Consumerigon, the monster god of our time

In following up in the previous post, I wanted to share how much more aware I am of consumerism in our society today.

I listen to talk radio on the way to work and a couple ads went something like this:

"I saw the (name of car) and just fell in love with it. I called my Dad, and said, 'Dad, I have to get this car', and before you know it I was driving the car of my dreams."

There was also a song that sounded remarkably like Matt Redmons "It's all about you Lord..." but it went like this:

"It's all about you!" It's like they took the song and loped off the Lord. Hey now it's all about me. I was so dumbfounded by the similarity I don't even remember what the ad was for.

I'm involved in an email Bible Study and I brought up the issue of consumerism. The response was tepid at best as no one seemed to realize how big Consumerigon really is. I ended my response with this:

So next time I have money to spend, will I buy the new software program that
I think I need, or will I give it to the single mom raising three kids?
The next time a church has money to spend, will they buy the latest Media
Shout, or help an orphanage in Africa?

How would Jesus spend his money? How does he spend yours?

There's not really a wrong answer to the questions above. The problem is,
is that we don't even ask the questions in the first place. Consumerism is
called consumerism because it consumes us and we don't even see it.

So my challenge is to simply ask the questions. That's how we can be in the
world and not of the world. At least it's a start.