{"id":101728,"date":"2017-12-27T16:41:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T23:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=101728"},"modified":"2017-12-27T16:41:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T23:41:11","slug":"praise-materialism-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/12\/praise-materialism-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Materialism at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Grey gnostic spirits pledge to me \u201cGood Thoughts\u201d<br>\nat Christmas. They piously denounce<br>\nmaterialism and what is bought,\u00a0<span class=\"text_exposed_show\"><br>\nsay, \u201cGifts and presents are not worth an ounce<br>\ncompared to the purity of spirit.\u201d<br>\nBut I say there\u2019s nothing specially fine<br>\nabout that. Satan is very near it,<br>\nbeing himself a spirit. No, I dine<br>\non delicious meats at Christmas, savor<br>\nsmell of tree and sights of light, sing bright songs,<br>\npresent presents honoring a Savior<br>\nreally present in flesh, and who belongs<br>\nto my family as surely as you.<br>\nSo let\u2019s eat and sing and give gifts! Woohoo!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grey gnostic spirits pledge to me \u201cGood Thoughts\u201d at Christmas. They piously denounce materialism and what is bought,\u00a0 say, \u201cGifts and presents are not worth an ounce compared to the purity of spirit.\u201d But I say there\u2019s nothing specially fine about that. Satan is very near it, being himself a spirit. No, I dine on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[270],"class_list":["post-101728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-exalted-felicitations-of-the-day"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>In Praise of Materialism at Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Grey gnostic spirits pledge to me &quot;Good Thoughts&quot; at Christmas. They piously denounce materialism and what is bought,\u00a0 say, &quot;Gifts and presents are not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/12\/praise-materialism-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Praise of Materialism at Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Grey gnostic spirits pledge to me &quot;Good Thoughts&quot; at Christmas. They piously denounce materialism and what is bought,\u00a0 say, &quot;Gifts and presents are not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/12\/praise-materialism-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-27T23:41:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/12\/praise-materialism-christmas.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/12\/praise-materialism-christmas.html\",\"name\":\"In Praise of Materialism at Christmas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-27T23:41:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-27T23:41:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"Grey gnostic spirits pledge to me \\\"Good Thoughts\\\" at Christmas. 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