Consumer Detox
A Christian critique of consumerism and materialism, examining how consumer culture affects spirituality and offering paths to detoxification.
Thanksgiving is powerful. However much we have, or don't have, it is the gateway to a richer life. In a society desensitized by abundance, it resensitizes us to all the privileges we enjoy.
No product is just a product. Food is not just fuel; clothes are not just fashion items; cheap goods are not just bargains. They are the work of someone's hands, and they have a value (which is not the same thing as having a price). Those who live creatively buy things they can respect and respect the things they buy
The great spiritual writer Richard Foster makes the suggestion like this:
I propose an exercise which many have found liberating. When you decide that it is right for you to buy a particular item, see if God will not bring it to you without your having to buy it...
Once a decision is made to secure a particular item, hold it before God in prayer for perhaps a week. If it comes, bless God; if not, reevaluate your need for it; and if you still feel you should have it, go ahead and purchase the item.
One clear advantage to this approach is that it effectively ends all impulse buying. It gives time for reflection so that God can teach us if the desire is unnecessary. Another obvious benefit is the way in which it integrates the life of devotion with the life of service. The supply of our material needs becomes an exciting venture of faith.
Tom Sine expressed this: (mustard seed vs McWorld)
In spite of all the talk about Christ's "lordship," everyone knows that the expectations of modern culture come first. Everyone knows that getting ahead in the job comes first. Getting ahead in the suburbs comes first.
Getting the children off to their activities comes first. And we tend to make decisions in these areas pretty much like everyone else does, based on our income, our professions, and our social status.
Essentially, most Western Christians unquestioningly allow modern culture to arrange most of the furniture of our lives: forty- to eighty-hour workweeks, single-family detached housing, congested time schedules for our lives and children.