He who has the most toys, wins
Contrasting the West's search for significance with that of the East
April 2, 2008
Jillian Snyder
A recent article in the New York Times profiles young Egyptian men who, as a result of the country’s tight employment market, are struggling to find stable work. Many of the young men profiled are growing old and not marrying due to the cultural pressure of needing steady employment to be married and raise a family. The problem is rampant not only in Egypt, but across the Middle East as well. One of the resulting trends of such financial hardship is more young people turning to religion to find stability and meaning in this stilted stage of adulthood.
Let us juxtapose this return to devout religious practice with that of Western culture. While many young people would proclaim themselves as “religious,” it is apparent that the demands of organized faith are no longer tenable for a generation that views power or authoritative structures as stifling and overbearing. This is evident, particularly in Christianity in North America and Europe, as churches are losing members at rapidly increasing rates. In England, for example, the number of Roman Catholics surpassed that of members of the Church of England over the past few years due to a rapid decline in membership. In the United States, the number of young people who claimed to have no religious affiliation doubled between 1985 and 2005.
Even individuals within conservative groups of Christianity, such as the Evangelical movement, are turning toward religious affiliations without any denominations which de-emphasize the focus upon structure in both form and praxis. Often labeled as “emergent” churches, these congregations have planted themselves firmly in the postmodern movement – one frequently defined by its multiform use of varying faith traditions and pluralistic draw of all types of influences to form a distinctly individualistic interpretation of one’s faith and its subsequent practice. As Don Carson, a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL points out, “Some in the emerging movement, so influenced by postmodern sensibilities, find any mention of truth, objective truth, angular or offensive.” In other words, the search for some sort of meaning cannot have any one singular form in the emergent church; it is completely up to the individual.
In addition to this gradual dissolution of devout and organized faith movements in North America, there is an overwhelming assumption that material goods and faith are connected: the faithful will receive material rewards from God based upon their level of devotion. Such views are more notoriously associated with recent Christian books such as The Prayer of Jabez or the teachings of mega-church leader Joel Osteen. This view is shockingly narrow-minded. What are the faithful to make of those in Africa or Asia, steadily suffering for their belief, while many of their religious counterparts in North America do not match up measure for measure in praxis or belief and yet prosper all the more? What are they to say to the deeply faithful men and women of the Middle East who cannot even marry and have children due to their financial circumstances? Is God only listening to North America, a people so laden with ideas and iPods that they cannot seem to hear Him?
The stark contrast between these two cultural positions is startling, but not surprising. Philosopher Slavoj Zizek, in his post-9/11 address, “Welcome to the Desert of the Real,” said, “It effectively appears as if the split between First World and Third World runs more and more along the lines of the opposition between leading a long satisfying life full of material and cultural wealth, and dedicating one’s life to some transcendent Cause.” In other words, it would appear that wealth seems to somehow dampen the search for a transcendent reality, but at the same time makes the present reality much more appealing than the lack of wealth, which draws people toward a future hope of an afterlife. This may be why the West worships life but cannot effectively confront death; they are unable to cope with its sheer lack of reality. This also may be why those who see death as simply a vestibule to true reality in the afterlife (e.g. suicide bombers) can make decisions which appear to be unthinkable to the Western mind.
Now you go...
Got something to say?