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I'm not anti-consumerism. I love shopping!!
And with a capital 'L'. Trainers and tunes, that's my thing;
it's a passion! It's a leisure activity, it's a way to relax,
it's a form of entertainment, it's a bonding ground with friends.
I'm into popular culture - music, fashion, art, film - so for
me, the shop window really is a window into the world.
It's goes without saying that we are
living in a consumer culture. 70 years ago, Henry Ford, creator
of the 'Model T', the first mass-produced car, claimed 'Work
is the salvation of the human race'. In other words, a person's
intrinsic value as he understood it, their identity, their sense
of worth and purpose, came from the ability to work and to make.
Today however, society has moved on from a production to a consumption
emphasis. We've all been fed the marketing hype and we all know
that well being is now closely linked to what we buy, and how
much of it we can get. If it wasn't the advertisers wouldn't
sell in the way that they do. In a sense, the un-stated cultural
promise is that the more we can purchase, the more 'saved' we
will be. Image, group identity, significance and social togetherness
are now all negotiated through consumer decisions, in an ever-evolving,
ever-diversifying market of choice.
We're consumers by nature, and I'm not just talking about manufactured
goods. In a wider sense, we are consumers of life, consumers
of education, good health, entertainment, experiences, friendships,
and even church. This is not a moral judgement, it is merely
social observation. I personally believe that culture is amoral,
that is neither intrinsically good nor bad, but any element
of culture can be redeemed by God or subverted by evil. Ultimately
a consumer-led society is no better or worse than the production-led
society from which it evolved. However, perhaps it is time for
the church to stop settling for a surface skimming response
like 'Consumerism is awful, but hey it's everywhere, and it
isn't about to go anywhere, so what am I going to do about it?'
Rather to really engage and shift to a response more like this:
'Maybe consumerism isn't inherently evil, but just has elements
that need to be redeemed, and hey, maybe I can be part of that
solution!'
It's been said that the shopping mall is the 21st century church.
And it's true. A few years back, when the Trafford Centre in
Manchester went up, a kind of architect's temple shaped retail
outlet village, I remember the Christian murmurs about the city
building 'an altar to the God of materialism' or a 'shrine to
consumerism'. But, I didn't feel particularly convicted when
I was doing a spot of Christmas shopping there a couple of months
ago. Perhaps the reality is that the root of consumerism isn't
to be found there at all. Supposing it's a lot closer to home.
We can look at society and point a finger but we are society.
The root of consumerism therefore, is in us, it's the 'I' drive,
the self to which we're all dying. Whilst we could condemn the
richest man in the world for saying that what would make him
really happy would be 'just a little bit more', actually if
we're honest, a little of that sentiment lies in all of us.
It's not wrong to consume. God created us this way. Energy in,
energy out. We're made in his image. Really when we talk about
consumption, it is only excess that is wrong. Excess is a Godly
designed, corrupted and tainted by sin. I'm not saying we should
all be poor. It's easy to look at others and self-righteously
delude ourselves that we are less materialistic in our priorities,
because we have less, yet we can be full of envy. Consumerism
is 99% an attitude. And God is looking at the heart. Will we
be people who are free, or does the material rule us? There's
a challenge here for us all. If you have a little are you content?
If someone gave you a lot more, would you remain content with
what you already had, could you pass it on, or would you jump
at the chance of bettering your own standard of living? If you
have plenty are you being generous and a good steward? If God
took it all away tomorrow, would you okay with that? Finances
are always a massive challenge, and there's no easy answers.
How can we be in the world but not of the world in the area
of consumerism? In Mark 12 Jesus sets the standard; to love
God and love others with all your heart. The ultimate questions
then, are not how much do I have/give/envy … but how much
do I love? The more we are loving God and loving others, the
more this will naturally over-flow into every area of our life,
including this one.
It's so exciting to be working with movements like Fusion &
24-7Prayer, to be part of a generation of young people who are
passionately seeking God, praying for revival and ready to lay
down their lives to see God touch this nation. And yet, when
I open my Bible and come to passages such as Isaiah 58, I wonder
are we still missing a vital link.
'Day after day they seek me out, they
seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right.
They ask me for just decisions, and seem eager for God to
draw near.
'Why have we fasted' they say, 'and you have not seen it'?
'Why have we humbled ourselves and prayed, and you have not
noticed'?
You do as you please and exploit your workers... You cannot
fast as you do today and expect to be heard on high.'
The prophet holds back no punches here.
There's no mincing of words. And I can't think of a culture
that this could apply to more. When I consider the child labour
paid 7p an hour to make my £80 trainers, the 20 hour
shifts without break for women in sweatshops sewing labels
onto my designer clothes or the slave children thrown off
ships and drowned after picking cocoa for my chocolate bar,
I am left with no defence.
For so long, the church has remained relatively quiet on such
issues, but God is explicitly vocal. Fight the cause of justice.
Don't exploit the poor. Then I will bless your nation. This
is not so exercise in guilt-tripping and neither is it designed
to overwhelm. We can't solve all the global socio-economic
problems of the world tomorrow. But we can all be consumers
with a conscience, we can pray, we can show awareness of the
issues and make others aware. I believe one day we'll stand
before God and give account for how we've lived our lives,
we'll be answerable before our maker for what we did or did
not do.
Albert Einstein once said 'The world is too dangerous a
place to live in - not because of the people who do evil but
because of the people who sit by and let it happen' And
when I look back in history I wonder how the church has been
so ignorant to human suffering through the ages. Why did the
German church stand back and allow the holocaust? Why did
centuries of practising Christians in our nation work in the
slave trade? How could generations of Bible-belt Americans
claim to love God whilst condoning racism and even practise
segregation within their churches? Let's not settle for being
the generation who whole-heartedly loved God but settled comfortably
in our apathy, and remained ignorant in the face of mass exploitation
across the world.
'To me, faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned to social
injustice - that is not aligned to the poor - it's nothing.'
(Bono)
Anna Beaumont works for the Frontline
Church in Liverpool
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