The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani has been one of the most intriguing books I’ve read this year. His thoughts on consumer Christianity are well crafted, and I love the way he weaves in van Gogh’s life and artwork (I can’t wait to act like a complete art snob in front friends now with my recent ‘education’).
Jethani hits hard at how consumerism is the dominant worldview in North America and how it’s infiltrated the church. Religious merchandise is a $7 billion dollar annual industry and he goes as far as saying “shopping occupies a role in society that once belonged only to religion – the power to give meaning and construct identity.”
I was a bit surprised that he named names as he critiqued church growth / branding / marketing, but he also humbly includes his own struggle and journey with a consumer mindset. The heart of it being the outsourcing of our imagination, “Image saturated culture means that the imagination isn’t required the way it once was… we ingest ready-made images like junk food”.
The most affirming and convicting idea Jethani suggests is the abandoning of bigger-is-better strategies and outcomes. This is affirming because I know it’s true, I see it in the life of Jesus, and I know that it was “the Lord that added to their numbers” in the early church. This is convicting because I’m guilty of having a consumer mindset all the time. Something in me still wants the spectacular and the jaw-dropping turnouts, but maybe when it overshadows the simple seeds of silence, prayer, love, friendship, fasting, and hospitality, we’ve veered off the wrong way.
Where do you see consumerism shaping your life and the church?
Why do we do this to ourselves? Who says we need a home that large or that fine?
I just recently realized that Bono closes off the song “beautiful day” with the statement “what you don’t have you don’t need it now”… which I flesh out as – the things you don’t already have today, you probably don’t need tomorrow. What would it look like to live with that type of freedom?
Sometimes I flip through catalogs or take another pass around a store, with no other intention than seeing what else I don’t have, that I might be able to purchase.
What is going on with the world when six-percent of it’s population, consumes half of it’s resources?
There’s even a site called allconsuming.net that allows you to list out all the books, entertainment, and restaurants you’ve consumed like a trophy case.
Fulfilling perceived needs costs so much more than meeting actual needs. Why do we do it?
Our enslavement goes beyond material consumption as well. I’m wrapping up a book by Marva Dawn right now, “Is it a lost cause”, and she quotes what Neil Postman calls Low Information-Action Ratio (l.i.a.r. is the cheesy acronym they use). The point is that more than ever we spend time consuming information that we can’t/don’t do anything about.
We’re a generation enslaved – to products, to comfort, to amusement, to information.
And somewhere in all of this, Jesus has something to say.
Go to this site to check out this viral video on “The Story of Stuff“. It’s about 20 minutes long but communicates the key messages of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal with brilliant simplicity.
Below is one of my favorite segments of the video,
I’d love to hear what you are or or plan on doing about it all…
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.)
Some thoughts I jotted down while cross-boarder shopping and waiting in the dreaded cheesecake factory lines.
like rats in a cage or mice in a maze wherever the sales sign lead I go where they say to go joyfully letting this wallet bleed
what a steal we beat the system, got a better deal got something shiny, something new by trading in the old who knew it was actually my soul they stole
worthy cost savings, or a life worth living, I’m not sure, which one, we want more
here we are in line at the cheesecake factory waiting for this darn box to beep watching others go in before us, patiently filing in to eat and pay excessively
this is life, life in the mall, they’re all busy buying stuff, yet I too, am one of them and i just can’t wait, till it’s my turn to go in.
Update: Check out this Black Friday shopping video
The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani has been one of the most intriguing books I’ve read this year. His thoughts on consumer Christianity are well crafted, and I love the way he weaves in van Gogh’s life and artwork (I can’t wait to act like a complete art snob in front friends now with my recent ‘education’).
