Alright, I’ll go down to $5, but that’s it

Posted by admin on Feb 8, 2006 in Academy | 0 comments

Materialism, exploitive commercialism, and manipulation of the consumer mind are all very powerful and negative concepts. We as modern Christians live in a world in which such concepts and words are commonplace, yet at the same time spiritually disturbing. How is a Christian to operate in a world increasingly fraught with such things? No, I’m not talking about the capitalist marketplace, but rather, the Christian subculture that mirrors it. We Christians like to associate all sorts of evils with the world and with the faceless people who we say are “of it and in it,” but how often does one hear a critical reflection on our own Christian culture? Perhaps it’s just me, but I have very rarely heard anything, much less a sermon, on the topic. From a business standpoint it makes perfect sense to find a niche market and exploit it: being the first into a new market is extremely lucrative, especially if it is as big as an entire religion. However, is that behavior something we can truly call appropriate? Is taking advantage of the Christian demographic a good thing? Or even more controversial, is profiting from the message of Jesus moral? Many modern North American Christians have unquestionably accepted the capitalistic way of life, and in doing so have totally lost the concept of holiness. There is nothing for contemporary Christians that can’t be bought or sold. It seems that nothing, not even God Himself, is so special as to be beyond the grasp of Adam Smith’s almighty invisible hand. How holy can we truly consider the image, words, and life of Jesus when we use Him as a marketing gimmick? Granted, marketing is always easy
to make fun of, but how moral can Christian marketing be? The amazing thing about Christ’s teachings is that they are intensely selfless and sacrificial. Numerous times Jesus condemns those who value earthly gains over spiritual ones. Wealth is often condemned as spiritually dangerous and charity is praised as virtuous. Those teachings of Christianity are difficult (perhaps impossible?) to reconcile with a greed-based economic system like capitalism. That doesn’t mean that making a profit is wrong, though. Selling Bibles, for example, is something that is morally defensible. In an economy like ours there are costs to print, costs to distribute, and costs for administration. By charging money for Bibles the companies that produce them are able to continue to do so. Where a company could go wrong, though, is by buying into the capitalistic mantra of “Bigger! Better! More!” Rather than simply providing a useful service to the Christian community by furnishing necessary goods, some companies become greedy, milking the community for all it’s worth. What purpose does a Biblezine, such as Revolve, really serve other than to extract cash, encourage consumption, and in doing so, foster materialism? No, Christianity should never become the target audience or a market niche. We Christians need to learn to be in the world but not of the world. We should no longer conform to the economic patterns of this world, but transform the world in reaffirming our faith as too holy to buy and sell.