Tired of Shallow Consumerianity

"Christian Spiritual Formation is really hammered out in the harsh realities of ordinary life—ear infections and broken arms and bosses filled with guile and stock market slumps and neighbors who deceive. Hence, these are the very places where our hardest study and most careful work in Spiritual Formation must go on."
(Richard Foster in his article on The Ooze).

And now, if you'll forgive me, a rant:

1. I'm tired of marketing for Christian products (books, worship CDs, conferences) that is dishonest and worldly and full of shallow promises that only fuel consumerist spending habits and offer false shortcuts to true worship and holiness.
2. I'm tired of worship albums that promise to lift me into the presence of God if I buy and listen to them.
3. I'm tired of Christian books that claim they'll transform my life.

I speak to myself as much as anyone - I'm a sucker for good packaging, but I'm tired of letting myself be manipulated by shallow consumerism sprinkled with holy water, which is what too much Christian marketing amounts to. For related thoughts, check out Richard White's blog.

Does anyone else ever feel like having a good clearout and just giving stuff away?

Comments

[Howard]

10/10!

It does seem especially prevalent in charismatic circles that books/CDs/events are advertised as if the Holy Spirit is contractually obliged to turn up and top the bill!

[Michelle]

Thank you! I have been hoping to hear another Christian say that for a long, long time now. I've been turned off of that since I was a kid and my folks tuned in to Oral Roberts and purchased his annointing oil for the price of a "donation". I was ten, and I thought something wasn't right...I just can't stand this whole Abundance Theology thing either. Can't believe that is how Jesus would have lived...

[mark]

Completely agree with your rant - evangelicals are very snooty about the stuff found around Catholic shrines, yet we're happy to buy into books that promise 'ten biblical steps for a satisfied life' - wonder if that's anything to do with the post-reformation affair with the printed text!

[Marie]

I'm with you on this one. Consumeristic Christianity has been a problem for me for a while now, but my question is - how do we get the message out? I wish our Christian culture were much more selfless, more mindful of the fact that what we already have was given to us by God, and that He expects us to do something with these resources other using them to amass even more 'stuff'.

And responding to a couple of the other commenters here, I don't believe that any specific denomination within the Christian faith is more susceptible to the consumeristic trap than the next. We're all human, we're all drawn to sparkling toys in bright new packaging, and we all have the urge to acquire what is not (yet) ours. As much as we want to speak out against it in others' lives we need to keep an eye on ourselves too.