged small, well-considered gifts rather than haunting the malls." Is it more about material expectations and competition than good fellowship or Christian love? If we bought nothing at Christmas would spirituality be restored? Is Christmas too commercial or not commercial enough? We hear several shades of a familiar argument.
Recommended
KCRW Features
How will the Santa Monica Mountains recover after the Woolsey Fire? The Woolsey Fire that scorched parts of LA and Ventura County was destructive to life and property. But the fire also left a scar on the ecology. We go on a hike with an ecologist.
The 805
A call to prepare for the next natural disaster A local environmentalist says we should spend more time and money preparing for natural disasters than responding to them. A Ventura resident who lost his home in the Thomas Fire says rebuilding is taking longer than he’d hoped. Local animal shelters are becoming critical evacuation centers. And California counties must now hold public meetings on their relationship with federal immigration agents.