 |
What if someone was held accountable
for Jesus' death?
F.I.S.H. receives a boost from a
variety of sources
Worshiping
two gods:
Jesus and the
almighty buck |
Pastors fear consumerism will draw people away from God and toward a life
filled with inconsequential stuff |
By Christie Scotty, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
Email Christie at cscotty@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Delivering his Sunday sermon, Father George Hemingway wears his old, dark
pair of Florsheim shoes.
He bought them in 1965, and has since had them resoled and re-heeled
countless times. Over their 38-year life they have been spit-shined and have had the
polish stripped off every 10 years to start fresh.
“They are probably the most comfortable shoes I own,” said
Hemingway, the pastor of St. Michael’s/San Miguel Episcopal Church. “I wear them
on Sundays.”
Hemingway says he’s not sentimental about his possessions.
But not only are newer shoes of cheaper quality and higher fashion
unnecessary, he believes, they are inconsistent with his understanding of the Christian
mission.
Hemingway is not alone in being bothered by what he says is the greatest
threat to Christianity — consumerism.
In other words, people have turned their worshiping focus from the church to
the mall.
Every day American consumers spend billions of dollars. And Christians are
far from immune to buying the latest items, despite biblical verses and themes that
Christians shouldn’t look to material possessions for happiness.
Pastor Colin Saxton of North Valley Friends Church says while
temptation toward possessions is an age-old struggle, it’s increasingly easy to get
caught up in consumerism when living in a modern America.
“We have so many (purchasing) choices nowadays and we live in an
immensely affluent society,” Saxton said.
Balance in buying, Saxton said, is an easy idea to agree with, but a harder
one to practice. That’s why some say the key is intentionality. Thinking about every
material item and what it contributes.
Hemingway has been intentional about needs and wants since living in
Ensenada, Mexico, in the mid-1970s. Every summer and holiday weekend, he saw a parade of
gleaming RVs and mega-trailers towing dune buggies and ATVs through the largely
impoverished Mexican town.
“The city was at a standstill because of the ‘gringos’
stuff,” he said. “I had this feeling like, ‘my God, is this the image we
Americans are projecting to these people who are barely making it?’
“It’s been 29 years since I came back and I’ve never been the
same.”
Hemingway is the first to admit he is not immune to consumerism — he
loves to pamper his wife with small gifts, he says. “I’m not free of the market
sin,” he admitted. But he is one of many pastors who point out awareness of the
situation to their congregations.
Hemingway finds “two great world religions in competition with
Christianity.” One is Islam, which joins Christianity as an evangelical religion
aggressively recruiting believers throughout the world. The other, he said, is
consumerism. It’s also a home-grown rival, too ingrained in American culture for many
people to see.
Tom Fuller, pastor at Calvary Chapel/Living Waters Christian Fellowship, said
if Christians can recognize consumerism for what it is and find balance, they can remain
true to their faith and its teachings.
“I think the Bible doesn’t preclude things like a market economy or
owning property or working to be able to buy things,” Fuller said. “The problem
comes when those things ... begin consuming the consumer.”
Fuller points to the Bible as evidence that property, salaries and market
economies are desirable, while greed is not. Christians should pay attention to when their
belongings are interfering with their relationship with God, he said.
“Jesus said ‘It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God’ (Matthew 19:23),” Fuller said. “This is because riches bring with them
self sufficiency. The rich have a harder time understanding spiritual needs, because their
material needs are always met.”
On the other hand, Fuller said, “it’s not like God just said
everyone should join a commune and you’re not able to buy anything.”
Drawing the line between needs and wants, acceptability and excess, can be
tricky. Some of the desires are closer to home than many Christians feel comfortable
thinking, or talking, about.
Modern day clergy members are on pension plans, and they are in investment
pools through which they may earn more money when consumers are buying heartily.
Christian consumers face an onslaught of retail merchandise — the $4.95
magnets inscribed with biblical quotes, the Virgin Mary trinkets, the glow-in-the-dark
angel pens, the ornate jewelry adorned with Christian images.
Hemingway is constantly turning away an incessant march of marketers looking
to ship Christian T-shirts and other paraphernalia to St. Michael’s.
He calls it the “plastic Jesus mentality,” drawing from an old
song. “What would Jesus say about a plastic Jesus on the dashboard of your car?”
he asked.
While Christianity teaches God will provide for needs, Hemingway said,
marketers preach their own mantra of “you need more and you need it now.”
“When we start wanting, when we start coveting, we are in danger of
losing ourselves,” he said. |
|
From May 31,
2003, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
