Consumer Culture!

 

In a consumer culture nothing is of intrinsic value. Instead, the value of a product, a person, or a religion is based on usefulness. Is your car/spouse/god failing to meet your desires? Trade it in for a new model, or at the very least give it a makeover. Such transactional ethics are acceptable because in our culture the self and its desires stand as the final authority and are the uncontested centre of the universe. This explains why so many religious institutions market God as a miracle product that will transform your life. In such places, worship isn’t primarily an act of thanksgiving or devotion, but an act of consumption. People gather to be entertained by festivals, events, crowds, music and so many other factors that excites the emotion and gratifies their self.

In this consumeristic approach to religion our desires are never questioned or challenged. A desire is never judged as right or wrong; it is only seen as met or unmet need. Similarly in consumer religion you do not exist to serve God. Instead, He exists to serve you because the customer is always king. We expect God to help us fulfil our dreams and desires. He is merely a tool; a device we use to achieve some greater goal. We desperately want to matter. Skye Jethani in his book What’s wrong with Religion? States, “We want to use God in the same way we use a personal trainer or a vending machine. In other words, we have come to view religion the way we view everything else—as consumers.”

In order to ensure all our desires are met we try to do things for god even go to the extent of destroying or crushing people in the name of god and religion. If you notice, in nearly every ancient creation myth, humans were formed to serve the gods. People supplied the gods with food through their sacrifices, built temples to be the gods’ homes, and fought battles for their king who was seen as a god on earth. Humans were gods’ servants.

This pagan vision of humanity was turned upside down by the creation story and the God of the Bible. He did not need to be fed, housed, and pampered like the gods of Babylon or Greece. It is thus recorded in the Bible, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,” He said, “for the world and its fullness are mine” And He made it clear that He does not live in a temple built by people. Instead, the whole cosmos is His home. Jesus was pointing to the human heart as His dwelling place. And therefore, we become the temple for the spirit of the living God for Him to live in us. Transformation of life happens when our heart makes room for the Saviour of the world to live in us. We merely live for creating a significance and become useful for others not just trying to gratify our selfish desires through the consumer culture. You can find everything in this consumer culture yet be dissatisfied and lost. We can only find truth and eternal destiny through Christ Jesus who is the resurrected Saviour. Confess your commitment to know Him from the Holy scripture and live a life with filled with hope.

 

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