"Would you kill someone for a flat panel HDTV at half price?"

That was the lede sentence in a commentary in Our Sunday Visitor by Greg Erlandson. Headlined “Advent on the Precipice,” Erlandson recalls the “Black Friday” death of a Wal-Mart employee trampled by onrushing bargain-hunters and notes the importance of getting beyond the consumerist mentality of the season — especially at a time when the economy is in a freefall — and focusing on what’s at stake for us this month spiritually.

Also writing on the same theme was Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., in his diocesan newspaper, The Beacon. The headline on his column: “Advent: Black Friday Turned Inside Out.”