Why Canceling Amazon May Be the Best Form of Penance for You!

Why Canceling Amazon May Be the Best Form of Penance for You!

Matthew Bellisario 2020 O.P.

"My daughter, for mankind this is a time for approaching; it is truly a time to go toward God. The heart of man has much love for materialism and little of love for God. The Lord calls upon man to make his own choice; He does not want the destruction of man, but the salvation of his soul. May the spirit allow the Spirit to act. Glory be to God. Preach it." Our Lady of San Nicholas, Argentina

There is a spiritual war going on now that is becoming very visible in our culture. What was once hidden is now out in the open. This is the case both in the Church and in the world. Virtually every western country is experiencing an unprecedented attack that seeks to destroy the foundation of Western Civilization which is Christianity. At the forefront of this de-Christianization are the largest corporations, banks, and those who own them. They are largely the ones responsible for causing the present upheaval. These atheist liberals want to erase anything that harkens back to our Christian roots. One of the companies at the head of this effort is Amazon, of which I have been a patron for many years. Being a book collector, Amazon has been one of the best websites to find good Catholic books. That being said, they are increasingly becoming hostile to Christianity and all things which go against the liberal modernist narrative. They are even now censoring books and other material that can be sold on their website favoring only those which support the open destruction of Western Christian civilization.

Shopping is one of many addictions one can have. I can easily end up on Amazon browsing through books for hours. Merely spending an hour on Amazon can easily deposit $100.00 worth of books into my cart or wishlist. While being an avid reader of Catholic books is a good thing, at this point I probably have more than I can read if I spent the rest of my days reading for a living. Sometimes I think I am building the next library of Alexandria for when all of the printed books are gone. I also am an avid lover of music and so I can easily spend $100.00 on Cds or vinyl records. Occasionally I buy clothing, household supplies, and food products on Amazon and I use my Prime membership to watch movies and listen to music. So what I am about to propose does not come easy. After 18 years with the exception of about a 6-month gap, when I attempted once to quit Amazon, I am not going to renew my Prime membership. I have resolved that I am going to find alternatives to Amazon, even if it means paying more, giving up streaming movies, and having to go to multiple websites to get what I need. Perhaps you will consider doing the same?

Reasons for Giving up Amazon.

1. Censorship: They are taking books off of their website that have been on there for years. Despite whether or not you agree with a particular author, there should not be ideological censorship of books that counter today's liberal and hateful narrative towards Christians. In fact, they allow every type of anti-Christian bigotry to be sold on their website but when an author publishes a book countering the liberal bias, their products get removed from the website without warning.

Read this article to see what they are doing to authors that they do not like. Again, you don't have to be a supporter of the author to defend their right to sell their material on Amazon, since it has claimed to offer books of all types of viewpoints since it began. Now, not so much.

2. They are Anti-Christian and pro-Communist: Amazon demonstrates how anti-Christian and pro-Communist it is by the movies and series they promote with their own name. Their movies are simply trash and are often anti-Christian and even racist. The new series title called "Cracka" should give you an idea of what kind of trash they are promoting now. Its pure evil. Beware that the video trailer is vulgar before you click on the link.

3. Support Small Catholic Companies: If you want to help Catholic publishers and other businesses stay afloat it is good to buy directly from them since they have a higher profit margin than through Amazon. I am sure that Catholic publishers would love if you bought directly from them instead of third-party sellers. Many of them even have free shipping.

4. Penance: All of us can do more penance. Our Lady has asked us repeatedly for us to do more penance. For those of us who love to shop this would be a great way to do disengage from serial shopping. How many of you have Amazon packages come to your doors on a weekly or almost daily basis?

5. Send a Message: If we can each encourage one other person to give up Amazon for just the next year depriving them of the $119.00 Prime membership we could do some serious damage and send them a message.

This post would not be complete without a recommended list of stores you can start out with as you make your shift from Amazon to the small businesses of the Internet. Many of these are book stores but I have also tried to include others as well. For example, I have included several monasteries who have food, bath, and other products. If you are going to shop you may as well support the religious. At least that is a good excuse! God bless you in your endeavor to eliminate Amazon and curb your attachment to shopping. (If you have any suggestions for stores put them in the comment box)