Has the anti-consumerist message always been this strong in the church? December 26, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri , trackback
We spent Christmas in Elizabeth’s home town in rural Missouri. Whenever we’re down here, I always make sure to listen to the Bott Radio Network in the car. It’s one of the most conservative, and most interesting Christian networks in the country. One of their driving purposes is theological correctness. A lot of time is devoted to dissecting heresies that various syndicated hosts see gaining traction in the Christian world. To an outsider, it can sound like splitting hairs. But, again, this gets back to my point about evangelical culture being highly intellectual. The equivalent, on the left would be Air America spending hours a day splitting hairs over the history and mechanics of Capitalism—which is unimaginable.
Anyway, here’s a question for lifelong Christians who are reading:
This week Bott Radio has spent a lot of time pushing the same anti-consumerist Christmas message as the quasi-progressive evangelicals who are doing Advent Conspiracy. For example, just now they had a message from Michael Youssef, pastor of an evangelical mega-church in Atlanta. He explained the importance of training children in how to practice a Christian Christmas from a young age: “teach them Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, not theirs—and so the presents should go to Jesus, the poor.”
I have been a little surprised to hear so much of this on Bott. So, those of you who grew up in very conservative churches, can you tell us if this message of giving to the poor and resisting the Christmas consumerist obsession was there all along, or has something changed recently?
Comments»
I’m 26 and as long as I can remember I’ve heard the message in church to focus on the “true meaning of Christmas.” In my circles, most parents didn’t even try to trick their kids into believing in Santa Claus. The emphasis on giving to the poor instead of to each other might be new, but resisting greed and focusing on the birth of Jesus is standard operating procedure.
Zack, this has been true in my study and experience as well. At the same time, growing up in evangelical circles in the 1980s and 1990s, I witnessed the rise of Jesus-flavored consumerism driven by the booming religious media industry. Just recently the buying power of evangelicals broke into mainstream news after the record-breaking reception of Mel Gibson’s ode to crucifixion.
Where I grew up, two messages were competing for evangelical hearts and minds: 1) it’s good to buy lots of religious stuff for yourself and other people, and 2) it’s better to give than to receive.
Well … considering Christianity is about 2,000 years old …
Is your question “[has this message of] resisting the Christmas consumerist obsession [been there all along?]” directed at the past 10, 50, 100 or exactly what span of years, Zack?
Not sure the church had the NEED to resist consumerist obsession in the first several hundred years of its existence. Possibly a post-industrial (1880’s), or even post-baby-boom (1950’s) trend. Analyzing things back a bit further seems to allow the question to answer itself.
Jerome
Jerome — Good point, but I guess I mean just during this recent period of supposedly conservative Christianity. I’m just asking about people’s experiences in their lifetimes.
Dan & Tim — Thanks for chiming in!
I would have to agree with the consensus here. Ive been in the church all my life and would have to say that maybe the message of the conservative voice isnt SO much anti-consumerism as much as it’s, were missing the point of Christmas if were only happy with what’s under the tree.
I can remember every year a sermon or two that the true meaning of Christmas is Jesus and His gift to us (or something along those lines). More recently I think its become a message of anti-consumerism. I have yet to hear of a sermon that goes far enough to say that we should just scrap the idea and give to the poor. I hate to say it but I LOVE that idea.
So to sum up, I think its not JUST an anti-consumeristic message that has been coming out of conservative christian circles about Christmas, but more of a message of we need to refine what Christmas is about….Jesus’ birth and how important it is.
Zach, thanks for the blog, its always opening new ideas for me!
http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/
This kind of boils down what I grew up with… Honestly not a bad thing. Did a minimalist christmas this year, and it was the best thing ever.
-M
I would agree with most of the comments here. I have been involved with a number of churches for example who actually plan missions trips over the Christmas holiday’s to serve the poor in both the United States and around the world.
Still, the church is not immune to the consumerist mentality. It has to constantly be fought. I am sometimes amazed at how uncritical my brothers and sisters are at how much of the “health/wealth” nonsense they have imbibed. Let’s face it. We, believers and unbelievers alike, have been pickled in a culture of consumerism, And the reason Jesus taught what he did in passages like Luke 12:15-34 and Matthew 6:25-34 is that this drive for more possessions is universal in all times. You don’t teach about what is not a problem. You address the things that are.
I think what is new is that some who had no “ears to hear” are suddenly beginning to hear. For me, that is a divine action. God is calling his people and giving them the ears and heart to desire what many have preached for centuries.
Zack,
I think something very different is going on - something that your blog is capturing well.
I think it’s important to reflect on philosophical assumptions in order to understand what’s going on with evangelicals right now. In my journeys in the evangelical world, it’s frameworks and perspectives have been primarily influenced by Platonic ideals (imaginging the true goals of life apart from present physical realities), and nibbling on the edges of a Gnostic rejection of the importance of material realities (it’s what goes on in heaven that really matters and I’ve got the formula to get you access to these spiritual realities).
Based on this I interpret much of the past emphasis of focusing on the reason for the season as not so much a rejection of consumerism, but an emphasis on the spiritual ideal of the season. When we have said Jesus is the reason for the season we have sought to de-emphasize the consumer realities only in so much as they would distract us from the spiritual realities. It is a rejection of a materialism but on a different plane than what I’ve heard here so far.
What I see going on right now is something different. In some ways it is a new kind of materialistic evangelicalism, that rejects the over spiritualization of things and embraces the weightiness of our current physical and material conditions and realities. It is a rediscovery of the Kingdom of God and social justic issues.
When the Advent Conspiracy folk say resist the empire, don’t buy anything this Christmas, they are saying something very different than, “Don’t let consumerism distract you from the spiritual truth of the season.” He is saying that we not only need to avoid distraction, we need to stand over and against consumerism as something contradictory to the way of Jesus.
This has always been part of the evangelical world, but in my experience has been more of a subversive underground when it comes to local church ministry. See Ron Sider, World Vision, and John Perkins. I’m glad to see it moving more into the mainstream.
Keep on following the bread crumbs on this blog and I think you’ll continue to discover fresh expressions of the Kingdom in evangelical circles.
Along with this I think you will also find a counter movement, a vigilante like re-assertion of modernist perspectives that are woven deeply in the fabric of American evangelicalism. See what’s going on with the Emergent folk these days. When you resist the empire the empire has a tendency to get cranky.
Peace
Great question. I grew up in a very conservative (theological and political) church in rural West Virginia with again, a strong focus on “the true meaning of Christmas”–which usually translated into character studies of the wise men, Mary, Joseph, etc. and how they handled the birth of Jesus. It was rarely associated with the political ramifications, the hope for the poor that comes out in the Gospels. It wasn’t until I was about 22 or 23 that the idea of consumerism actually meant something to my faith.
This seems like old news to me. There is a long tradition in evangelical Christianity of separation from society that explicitly cites the effects of worldly things on Christians.
CG - That’s a fascinating perspective. What are some examples of the “vigilante re-assertion of modernism”? When you say look at the emergents, do you mean that its something going on inside the emergent church movement?
Soren - Sure, its old news in a way. That’s what I was hoping to highlight with some answers to my question by people who’ve grown up in the church. But something new seems to be happening too—That these tendencies are getting bigger, more mainstream? Or maybe also that they’re getting deeper and more thought-out?
I heard it in protestant churches as a child. I never understood it as anti-consumerism but strict religious purity: a way to evangelize within the congregation, similar to offering alternatives to Halloween.