TRUTH AND GRACE VENTURES

I don't want to suggest that anti-consumerism, in all its various forms, is the proper Christian response to contemporary American culture, but I find very interesting this defense of consumerism offered by Marxist Brendan O’Neill.  He praises consumerism as a useful vehicle for civilizing the world, while condemning it for not going "far enough in remaking the world in man's image." 

What today’s anti-capitalists loathe most is the consumer society, with its incessant advertising and wicked temptation to buy, buy, buy. On Buy Nothing Day, at the end of November, anti-capitalist protesters on London’s Oxford Street and elsewhere advised shoppers to detox from consumerism because everything we buy has an impact on our planet. Meanwhile, serious psychologists claim that consumerism makes us ill: it gives us affluenza, apparently. Geddit?

Marx loved the consumer society. Indeed, he described it as a civilising moment of capital. In the Grundrisse, he wrote: “In spite of all his pious speeches, (the capitalist) searches for means to spur (the workers) on to consumption, to give his wares new charms, to inspire them with new needs by constant chatter, etc. It is precisely this side of the relation of capital and labour which is an essential civilising moment.” It is striking that what a bearded communist described as civilising 150 years ago - the chatter and charms of consumerism - is now written off by anti-capitalists as dangerous and corrupting.

Of course Marx wanted to destroy capitalism because he thought it didn’t go far enough in remaking the world in man’s image and organising society according to human needs and desire. Today’s sorry excuses for Marxists and anti-capitalists think capitalism has gone too far in its development of the forces of production and encouragement of consumerism. I’m with Marx. Let’s replace capitalism with something even more dazzlingly cocky and human-centric. But let’s first deal with the Luddites, locavores and eco-feudalists who have given anti-capitalism a bad name.

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bill Moyers recently sat down with author and political theorist Benjamin Barber to discuss his belief that American capitalism threatens to destroy American democracy.  Barber develops this thesis in his book CONSUMED: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole.  The interview provides many launching points for constructive dialogue but, as a Christian, I am drawn to one in particular.

BENJAMIN BARBER:  . . . I was called on Black Friday by a lot of radio and TV stations.

BILL MOYERS: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving [when so many people go shopping].

BENJAMIN BARBER: “Tell us what's going on?  What’s wrong with American consumers?”  Which is kind of what you and I have been talking about.  But the trouble is we’re looking the wrong way.  It’s not what’s wrong with American consumers, it’s what’s wrong with American capitalism, American advertisers, American marketers?  We’re not asking for it.  It’s what I call push capitalism.  It’s supply side.  They’ve got to sell all this stuff, and they have to figure out how to get us to want it.  So they take adults and they infantilize them.  They dumb them down.  They get us to want things.

As a Christian, I agree that we ought to remain sensitively aware of the evil caused by social structures (economic, political, legal, etc.) as distinct from evil caused directly by individuals.  Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was instrumental in leading me toward this conclusion.  But I believe also that we would err grievously if we were to disregard the evil within each of us, as we devote more attention to addressing structural evil.  To the extent Benjamin Barber urges us to ignore our own corrupt nature, I believe he leads us astray, away from a comprehensive answer to the social ills he describes. 

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 09:34 AM | Permalink

You may have seen the television commercial recently:  Dad firmly tells the family that they can’t open their Best Buy gifts until they’ve visited Grandma, so they drive to Grandma’s house, but only to slow down the car and wave Merry Christmas before returning home to experience holiday joy, consumer electronics style.  Triggered by his concern with this advertisement, Jordan Ballor at the Acton Institute blog briefly explores the question of What’s Wrong with Christmas Consumerism.  (HT:  The Point)

I agree with Ballor that consumption itself isn’t the problem.  The ascetic, of course, will protest.  “Asceticism is a way of thinking that sees money and things as evil.  To the ascetic, the less you own, the more spiritual you are” (Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity, p.16).   As Alcorn says well, Paul’s declaration that “everything God created is good” (1 Timothy 4:4) is the “theological death knell for asceticism.  From a biblical perspective, everything is fair game to have and to enjoy, as long as we partake thankfully and prayerfully – unless, of course, what we partake in violates God’s Word” (Alcorn, pp.21-22).  John Schneider reaches a similar conclusion in The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth, after a wide-ranging examination of the biblical stories of creation, the exodus, the exile, the life and teachings of Christ, and the early church.  Schneider argues that God’s ordered vision for humankind includes, at its core, the “deliberate institution of material prosperity and flourishing as the proper condition for human beings in the world and before God.  . . . I call this condition ‘delight,’ and I believe it endures throughout the biblical story as the vision that God has for all human beings” (p.10).

If consumption itself isn’t the problem, what is? 

Continue reading "What’s Wrong with Christmas Consumerism?" »

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 07:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

From Chuck Colson's December 13, 2007, BreakPoint Commentary:

’Tis the season of consumption! At Christmastime, it is hard to escape the steady drumbeat of advertisements urging you to buy, buy, buy, buy. Not to mention the dreadful sense of guilt until you have covered everyone on your shopping list. But Christmas is also the perfect time to put the reins on over-rampant consumerism and buck the trend: Do it by creating something.

In his book, The Suburban Christian, author Al Hsu explains how Christians have condemned culture, avoided culture, critiqued culture, and copied culture. “Mostly,” he says, “we consume culture. But all of this is a far cry from God’s intent, that we fulfill the [creation or cultural] mandate and exercise our energies to create culture.” I could not agree more.

Read it all.

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 09:27 AM | Permalink

Today's Washington Post offers this story about retailers and less conventional outlets that allow consumers to rent, rather than buy, luxury items from "diamonds to exotic cars and vintage handbags."  You now have "affordable" access to "coveted brand names":  $4800 to rent a vintage Hermes crocodile Birkin bag for one month;  $203 to rent a Vera Wang diamond flower pendant for one week;  or $7,500 per year to gain regular access to a stable of classic automobiles in Manhattan.  As one luxury marketing executive observes, these options are "really more for the people who can't afford it but want to give the illusion of affording it." 

These new consumption options not only appeal to our vanity, they allow us to indulge at a lower cost.  And as you lower the price of something, Economics 101 tells us that demand increases.  Do we really need or want this type of encouragement?  

Read it all. 

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 08:12 AM | Permalink

Michelle Singletary had an interesting column this past Sunday (Too Rich To Be Poor-Mouthing?), if only because it presents the unthinking response many people will give when a person of wealth suggests they have money problems:  "I'll take those problems." 

Ms. Singletary recounts “a throw-down between the classes” that overtook an online chat she recently hosted. 

The fight -- er, discussion -- started when a participant with a household income of just over $200,000 had some budgeting concerns.

He wrote: "My wife and I both have 'good gub'ment' jobs. We both earn low six figures. We have just under half a million in TSP [Thrift Savings Plan, the retirement program for federal employees]. We have two kids in private school and one on the way."

Continue reading "Too Rich To Be Poor-Mouthing?" »

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 05:35 PM | Permalink

In this Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine, an American University communications professor tells of her students’ trials in dealing with a 24-hour technology fast.  One called the experience “grueling pain.”  Another said, “I was in shock.  . . .  I honestly did not think I could accomplish this task.  The 24 hours I spent in what seemed like complete isolation became known as one of the toughest days I have had to endure.” 

What do you think of these students’ observations?  Could you handle this assignment? 

Read it all.

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 03:52 PM | Permalink

Darrin McMahon writes:

Benjamin R. Barber, a professor at the University of Maryland, argues in his recent "Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole" that modern capitalism drives grown-ups "to retrieve the childish things the Bible told us to put away, and to enter the new world of electronic toys, games, and gadgets that constitute a modern digital playground for adults." Indulging our desire for gadgets, Barber warns, makes adults selfish, sad and infantile.

Barber is just the latest in a venerable line of worrywarts.  . . .

Political economist Adam Smith was wiser about such things than today's scolds and killjoys. A man of deep classical learning, he knew perfectly well that "frivolous objects" could never secure our happiness, which was above all a matter of the soul.  . . .  But he also knew that our longing for what he called "baubles" and "gewgaws," like our longing for power or riches, was a productive force that tapped deep into the wellsprings of human nature. It was natural, he thought, to aspire to such things, and natural for us to imagine that having them would bring us happiness and ease.

That belief, Smith fully acknowledged, was a "deception." He understood that humans innately overestimate the amount of pleasure that gewgaws and iPhones would bring. And yet he thought that the impulse to acquire them was precisely the force that "rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind," prompting us to build cities, invent and improve the arts and sciences, and change the "whole face of the globe." The key to all human progress, Smith knew, was the pursuit of happiness.

So pursue away. Of course, the iPhone won't make you truly happy -- at least not for long. But don't let that keep you from enjoying it. People were meant to play, and there is tremendous power in such pursuits. Smith probably would have chuckled indulgently at the iPhone lineups at AT&T. He may even have picked one up for himself.

McMahon argues that our "natural" desires for "frivolous objects" lead to "deception" and yet are "productive" and, by implication, good.  Hence, he urges us to indulge in that self-deception.  Are you inclined to follow that advice?

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 05:40 PM | Permalink

Last Thursday, the Servants Quarters community gathered to discuss 40 Days of Nothing, our walk together through this season of Lent.  In undertaking 40 Days of Nothing, we have entered a season of intense, deliberate reflection, self-denial and, hopefully, transformation.  We are striving to limit our consumption to the basic necessities, resisting the empty promises of the world that we can find well-being through indulging our endless wants and instead focusing on God’s promise that His grace is sufficient. 

The spirit of our discussion and the character of my new friends impressed me greatly.  Our discussion topic, revolving as it did around radical self-denial, is not particularly attractive on its face.  On the contrary, it seems to possess significant potential to generate feelings of depression and self-pity.  In my opinion, though, our time together could be best characterized as joyful.  Despite the nature of the material and its serious implications, the room was filled with laughter and joking and a sense of hope.  Perhaps some would suggest that it was nervous laughter, but I believe the atmosphere was born of a common sense of peace not unease.  These young leaders shared thoughts and stories evidencing not only a commitment to allow God to transform them, but a willingness to share that blessing with others.  I believe that was the immediate reason for the hope permeating our time together. 

What did we discuss?  Here’s a taste: 

We shared details of what we are denying ourselves and which disciplines we plan to undertake.  Each person’s commitment is unique.  I have my own habits and weaknesses.  You have yours.  Some in our group, for example, are inclined not so much to acquisitiveness as busyness.  For them, 40 Days of Nothing will involve not a decrease in consumption but a decrease in activity, a slowing of the pace, leaving stillness in which the soft voice of God may be heard.

We debated whether to share with others what we have undertaken during the season.  After all, Jesus taught that we are to care for our appearance when fasting “so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting” (Matthew 6:18).  He warned against praying like “the hypocrites [who] love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men” (v.5), and against letting our left hand know what our right hand is doing when giving to the needy (v.3).  Does this mean that we ought not share with others concerning our journey through Nothing?  Or does it mean only that we ought to check our motives for doing so?

We talked about what types of responses we might expect from others who learn about our radical (by contemporary American standards) commitment.  Some of our friends and loved ones have warmly welcomed the idea of trading needless consumption for spiritual transformation, and have decided to join the fun!  Praise God.  On the other hand, experience and the Scriptures indicate that, no matter how gently or innocently we share our story, some will react with anger and defensiveness.  People have called the Compactors “un-American” and “anti-capitalist”;  others have called them and the folks behind Buy Nothing Day a threat to the economy and the American way of life.  Add to that the reality that we are motivated by a desire to become more like Christ, and we can expect some people to hate us and our testimony without reason (John 15:18-25).  My hope and prayer is that we are able faithfully to follow the example of St. Paul, respectfully departing from those who sneer and turning instead to nurture those who are drawn to the truth (Acts 17:32-34).

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 05:12 PM | Permalink

When Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 21, the Servants Quarters community will embark on 40 Days of Nothing.  As described in the Book of Common Prayer,

The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting.  [Likewise, we are invited] in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.

The Litany of Penitence for Ash Wednesday calls on us to confess, among other things,

the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives, [o]ur self-indulgent appetites and ways, . . . our exploitation of other people, . . . our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, [o]ur intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, . . . our blindness to human need and suffering, . . . our indifference to injustice and cruelty, . . . our waste and pollution of [God’s] creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us . . . . 

Having confessed, we turn to the Lord, praying that He would restore us and accomplish in us the work of His salvation so that we may reflect His glory in the world.  This is why we will undertake 40 Days of Nothing, so that we may honor our Lord by deliberately and systematically identifying and removing obstacles that impede our relationship with Him. 

What will 40 Days of Nothing look like from a practical perspective?  Because the culture’s materialistic onslaught ensnares each of us in different ways, 40 Days of Nothing will look different in each of our lives.  But we will share the same motivation (described above), as well as a commitment to (1) limiting our acquisition and consumption to what we need rather than what we want, and (2) seeking to use the resources we save to the benefit of God’s Kingdom.  To see how one family recently implemented this concept, see 30 Days of Nothing.

When we gather next, on February 22, we will discuss the contours and specifics of our individual plans, lending each other a hand in discerning between needs and wants, and discussing what we might do, individually or collectively, with the resources we conserve.  In preparation for this session, it might be useful for you to spend some time reflecting on similar movements against consumerism such as the “Compactors” (see here and here), Adbusters and people inspired by Judith Levine’s book Not Buying It:  My Year Without Shopping. 

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 03:37 PM | Permalink

Keith Plummer offers an interesting perspective on the American evangelical “impulse to stamp a Scripture verse on every imaginable object.”

In large part we have an anemic doctrine of creation. Our conviction that God is the maker of heaven and earth should be evidenced in more ways than ongoing debates with evolutionists. Certainly, there’s a need for such apologetic activity but the doctrine of creation, like all biblical doctrines, is not given primarily for the purpose of our defending it but for our living it.

How do we live the doctrine of creation? By affirming along with God that his creation, though cursed on account of humanity’s rebellion, is still good and is given to us to richly enjoy with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4; 6:17). As Michael Wittmer says in his book, Heaven is a Place on Earth:

Because we know that this creation is the good gift of God, we are not only permitted but encouraged to enjoy it as is. Unlike those who think that worldly objects are somehow enhanced by stamping Scripture verses on them, Christians who understand the goodness of this world celebrate the freedom to enjoy God’s creation as is. We no longer need to sanitize secular items with our sanctified slogans to make them suitable for Christian consumption....In fact, our feeble attempts at baptizing creation tend to cheapen both it and the gospel (p. 66-67).

If believers really grasped this, many Christian businesses would go belly up and perhaps Christian “bookstores” would become bookstores again.

(HT:  JollyBlogger)

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 08:56 AM | Permalink