Our Dishonesty About Consumerism

There are few things I have less patience with than Christian dishonesty. This ought to be a contradiction in terms, but it's not. There are some things we have not come clean about. There are lies we tell ourselves that bleed over into lies we tell other people. Most of those lies, it seems to me, have to do with sex and money.

I'll save the discussion of sexuality for another post. Here are some of the lies I think we've told ourselves about money:

We are not wealthy. Bull. I live in an affluent community and I've discovered that, no matter how much people make, they don't consider themselves truly wealthy. That's a description always reserved for the guy that makes a thousand or a million more. This is almost more pronounced among Christians, because the teachings of Jesus are so critical of materialism. We simply don't want these teachings to apply to us. But if we are going to look at wealth in relative terms, let's be honest. Rather than the inevitable comparison between my estate and the millionaire's, how about I compare myself to the developing world? By this standard, my affluence is astounding. And my household is at the low end of households in this community. Which means, if I'm rich, we are all rich, and everything Jesus says about wealth and the standards of stewardship to which the wealthy are accountable applies directly to us.

We are not materialistic. Double Bull. I can't tell you how many times people have told me that it's not about how much money or stuff we have, but it is about our hearts. And I agree with this, in principle. But that doesn't mean I can embrace the same consumer mentality as the secular world and pretend I'm not being materialistic because I have a different attitude about it. As a matter of fact, if I pursue the same accumulation of wealth as the rest of my consumer society, the evidence all points to the probability that my attitude towards wealth is not significantly different from anyone else's.

If I have more, I'll be able to serve the Kingdom better. Right. That's why Jesus always went looking for the wealthy to make disciples. Because the Kingdom is so dependent on your personal and professional success. Granted, many of us are extremely generous with what we have, and someone is always trotting out the story about the guy who made millions but lived on $10,000 a year and gave all the rest away. Problem is, that isn't us. The Kingdom may indeed benefit from our financial successes, but for most of us, that won't happen until our homes have gotten bigger and our cars have gotten newer. In other words, we serve ourselves first, so let's not pretend our pursuit of materialistic goals is altruistic.

It's judgmental to assume that people are being materialistic. Ohh Pleeease! I can be honest enough with myself to acknowledge that I'm materialistic in my choice of a home, a car, a computer, and cell phone, and on and on and on. But I should assume there's no materialism involved in the choice to drive a Hummer, or buy a 7000 square foot home? That's rediculous! Of course it's materialism. But in defending the materialistic practices of others, we are really defending our own barely bridled materialism.

We are rampant consumers within a society where consumption is a value, having little to do with need. It has shaped the modern church, and the modern practice of Christianity. And the fact that we fit in so well in this setting is not an indication that our behavior is acceptable, but is rather a cause for shame.