Invitations vs. Sales

Every now and then I get up the guts and think it's wise to invite somebody to church.

Why should such a thing take courage and wisdom? Let me give you my perspective.

We live in a culture where we are constantly inundated with advertising. Many people, understandably, mistake an invitation to a Christian worship gathering as a form of advertising for a spiritual product. In fact, Western Evangelicals have done a lot to cause this misunderstanding by directly engaging in forms of communication in the name of Jesus that are indistinguishable from the predominant folk-religion of our culture, which is completely oriented around the purchase and consumption of experiences. The result of living in a culture so full of advertising with many people leads to a default position of skepticism and cynicism concerning the advertised "promise." We have cliché adages to communicate the wisdom in a position of skepticism and cynicism towards the plastic promises of so many advertisers--modern proverbs if you will-- "I'll believe it when I see it." "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

For example, Geico "could save me 15% or more on car insurance with a 15 minute phone call," but in reality they expect you to have detailed records about every car accident you've had in the last 5 years, including the time of day and date, and ticket number for the accident, as well as the insurance claim number and the insurance company of the other drivers involved in the accident. No one is prepared with this level of detailed information when they call, the call takes longer than 20 minutes, and they can't really offer a rate reduction of 15%, if they can offer a reduction at all. Now, let me tell you what Jesus can do for you in the afterlife.

That's one challenge. I think that it's a challenge that can be overcome if the person being invited is convinced that the person inviting them is doing the inviting out of a sincere care for the invited, which simply takes time and sincere love. It can't be overcome if the person doing the inviting thinks that they are advertising a spiritual product or is attempting to sell the other person their brand of religion or spirituality.

Here's the bigger challenge.

Everyone has faith. Everyone. There isn't a human being that doesn't have deeply held beliefs that guide the direction of their lives and daily actions. It is impossible to be a person and not have deeply held basic assumptions that drive the course of our actions, upon which we trust and hold to be self-evident and unquestionable to the point of risking our lives on them. The fact that a lot of people aren't aware of what they trust to be the absolute truth doesn't change the plainly observable fact that they have a certain subjective perspective on reality in which they operate that they do not regularly question and which guides the direction of their lives. This is true for the Christian, the Buddhist, the Jain, the Jew, the Atheist, and the apathetic. A person who believes that all religions are just different paths to the same mountain top, or a person whose disposition towards questions of ultimate reality, meaning, and purpose in life is apathetic or disinterested has no less faith than the Mormon or the Muslim, the only difference is that their faith isn't as well thought out or articulated as someone who fervently ascribes to a more trial-tested tradition. The person who says, "There is no god but Allah" as well as the person who says "it doesn't matter what a person's religion is," or "no one can know whether there is a God or not"--they all live and act as if those beliefs are absolutely true. They put their trust in those basic assumptions about reality and act as if their reality is really real. And although that person can give reasons for why they believe or don't believe whatever they believe, no one agrees on how to evaluate these beliefs. Without a way to test the truth of these perspectives, out of necessity we let them drive our thoughts, actions, attitudes--the very content of our time on earth and our understanding of the certain end of that time. (In that way, some of us have a test.)

The subjective nature of these beliefs and how these beliefs are formed is a deeply personal and emotional thing. To varying degrees there may be layers of reason and intellect that defend these beliefs, but if anyone tells you that they have faith in God or don't have faith in God for purely intellectual reasons and that they are completely emotionally detached from the issue, they either 1. don't understand what is being discussed or 2. aren't being honest with themselves. (I guess a third possibility is that they're not human.) It is only natural for a person to be defensive when those beliefs are challenged. This defensiveness is not rational, as can be seen in the rhetoric on many a YouTube video about evolution--on both sides. If we're really asking these questions about ultimate reality, then we all have a dog in the fight.

Now, in operating out of my faith, in acting as though the things I say I think are true on Sunday morning are actually true all the rest of the time, it is only natural to invite someone who doesn't gather for Christian worship to investigate the claims of the Gospel and into the experience of God found in giving worth to this God. How could I believe in these things, experience these things, and not want to share what I've found to be a very good thing? How cold must my heart be to not invite someone I care about? How low must that care be to not give an invitation to that experience of God?

But what of the other person's faith? Won't they be offended at the suggestion that their faith might need adjusting, that they might be wrong? Is it inherently disrespectful to call another person's faith into question even if the questioning happens only obliquely and implicitly through an invitation to share in the "fruits" of one's own faith?

I submit that the issue of where to place our faith--what we trust, what we consider real, what we bank on being true, what orients and directs the course of our lives, what we risk spending our time, effort, even our very lives on--that this issue is important enough to risk offending a friend, and to the degree that a person believes they have found real Truth, they must share that Truth. It would be wrong to hold Truth about that kind of thing to one's self. At the same time, it takes wisdom to know how to let people in on your truth in a way that they will be able to accept, since nobody likes to find out that they're wrong. (At least, whenever my faith needs adjusting it always hurts a little bit.)

But are we brave enough to face the conflict that might ensue with humility and love if the other person doesn't agree with us?

Stop Reading This

Seriously, turn your computer off right now. Turn off your cell phone and your computer, and go outside. It's a beautiful time of year.

Or listen to this. (Thanks NPR.)

Blasphemy or good advertising?

This is a screen shot from my computer while looking up a verse reference that I used to be able to find easily before I grew so dependent on Bible search engines.


What a wonderful modern world we live in, no? The Bible is available for anyone with internet access to search in at least 50 languages, for free! Can't remember that verse reference but have a vague memory of a word or phrase contained in it? Just type it in! You can even refine the search if you have an idea of whether it's in the new or old testament. Pretty sweet, really. And, as you might expect you get this service for FREE, with the exception of having to view a few family-friendly, Christian-friendly banner ads for "Christian" products (that is, if products could accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.) Voice of the Martyrs will send you a FREE copy of their founder's personal testimony there on the left. But what's this banner across the top? It seems to be a reference to the Gospel of John chapter 1, identifying Jesus as the Word, the divine Logos that was with God in the beginning, whose light shines in the darkness, though the darkness has not understood or overcome it. Then it goes through its other two states:







Just to be clear, the banner reads "In the beginning was the Word. Now there are maps, charts, notes & more. The bestselling Bible in the #1 translation. Click to learn more. (Picture of NIV Study Bible.)"

Now, I'm all for the study of the Bible and the resources like maps, charts, notes, "& more." That stuff is great, it makes the message of the Bible more accessible, and it would be wonderful if we could sell more stuff like that and pay more scholars and professionals to produce more resources that would make studying the Bible easier for everyone. Great. I believe in the business of Bible study. Pay the professionals. Make the materials. Sell them. Wonderful. Translate the Bible into English in a way that does justice to the original Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic but phrases things in a way that most people don't have to struggle to understand. Yes. Great. That takes professionals. I'll pay for it.

But am I over-reacting? Or did that ad just say, "In the beginning was Jesus, but NOW there's maps, charts, and this awesome translation of the Bible with all these resources and notes attached to it!" (Implication: you don't need Jesus, you need our Bible product.)

I understand that this isn't the only way to interpret this ad, and hopefully the people who thought it up weren't thinking that it could be interpreted this way, but... seriously? How is this not blasphemy? Anyone who gets the reference "In the beginning was the Word" ought to be offended. Everyone else won't get the "cute joke" that they seem to be trying to make with the reference.

Why do I blog?

There have been times in my life when I have become obsessed with the blogosphere. They are often short-lived and I am glad for it.

What do you read blogs for? Entertainment? Research? (Arguably the latter could be properly identified as a sub-category of the former...) Dialectical theological debate? Keeping up with old friends and acquaintances?

Often with me it tends to be a mixture of motivations and goals, but if I'm really honest it almost always starts with boredom. "I need some entertainment," I think. "Let's check the blogs."

Next I do something completely narcissistic. I check in with my own blog. Often I re-read the things I have written and think about how much I agree with them. "Yeah, that's good stuff," I think. I look for comments, little signals that I'm popular and important. But pretty soon I get bored with my own thoughts. So I go look for others.

At this point I find something I agree or disagree with. And I leave comments. My very important and highly valued praise or my superb, dismantling criticism pepper the melting pot of ideas like the saffron of the textual idea world.

Now sometimes, when somebody says something I really disagree with, I leave a critical comment, and come back several times that day to see what they said in response. This is where the obsession comes in. Pretty soon, they come back with a retort, and I shoot back, and we're having a "friendly" competition over who is smarter in the very public arena of cyberspace. We can be talking about the loftiest, holiest ideas, but as my obsessed behavior reveals it is about more than the ideas. It is about my ego.

It seems like such a waste that such an incredible blessing like the internet be resigned to the mire of my sinful nature. There must be a way to interact with people over the internet that isn't all about proving my worth to myself or others through what I write.

Some things I don't do often enough that seem to help:

1. Pray before posting. Pray to Jesus. Ask Him to fill my fingers with His words rather than my own self-centered ones. Then only type words that I wouldn't be ashamed of if He read them. (Because He is reading them!)

2. Recognize my humanity. Recognize that a lot of the time I'm dumb, selfish, and only see things the way I want to see them rather than the way they actually are.

3. Recognize the humanity of others. Other people have the same limitations that I have, and other people are people. There's a post-er behind every post and that person is made in the image of God, and Jesus died on the cross for that person.

Any other suggestions?

The Broadcasting of Self

We had a Good Friday service about a month or two ago at church, a night to remember the crucifixion of Jesus. The Gospel accounts of those events were read interspersed with somber songs of worship to our crucified Lord. It was a time to remember and contemplate the price God paid for a sinful person like me to know love and joy and life everlasting.

I found myself experiencing a lot of emotions: a feeling like guilt--but not exactly guilt in that it didn't seem hopeless but rather hopeful, as if I were recognizing a very deep personal weakness but also the way out of it. Christians often refer to this feeling as the conviction of the Holy Spirit ( conviction needn't be an emotional affair, even though it often is.) I also felt sadness over the suffering of the world that was unjustly thrust upon Jesus. Joy in the midst of sadness over my own suffering and the suffering of people close to me, the joy that comes from knowing a compassionate Savior who is willing and able to make all things right in their right time.

Anyway, it was emotional.

I think it was emotional because God was at work. I could be wrong, but that's my interpretation of the events. I had a strong sense of the Spirit's presence.* God was at work on my heart showing me my sin, His grace, my desperate need for a Savior, the sufficiency of His providence and all that stuff. Here's the disturbing part: while this is happening, I'm trying to think of how to put this deeply spiritual experience into words--particularly a sentence or so of words...that would fit in my facebook status.
What is wrong with me?

Here I am, supposedly drawing near to the cross-- the event that is the culmination of Jesus' life and ministry, the event that changed human history and the cosmic order--I'm drawing close to God and God is revealing Himself to me, it is a holy, numinous, and transcendental moment and I'm thinking "How can I sum this up so that I can tell everyone on facebook about it?"

Now, I've come to accept certain personality traits about myself that I consider morally neutral. While I do not believe the term "extrovert" is exhaustive in describing my identity, it is certainly functionally descriptive of a tendency towards meeting strangers and enjoying large groups. That tendency whether innate or learned has quite a bit of inertia to it and probably isn't going to change without some drastic psychological arm-twisting--which would probably feel like torture to me. I want almost everything I do to be shared with others. Especially when it comes to the core message about Jesus--this is really good news to me, I think it's awesome and I think knowing about it, thinking about it, and experiencing God through that core message--what Christians have called "the Gospel"--that is something I want to talk about with everyone. Of course, not everyone shares my enthusiasm, especially living in Springfield where a lot of people have a lot of enthusiasm about this "Gospel" thing, to the point that if you don't really know what people are talking about when they say "Gospel" or if you do know and you just don't think that it's true, or that it can be "proven" true, or maybe even you think it's probably true but you'd rather ignore it because of it's painful implications for personal life, if you fit into any of those categories in Springfield then you may begin to feel marginalized or pressured to accept something you can't wrap your mind or gut around--which violates a sense of identity and choice. It feels disrespectful when people try to shove their religion down our throats. And we Christians aren't always willing to take "no" for an answer even when it will probably be the answer for a long time, unless something significant takes place to cause a change to that answer. This puts someone like me in an awkward position. I've sincerely experienced something life-changing and good in the person of Jesus, but I don't want my friends who aren't sharing that experience to feel that our friendship is only a means for me to preach to them, because it's not. Those friendships may very well be an opportunity to openly discuss that (I think) Great News, but if all of my friends who were republicans were only friends with me because they wanted me to become an out-spoken republican, that would put a damper on the relationship. (Not that republican=Christian, it most certainly does not.)

Anyway, I digress. My point is I'm an extrovert and Evangelical, so maybe that explains it. But what I think what I'm trying to get at here is that maybe there are some experiences--even experiences that come about from the very public work of Jesus on the cross, that aren't meant to be shared or broadcast-ed through social networking media. Is the reason I want to sum up this deep spiritual experience on Good Friday so that I can share the Good News, or is it that I want people to think of me as a deeply spiritual person? What do I think that adding something like that to the textual noise of a few people's News Feeds will actually accomplish? Is it really sharing the Gospel or am I just broadcasting my opinion for my own sense of worth as a "good" Christian?

Could it be that some things are just too holy for our facebook statuses?


*(The language and therefore the theology of the God who created the space-time universe gets a little fuzzy when we talk about the manifest "presence" or "glory" of God. The only thing that I can figure out is that it's not that God "isn't" somewhere, because he is omnipresent, but that a lot of the time I walk around with the ridiculous idea that He isn't near, and when I experience His Presence, it's not as though God were somewhere far away and is suddenly coming over for a chat, it's just I am actually waking up to Reality, the real reality where God exists, the reality where He is present, instead of my distracted stupor that I spend way too much time in. Of course to talk about things in this way seems to imply that I am achieving enlightenment or something stupid like that by my own insight, so I prefer to talk in terms of experiencing God because I believe God is really the one at work making me aware of His Presence and power, which are always near and always true.)

The Ethics of Consumer Choice

Although someone will condemn me for getting a cup of coffee from an evil corporation, (and I would argue that this company while large has done a lot of good and raised the standard for many other employers with respect to benefits for their employees, as well as otherwise ethical practices, and done much to disabuse us of commodity fetishism) you can rest assured that while I buy their coffee from time to time, I will pick on them a little bit before I get done with this post. Of course I am referring to that green siren Starbucks (or as Dave Ramsey likes to call it "Fivebucks") that bids us towards the hip land of eco-friendly chilled coffee in a 24 oz. cup.

While I'm not so much into the sugary drinks, I do enjoy an item that is not posted on the menu board in the store--the little known or long neglected Short Latte. It's fabulous. No frills, no syrup, no non-fat non-milk creamer. Just some steamed whole milk and an espresso shot in a surprisingly petite 8 oz. cup. It's delicious. And I love it.

The question I ask myself is, why do I love it?

I remember a certain day that Kara and I were both not working, and we had a gift card from my Mom, because she worked for Starbucks for two years, so we went to Starbucks. We got drinks and went to the park. Reading the stuff on the cup it gave all kinds of impressive statistics about how by purchasing Starbucks coffee we had helped something like 30 millions of tons of fair-trade coffee be produced. I wish I could find the exact text that appeared on the cup because reading it I felt like I was the best person in the world. I had made the right choice. I had bought the cup of coffee that would change everything, eliminate poverty, disease, and global warming and bring about world peace and the Kingdom of God.

Really Starbucks? Buying your coffee makes me a better person? Or does it just make me think of myself as a better person, which actually makes me more of a jerk who's likely to judge the character of people who shop at your competition? How am I actually changing the world by drinking this partially recycled cup of organic fat and caffeine?

I'm not.

I just feel better about not changing the world because Starbucks is really, really good at making me think that buying their stuff is the same as doing something to change the world. That is to say nothing of the smaller, more "independent" hangouts that brand themselves the same way with the additional perceived claim to morality based on their size and their struggle against "the Man." Does the fact that I prefer those little places really say something about the superiority of my personal taste or the quality of my soul in comparison to another, or is it just that I am more susceptible to that type of marketing?

What a fool I am. I so much want to believe that I am a good person and that the products I buy confirm that I am a good person. I want to believe it so bad that I'll believe the people making the products when they tell me their products are a testament to my good character. In reality the cup of coffee at Starbucks/the Mudhouse/the Coffee Ethic/Gailey's has nothing to do with my character, or at least no more than a 44 oz. soda from a gas station.

But shouldn't we learn where our stuff comes from and try to only buy good stuff from good companies that are good to people and the rest of God's good creation? Well, certainly, yes. I believe that is a great goal. But should it really surprise us that our own concept of "good" is very broken? We've been discipled for decades by literally millions of TV, radio, internet, billboard and other types of ads since we were children. If these are the sources we look to to form our morality, should it surprise us that morality is defined as purchasing the right products of a certain "Ethos" that are of sufficient quality at a reasonable price? (Oh, and we won't mention anything about the chemical addictions that come with these products. That's for free.) We like to think that constant exposure to media input has no effect on us, but I'm learning that I am much more affected by it than I would like to admit. I become more and more sure the deeper I dig into this stuff that getting a right understanding of "good" (at least in the sense of Plato's Forms) is something I may not even be capable of.

In fact the only hope I have of ever being good, or coming to understand what "good" really means, is if Jesus Christ is who He says He is and has accomplished what He says He has accomplished. But that is another blog post altogether.

I'm Bored with Beer

I never thought I'd say it. To some of you, close friends and family of mine, this may sound like blasphemy, which may indicate an unhealthy relationship with the stuff, but hear me out! I'm not saying that I think the stuff is evil or that we can't enjoy one together, or that we all should stop debating the virtues of hops vs. malt, Reinheitsgebot vs. American Craft Brewing, or any of that glorious home-brewers snobbery that I actually love, I'm just saying that lately I've had a change of heart. I think for the positive.

The same thing actually happened for me with music sometime in my freshman year of college. Bored with music?! To my extended family I'm about to be disowned. But I think it's probably been years since I purchased a CD. I still love to sing, and I still love to play a few instruments when I find the time, especially in a worship context, but as far as loving music... meh. I'm kind of bored.

Perhaps the following Scripture can bring some clarity to what I'm trying to express:

¹ I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. ² "Laughter," I said, "is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?" ³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

⁴ I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. ⁵ I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem ^[a] as well—the delights of a man's heart. ⁹ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.

¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

Or maybe the following:

¹⁰ Those who love money never have enough;
those who love wealth are never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.

¹¹ As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owners
except to feast their eyes on them?

(That's from Ecclesiastes 2 and 5, respectively).

During my freshman year of college, I began to feel I was losing touch with the music scene. Maybe that's because they didn't have "free" cable in the dorms yet and I didn't bring a TV with me to school, but I started to get the sense that I wasn't on the cutting edge like I had been in high school. My new friends in college were talking about all these bands that I'd never heard of before, and while I felt like I could potentially like these new bands and become fans of them I didn't want to do the work. I had just spent Junior High and High School developing my very distinctive style and unique "favorites" and the prospect of having to start over on that--to have to learn the lyrics to new songs, research the band members' childhoods and do the musical criticism of picking apart the melodies and rhythms that were particularly interesting so that I could articulate why this was my favorite band and adequately defend my taste to my new peers just seemed... exhausting. Maybe it was the stress of being the only person from my town in a new city doing something I'd never done before (going to college) or maybe it was the common melancholy and existential angst that many of us Americans went through in the winter and fall of 2001, but I just didn't have the time to do what I suddenly realized to be the work of finding new music that I love.

I suddenly realized that if I were to continue on my current track of musical appreciation, it would only lead to disappointment. I could never find enough music to satisfy my ear. I'll always want to hear a new song that I like. Pandora has actually made this frighteningly easy and inexpensive. (I say frightening because the ease of consumption only further commodifies the highest offerings of the musicians that make the music, see the post on the commodity fetish.)

Speaking of the commodity fetish, I think one of the reasons for my recently ended love affair with beer (hopefully we can still be friends) is that I have an appreciation for the process. My Dad home-brewed when I was a youngster, so I knew that if I ever drank beer I would only want to drink good beer, beer that was crafted to fit a style, beer that probably doesn't come in a can. And there are so many interesting flavors, types, and styles to enjoy! Craft brewing and the geekiness that goes along with it appeals to something within me that has evolved into the desire to really know and understand the things that I use, enjoy, and take for granted. There is a lot to learn about beer, like music, and that appeals to me.

But the reason beer and I have decided to see other people can be blamed, for me, on one company: Lagunitas. I haven't tried any of their beer. I guess I might some time in the future, but when a whole bunch of new beers under this label showed up at the pub I frequent, it hit me--the search for new and awesome beer--like the search for new and awesome music is like chasing after the wind. I realized that I had actually given a lot of time and effort to this pursuit, and recognized that while that pursuit may not be bad in and of itself, that there are higher pursuits to engage in that may or may not be more satisfying, but are certainly more beneficial.

I guess what I'm saying is that I suddenly feel relief from the "need" to experience the "new and improved," at least with respect to beer. The inflammation of desire as a key component to the way consumerism functions will be the topic of a future post, but I am thankful, at least in this aspect of my life, to be free of some of that desire.

The Commodity Fetish

Sound kinky? Really kind of disturbing when you understand the concept, how it works, and how we're all implicated by it. Fetish here is used not in the perverted sense, but in the following manner:

fet⋅ish /ˈfɛtɪʃ, ˈfitɪʃ/

--noun

1.	an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as having magical potency.

2.	any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion: to make a fetish of high grades.

Combine that with

com⋅mod⋅i⋅ty /kə'mɒdɪti/

–noun, plural -ties.

1.	an article of trade or commerce, esp. a product as distinguished from a service.

2.	something of use, advantage, or value.

...and you get the phrase coined by Karl Marx.

(Quickly, before I lose whatever radically conservative audience I might have, you should know I voted for Ron Paul in the primary.) Karl Marx pointed out something that is true, and whether or not you agree with his solutions to economic problems, he was right about the way capitalist societies function in regards to stuff, at least in recognizing the phenomenon of the commodity fetish.

If you have ever eaten a hot-dog, you have experienced the commodity fetish at work.

To get a little bit of perspective, consider this family heirloom:

This is a small, framed portion of a quilt, made ca. 1850 AD/CE. It is the result of a team effort of a mother and daughter team, distant matriarchs of my wife's family. The two ladies harvested the flax and spun it into linen, sheared the sheep, spun and dyed that wool, then worked together to weave this beautiful quilt! There's a story about hiding some items (perhaps this quilt) from raiding Confederate soldiers, but in order to consume that entertaining story, you'll have to get together with us in person and listen to my lovely wife tell the tale, it really is hers to tell.

What does this have to do with commodities and fetishes? Well, by way of this example, 150 years ago, if you were in need or want for a quilt, no problem! Just go harvest some flax, spin it into linen, along with the wool you sheared off of your own sheep, dye it with... i have no idea, and then spend a month or two of your spare time weaving it into a blanket. This is the way that most "products" of human invention have been produced for thousands of years--in the home.

Not so in an industrialized capitalist society, especially one operating on a global economy. If we want a blanket or quilt, we go to Target and pick one out. It's probably made in China. We might choose it based on its level of comfort, its insulating qualities, the way it works or doesn't work with the decorating scheme in our living room, or it's price. And we take the thing home and enjoy it, put it to use, until it gets stained or torn, or we decide it just doesn't go with anything, and then we give it to a charity or the landfill and it becomes the charity or landfill's problem.

Today we purchase and use items with little or no regard to the questions concerning their origin, the safety of the workers who produced the item, perhaps with little or no questions about the safety or the quality of the item itself. When it's there in the store we rarely ask ourselves a question deeper than, "Do I want this?" or "Am I willing to spend x amount on this?" We're primarily concerned with the item's apparent value in and of itself, with little or no thought given to the labor or work that goes into producing such an item. And how can we? We all use a lot of stuff! We don't have time to research the origins of everything in the supermarket, and why should we? What does it matter?

It matters because someone is paying the price for me to have all the things that I want at relatively little or no cost to myself. Likewise, someone is benefiting from taking advantage of human beings and the boon that comes from ignorant bliss.

Take the hot-dog for instance. That hot-dog probably has the unwanted meat from about 500 cows or more, all mixed in to that one little homogenized link, and most of that meat has probably been treated with ammonia. If that weren't gross enough, I can look on the package and see the number of fat grams and chemicals that are contained in it. But the real kicker is that those cows were probably slaughtered by a person with no other options for employment, being payed a measly wage, working in dangerous conditions all so that I could enjoy that meat-like delicacy as part of my 4th-of-July or camping experience. But if I think about all of that, I might not want to eat the hot dog. And Oscar Meyer and "Bar-S" want to keep it that way. Often, I like to go with Hebrew National, but is it really that much better? How do I really know?

The truth is if I want to eat hot-dogs, I have to participate in all the evil--potential or real--of eating that hot dog. How much is the hot dog worth to me? What about my $20 cell phone? I've had it for 6 months and it only now occurs to me to check to see where it was made. When I take it apart and remove the battery it says it was "Made in Mexico." I wonder who made it. I wonder how old that person was, what their name is. Do they have a family? Were they paid well? How many phones or parts of phones like mine do they make in a day?

Movies like Food Inc. and websites like the Story of Stuff* attempt to disabuse us of commodity fetishism, but the truth of the matter is that we've all been conditioned for years to not think about the resources or labor that go into the products we buy, and to stop consuming all together and live a completely different lifestyle is probably not desirable or possible for most of us. At the same time, I believe in a just God who will one day judge the living and the dead. I am responsible for how I spend my dollars, or how I don't spend my dollars. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, it's not the evil that was actively done, but the good that wasn't done by supposedly good people just passively living their lives that condemns the "goats." As much as I'd like to not think that God might want me to actually go without certain items I find "essential" to my daily life, to not entertain such a possibility, in view of Scripture, seems a little foolish.

Is the comfort of my myriad of consumer choices worth the injustice it may cause? Can I really get away with a plea of ignorance before a God that knows everything? How do I live in my own culture without abandoning God or without becoming a reactionary?

*I find this 20 minute video to be a bit over-simplified, but does an OK job of raising some questions about the big picture of consumerism's effect on everything.

What good can another blog do?

Well to be honest, probably not much. I have my doubts about the efficacy of the internet as a tool for connecting people (he said on his blog).

The other day while getting my tires replaced I read an article about Yelp.com in Inc. magazine (it was on the coffee table) about a bookstore owner and a prospective customer getting into a physical altercation based on the customer's comments left on the Yelp.com rating site. Not being a small business owner, but working for a small business and having read reviews both positive and negative about the place where I work, I understand how things get emotional quickly. And in case you didn't catch the title of my blog, I'm planning on discussing things even more emotional than work and money--religion, culture, and basic beliefs about the nature of life, the universe, and everything!

But despite plenty of bad examples of people using the pseudo-anonymity of the internet to bring out the worst in people, I have to believe that these tools have the potential, at least, to be used for good.

For me, this stems from the belief that every person, no matter how mean or depraved, no matter if they agree with my deeply held beliefs or not, is made in the image of a good and loving God. God's fingerprints are in the fabric of our DNA, and whether or not we choose to recognize God as the origin of the good in people, God is glorified in His creation, perhaps most stunningly and impressively in his crowning achievement--people. This is of course, if we have eyes to see.

Are we mean? Sure. Are we selfish? Yes. But as a Christian, I have to choose to love people the way I want to be loved, and I know that I want people to see the good in me and ignore the bad. Or if they point out the bad, because they know I can do better, to do it in a way that doesn't ignore the good.

When I'm talking about stuff on this site I want to make the public commitment, one which despite my best efforts I probably won't keep all the time, to always talk about people as people--nothing more and nothing less, and to not treat them like mere ideas or concepts to be picked apart, used, and consumed.

This is hard, because for 27 years, I've been discipled by a culture of consumerism. I grew up in the world of TV, Internet, Video Games, Cell Phones, magazines and shows completely devoted to the discussion of what to buy, what not to wear, and how to have a good time. Everything about this culture tells me "it's all about me." I can have it my way. We even have sites like Yelp.com in which everyone can enjoy the elevated status of a food or fashion critic for the small price of their opinion, and blogs where for the effort of setting up an email address I can express myself to as many people as I can convince that I am interesting enough to consume. I have great parents that taught me a lot about what really matters in life, and I've been fortunate enough to benefit from the influence of Jesus' rebel gang on earth--the Church--but we all live in this sea of commercial enterprise and interact with each other through things like blogs, skype, facebook and cell phones--media which change the way we actually communicate and therefore relate to one another--often without us even recognizing it. Consumerism is our culture, and to claim to be unaffected by its basic assumptions and worldview is at best uniformed, and at worst naive or proud.

The name of this blog is an attempt at honesty. I am, at heart, a consumer. Most of what I do is use stuff. I contribute little. I'm really selfish, I often entertain delusions of grandeur, I'm proud and I act out of that pride. I have opinions about everything and I think my opinions are really important. Important enough to argue or blog about. But since I was 14, when I prayed a simple prayer of repentance in a youth volunteer's Cadillac, I find another force mysteriously at work in my life. Through no merit or power of my own, I find the desire to be thankful for the things I am blessed with, and to share those blessings with others. Sometimes I even find the power to act on those desires. In fact sometimes I even find myself hating the desire for frivolous pleasure, those desires being replaced with a sincere love and willingness to suffer for other people.

In the symbol of communion, which Jesus left for his disciples, whatever the specific controversial theological meaning of the ordinance, Christians claim to consume the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Early Christian church meetings, by all accounts Biblical and extra-biblical, were centered around this practice. It has often been used as a boundary marker for those who are either in or out of communion with Christ and his church. In this practice, the basic story of Jesus' life--his perfect sacrificial death, his resurrection, and the new community he founded is told. As part of this community, I have experienced first hand that Jesus is not dead, and that he is really the only thing that satisfies my deepest desires. The more I taste of his goodness, the more I want. This desire--unlike so many others--does not cause me to become what I hate, but somehow changes me for the better. In fact it is not the desire but the Person of God himself somehow mysteriously at work in my soul and my body making me into someone I could never become through the force of my limited rational or emotional mind. In fact I find that it is not even me living, but this Jesus person living within me. In this way I strive to be a consumer of Christ.