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Christianity and Consumption

Christianity and Consumption

Ethics Ethics

by  |  on May 22nd, 2012  |  1 comment
Jesus was a homeless person, as were his 12 disciples who attended the Last Supper in somebody else’s house.  The history of Christianity is speckled with stories of heroes like Saint Francis of Assisi who lived lives of material poverty combined with rich service to others.  Tune to the present, and Texas has produced yet another Christian leader whose teachings echo the “greed is good” mantra featured on Wall Street.  He’s Houston-based Joel Osteen, the most successful of current “gospel of prosperity” ministers with 200 million parishioners worldwide.  Rev. Osteen assures massive audiences that “God wants to increase you financially, by giving you promotions, fresh ideas, and creativity.”  (Osteen, “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential“, p. 5).   The ancient suspicion that there is a conflict between dedication to getting rich and godliness has disappeared in Rev. Osteen’s world, and Christianity is reshaped to favor generous consumption and comfort as God’s plan for the believer.
There is some pushback.  Newsweek magazine’s April 2, 2012 cover story  by Andrew Sullivan is titled “The Forgotten Jesus: Christianity Has Been Destroyed by Politics, Priests, and Get-Rich Evangelists.”  A new book, “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” details Christian swerves from Jesus’s teachings and asks us to remember and return to old-time values.  The author, Ross Douthat, titles one chapter “Pray and Grow Rich” and describes the linkage of American religion to needs and values of entrepreneurial capitalism.  Prayer – “Ask and ye shall receive” – becomes a mechanism to increase the chances that Rev. Osteen’s God will shower material benefits on the supplicant.
The wild disconnect between Jesus’s “lilies of the field” advice to limit material possessions and current prosperity theology telegraphs that religion is a weak tool for persuading people to be nice to the planet.  I see the mass appeal of a Rev. Osteen preaching the godliness of material abundance; it’s more difficult to imagine Osteen-size crowds following someone who preaches about protecting natural systems and all God’s creatures.  If you find her, tell us where and how to join up.
 
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  1. Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter Friday - 25 / 05 / 2012
    Eye of a Needle These ancient words are often quoted from the Gospel of Matthew in response to people of faith who seek wealth as their reward for piety, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (MT 19:23-24) To me they say less about consumption than they might but implicitly they are more a warning about the trappings of wealth than the accumulation of it. The rich man in this case or the camel is the one who is burdened by his wealth. The world proves many who grow their own riches put them to good use. But the warning here is that with the burden, or for our purposes, the addictions that follow devotion to consumptive habits, are far more troubling to the spirit than the wealth the rich man has. Jesus often warned about wealth but more often than not it was the attachment to it, the incessant worry and protecting of it, that ate at the soul. To be free, or to be in heaven, might be to let go of the desires that come with being convinced consumption is the answer. So in this way we might say, ‘the one with consumptivitis has as much chance of getting into heaven as a camel going through the eye of a needle.’

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