"Consumerism indeed has its own spirituality.
Perhaps the darkest dimension to the accumulation of wealth is the exploitation of cheap labor to procure the luxuries we've grown used to. If you had a cup of coffee this morning, as I did, you participated: “In Africa a healthy young adult male cannot possibly make more than $1.50 a clay picking coffee. It is no wonder that women and children are compelled to share in the picking.” If we paid the East African pickers the minimum American wage, we could not afford to drink the coffee.
Let us be bold enough to ask ourselves, as Christians, whether the church of the Lord Jesus in the United States has anything to say to our nation and its ideologies of materialism, possessiveness, and the worship of financial security. Are we courageous enough to be a sign of contradiction to consumerism through our living faith in Jesus Christ? Are we committed enough to his gospel to become a counter—current to the drift? Or have we so accommodated the faith of our fathers to consumption that the question of simplicity of life, sharing of resources, and radical dependence on God’s providence no longer seem relevant? How do we build the kingdom of God on earth if what we incarnate in our lives is the dogma of our culture....."
(Brennan Manning. The Signature Of Jesus)
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