BRIAN NIXON, in an article published on ASSIST News Service, says it’s time for Christians to consider a change of mindset – from consumerism back to a celebration of the wonder and diversity of God’s creation…
Jemez, New Mexico, US
ASSIST News Service
The day after Thanksgiving – normally referred to as Black Friday – is a day some disdain while others delight in it. I’m of the first group, seeing the day an interruption of a beautiful American holiday.
President George Washington instituted Thanksgiving in 1789 following the Continental-Confederation Congress’s dictate to uphold “national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving”. Later, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it as a day of “Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens”. For the Christian, prayer, thankfulness, and the contemplation of God’s goodness should characterise the Thanksgiving holiday. Yet it appears that since 1952 – when the retailing businesses in the United States deemed the day after Thanksgiving as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season – that many Americans, Christians included, have turned contemplation into consumerism. And we’re not the better because of it; we’ve bought into what writer James KA Smith calls, “secular liturgies”.
CONTEMPLATIVE OR CONSUMERISTIC: Brian Nixon argues that it’s time for Christians to consider being “consumed with God’s creation” instead of rushing out to buy more. PICTURE: Christian Joudrey/Unsplash
“[M]any in the church have bought into consumerism by ‘Jesus-fieing’ it. The question I have is should we be concerned? I think so.”
Concerning these “secular liturgies”, author Peter Hickman writes in the Harvard Ichthus:
“Materialism – excessive concern with material possessions – is definitely common among people in the West. I prefer to use the word consumerism, but these phenomena are, if not identical, then at least closely related. In Christian philosopher James KA Smith’s book Desiring the Kingdom he describes “secular liturgies” – practices that shapes our desires. Here he explains why we should pay attention to them: “One of the reasons I’m describing cultural practices and institutions as secular liturgies is to raise the stakes: I want to give you a heightened awareness of the religious nature of many of the cultural institutions we inhabit that you might not otherwise think of as having anything to do with Christian discipleship. By religious, I mean that they are institutions that command our allegiance, that view for our passion, and that aim to capture our heart with a particular vision of the good life. They don’t want to just give us entertainment or an education; they want to make us into certain kinds of people.
“He [Smith] identifies the Mall in particular as one of these cultural liturgies, and tells us why it is harmful: “By our immersion in this liturgy of consumption, we are being trained to both overvalue and undervalue things: we’re being trained to invest them with a meaning and significance as objects of love and desire in which we place disproportionate hopes.
“Smith identifies marketing as the evangelism of consumerism, with the happy, beautiful, hip people on TV serving as consumerism’s icons, saints for us to mimic. And he says that the church’s response to the power of the consumerism has often been consumerist as well — as ‘Jesusfied’ parody of the mall.”
As you see, these are strong words written by Hickman and Smith. And they’re true: many in the church have bought into consumerism by ‘Jesus-fieing’ it. The question I have is should we be concerned? I think so. As Anabaptist author, Arthur Gish reminds us, “To be a Christian is to be subversive, or at least that is how he will be viewed by society. Since his loyalty is to one who is beyond history, he cannot give his ultimate allegiance to any government, business, class, or any other institution. His views cannot be expected to coincide with the majority view around him. He can be expected to be in continual conflict with the structures of society, for to be at peace with God means to be in conflict with the world.” Concerning the rash consumerism of people within the world – and presumably the church, Gish summarises the problem succinctly: “We buy things we do not need to impress people we do not like.”
Is a Christian being “subversive” when we give allegiance to businesses and institutions for the making of money – buying things we don’t need for people who don’t need the things – over and against the right ordering of our priorities to God through thanksgiving and prayer? It’s a question worth discussing. True, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
But how are we to interpret this teaching in light of the world’s emphasis on wealth? As recently noted in the American political campaigns, “the bottom half of the world adult population owned one per cent of global wealth”. Because of this, some retorted with a slogan “We are the 99 per cent,” showing that the majority of the people in the world are living below or at the poverty level.
According to the Global Issues website, “Almost half the world – over three billion people – live on less than $US2.50 a day. And more than 80 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening”. This shows that the distribution of wealth is weighed in favor of the rich, not towards the poor and needy. But how does this re-distribution of wealth align with the Biblical witness (see James 2 as an example)? It doesn’t stand up too well.
All this said, when I heard of the campaign, #OptOutside – first initiated by the retailer, REI – I thought to myself, “Now this is something I can ‘buy’ into.” Leave it to an outdoor retailer to encourage us to be outdoors. But more than a gimmick I found the campaign to hold great value. As I interpreted it within a Christian context: instead of being consumed with consumerism, I’ll be consumed with God’s creation, a type of prayer, partaking in God’s goodness through His creative order. And, apparently, 6,033,922 other people felt as I did.
For our part, our family headed to the Jemez Reservation to cut down a Christmas tree. Along the way, we stopped to eat Indian tacos, take in the beauty of the red rocks, and enjoy God’s creation with friends who joined us for the excursion into the Jemez Mountains. It was time well spent.
My prayer for next year is that more within the church will #OptOutside, letting God’s handiwork be our haven in the hectic holidays instead of the hurried lure to purchase and parade our consumerism. Let the two-graces of God (His gift of salvation in Christ and the gift of “common grace” that which is given to all in creation) be our guide in determining how to celebrate and contemplate the Thanksgiving weekend. And maybe one day ‘Black Friday’ (a phrase denoting credit and debt) will turn into ‘Rainbow Friday’, the day we celebrate God’s creation and diversity found on Earth by opting outside to experience the wonder of His world. Keeping it simple is beautiful.
To learn about a Christian organisation dedicated to making an impact through the environment, check out A Rocha – www.arocha.org/en/.
