Toxic consumerism and the death of mission

In the National Capitol Poison Center published work Quick Facts on Poison Exposures in the United States they cite that “75% of poison exposures involve ingestion of a poisonous substance. 86.7 % of poison exposures are unintentional”. Toxins are most harmful when they are ingested into the system and a large percentage of them go undetected. The church of the 21st century has unknowingly ingested cultural toxins for many years that have wreaked havoc on the church in western culture. One of the main cultural toxins has been the rise of consumerism. In the aftermath of the Depression and two world wars, the United States government cultivated a new path for economic recovery that facilitated a snowballing consumer mindset into the post-war era. During his presidential campaign speech in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt said, “I believe that we are at the threshold of a fundamental change in our popular economic thought, that in the future we are going to think less about the producer and more about the consumer.” This mindset played into the developmental psyche and public duty of the early babyboomer generation in a context of a national post-war ideal. Lizabeth Cohen in her book A Consumer’s Republic develops this ideal more as she writes, “Out of the wartime conflict… emerged a new postwar ideal of the purchaser as citizen who simultaneously fulfilled personal desire and civic obligation by consuming.” (Cohen p. 119)

The consumer mentality has grown and matured with marketing, mass production, and technology into a virus that permeates every area of our current culture, including the church. In first century Palestine crowds gathered to hear Jesus address issues of consumerism. He said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25). The question is… would they have gathered and listened if the shopping malls existed and were open? Apparently not in 21st century. In a recent study done by two economists at MIT, church attendance and participation dropped with the repeal of Americana Blue Laws. As their research concludes that “the repeal of these laws in cities and states substantially increases the opportunity cost of religious attendance by offering alternatives for work, leisure, and consumption.” It seems as if Jesus could clearly see the affects of consumerism that would eventually hit his followers and the church. The toxic nature of consumerism on the church should alarm every leader in every church across the US. Alan Hirsch, in his book The Forgotten Way, writes, “I have come to believe that the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism. This is a far more heinous and insidious challenge to the gospel, because in so many ways it infects each and every one of us.” (Hirsch p. 106-7).