Over the centuries, Christians have fasted for many reasons. Sometimes the reasons have been good. The apostles and their churches fasted and prayed before selecting elders or ordaining missionaries. Christians have fasted in mourning for their sins. They have fasted and prayed to combat demons and to plead with God for relief from disaster.

Often, of course, they have fasted for bad reasons. They fasted because they believed flesh was evil, because they felt desperately guilty and forgot God’s love in sending his Son to cleanse their sins, because they wanted God to notice how wonderfully pious they were.

In spite of errors and abuses, Christians in the past had sound intuitions about the centrality of fasting in the Christian life. In the early Church, fasting was not an isolated practice reserved for a day or a season. It was a clue to all Christian living, a perspective on the whole of discipleship. To be a Christian meant to participate in a great feast. It meant also to observe a great fast.

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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.

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. 

Please allow us the pleasure of introducing the 2008 Class of Truth and Grace Ventures’ Servants Quarters program.  We hope that these very brief introductions help lead to the creation of many more meaningful and mutually edifying relationships down the road.   

Nar, a graduate of Amherst College and the fourth of five children from Cambodian-Chinese immigrant parents, presently serves with energy and passion as the Local Outreach Coordinator of The Falls Church.   

A native of Falls Church, Nefret just graduated in May ‘07 from William and Mary and then faithfully followed a call to serve the children of Southeast DC as a AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer. 

Pursuing her lifelong dream to be a teacher, Kim moved from Michigan to Northern Virginia this year, only to learn that God had a different plan.  She now joyfully serves as the Middle School Youth Director at Vienna Presbyterian Church. 

After two years of teaching third grade in Herndon, Virginia, Emily made the move to live in intentional Christian community with two friends in a Spanish-speaking immigrant neighborhood in Arlandria.  By day, Emily is the program assistant at an after-school learning center in South Arlington.

Jamilia joins us as she nears the end of her second year serving, tirelessly and ably, as the Executive Director of Southeast DC Partners, a suburban and urban partnership aimed at bringing reconciliation and renewal to the children and families of Southeast DC.

Carlous, teaming with the Coalition for Christian Outreach, Tom Skinner Campus Ministries and the Skinner Leadership Institute, uniquely offers the Howard University student community a range of opportunities for serious discipleship, leadership development, community service, racial reconciliation and evangelism. 

Nick, the son of two former pastors in the United Church of Christ and a philosophy graduate of Grove City College, joins us in our first attempt to extend the Servants Quarters program beyond its traditional boundaries.  In particular, while he is a dedicated servant in his church and among his neighbors, Nick works for a for-profit firm rather than a non-profit Christian ministry, and thus is ineligible for Servants Quarters monetary assistance.   

Photo caption:  Back row:  Nar, Nefret, Kim, Emily and Jamilia.  Seated:  Christine and Ramsey, with Carlous on the left and Nick on the right

Hundreds of ministers in the Washington region will face packed churches tonight when they preach one of their most important, and challenging, sermons of the year as Christians gather to celebrate Christmas.

With high-flown rhetoric or plain-spoken bluntness, brevity or long-winded oratory, ministers will try to make the centuries-old story of the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ relevant to today’s worshipers.

It’s not easy, ministers say.

I wonder whether some of these ministers, perhaps caught up in the pressure of the moment, are trusting too much in their God-given intelligence, humor, cleverness or oratorical skills?  I wonder whether they might find preaching on Christmas Eve less of a struggle if they looked to Saint Paul as an example? 

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). 

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? 

’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.

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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?  

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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."

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

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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?

Click here to see a three-minute clip from a sermon by John Piper, in which he shares the truth about the prosperity gospel.

HT: Desiring God

Seeing the overwhelming poverty, and bare feet, of children while on a trip to Argentina prompted Blake to start a shoe company based on the principle of conscious, or intentional, consumerism -- the concept of thinking through the implications of what you buy. TOMS motto is: buy a pair -- give a pair. For every pair of shoes purchased, the company gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. The shoes, made in Argentina (fair trade!) are comfortable, stylish, affordable, and -- for people like me who suffer greatly from the “ism” of consumer-ism -- a great way to help a child in need and get a cute pair of shoes in return!  [L]ast year Blake and TOMS distributed 10,000 pair of shoes to children in Argentina. This year's goal? Fifty thousand pair to children in Africa.

Through implementation of this simple idea – buy a pair, give a pair – Mycoskie is raising the moral awareness, and enlisting the charitable assistance of, wealthy Americans; providing fair-trade employment to Argentinean workers; and badly needed footwear to poor children in Argentina and Africa.  Amazing.

Last Thursday, Truth and Grace Ventures hosted what was, to our knowledge, the first Pigfest held in Northern Virginia during this century.  What is a Pigfest, you ask?  A Pigfest is a gathering of people around one table for sharing of great food and thoughtful, intentional, moderated conversation about important issues of the day.  The content of our conversation, consistent with Pigfest tradition, was determined by our guests.  Each attendee came prepared to advance and outline a defense for one truth proposition falling within the area of religion, history, government, economics, philosophy or popular culture.  The discussion of each proposition was limited to 15 minutes.

Our group was comprised of 15 dedicated followers of Jesus Christ.  Our collective purpose was to stretch our understanding and practice of discipleship.  Too commonly, we Christians are careless and casual about recognizing how biblical truth is integrated with all of life.  While we may strive to lead lives marked by Christian ethics, spirituality and practice, too often we fail to think christianly.  If we do manage to think christianly, too often such an approach is applied to an artificially narrow set of subjects or concerns.  The goal of our first Pigfest, accordingly, was to gather Christians to explore truth and to practice thinking christianly about a variety of topics.

Most importantly, our table that evening was blessed with a wonderful collection of traditional Lebanese dishes.  Thank you, Christine, for feeding us!  And thank you, Ryan and Jessica, for opening your home to so many people.