by Ben Catford
It's a Culture
‘Wow that’s amazing,’ my French colleague whispered as we gazed up at one of Dubai’s latest ambitious constructions - set to be the biggest building in the world. ‘It’s not amazing,’ quipped our local Arab guide, ‘It’s money.'
Welcome to the United Arabic Emirates, the richest country in the world. The only place where you will find a seven-star hotel (built with more than of six tonne of gold) and the world’s largest mall, housing an indoor skiing centre and valet carpark that could be mistaken for a Rolls Royce showroom. Indeed the term ‘amazing’ does not do it justice. Cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi are emerging as the tourism mega-cities of the future - they're built on the extraordinary oil money that continues to gush from the Arab region.
Having just spent a week in Dubai, I was exposed to the extreme wealth and posh sensory overload that is merely everyday life for the locals. Debriefing with friends, you
can’t avoid dropping the C word. Consumerism. As I climbed on my high horse to deliver yet another speech about how these elite, superficial so and so’s live in the ‘out of touch’ world of luxury, I was struck by something. My life here in Copenhagen doesn’t actually look that different. I have a nice apartment, good job, neat circle of friends and a comfortable affluent lifestyle.
Upon reflection, I think the biggest mistake we can make when addressing consumerism is to see it only as an extreme. With MTV, travel shows and celeb magazines documenting every celebrity choice in style, fashion, furnishings and relationships; we are told that this utopian lifestyle is within reach. Herein lies the danger. The media exposes usto an extreme consumer culture that we define ourselves against, rather than placing ourselves in. It’s easy for me to label those with the Dubai palaces and private helicoptors as icons of consumerism, but where does that leave me? We are tricked into comparing ourselves to celebrities and the ultra-wealthy, rather than the majority of those on earth who live below the poverty line.
Advertisers raise the bar constantly, telling you that fulfilment is just one more purchase away. It is not the growing gap between the rich and poor that concerns me the most, but rather the closing gap between the middle class and the rich. Having spent time observing young people in Asia, United States and Europe over the past 12 months, there is one consistent trend – in every nation, people have never been richer and more comfortable. Why then, in cafés from Tokyo to Helsinki, do I overhear the constant groaning in conversation over unfulfilment, depression and disillusionment? Young people in the West have never truly experienced a war, recession or political instability. Instead, they have been told that they deserve to live like Brad Pitt and can have it if they just want it bad enough.
If you were to do an honest self-appraisal of the role that consumerism plays in your life, how would you answer these four questions?
- Think of what you have purchased in the past three months. What motivated you to buy these items?
- What are you communicating to your peers through the things you consume?
- Are you a consumer of other commodities such as travel or career experiences, in order to gain status amongst your peers?
- How is your view of relationships affected by a consumer mentality?
God's rival?
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I once asked a missionary from Malawi whether he was concerned about the potential danger of lapsing into pluralism whilst working with a deeply spiritual people group. He replied: 'I would’ve thought I would be at a far greater risk living in my comfortable, suburban setting in Australia.' He makes a great point. In the west, we are dealing with a new religion, a rival god – consumerism. Shopping malls are the new churches as advertising billboards preach messages of hope and fulfilment. Are we as Christians complicit in this? Are we actively practising pluralism? Once again, it’s easy to compare yourself to hyper-consumer celebrity icons who act as almost saint-like figures in this alternative religion, but are we not still dedicated parishioners? 
Hebrews 15:3 says:
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
This scripture always stirs me within because it draws on the contrast between ‘love of money’ and the contentment that can be found in a loyal God who simply loves me for who I am. It provides perspective and clarity. To know that the God of all creation loves me right now, jars against the fake promises of advertising – you will be happy when you buy this or look this way. Our identity in Christ is the only starting point for strides towards killing consumerism in our lives.
Consumerism: A Part of Life
I have always struggled with the extreme anti-commercial reaction against consumerism. I’m not one to rush out and buy fair trade coffee, wear only second-hand clothes and grow a beard (mainly because previous attempts at a beard were hilarious). Not that these things in themselves are wrong, but I sometimes feel we’re missing the bigger picture. God’s plan is to redeem all of Creation. If we believe this, then surely we can model a different way living by acknowledging the needs that consumerism tries to fill and provide true alternative solutions.
Working in the advertising industry, I am constantly presented with great opportunities to deconstruct the spiritual elements of advertising and probe what it is that makes people want to consume. There are great opportunities for us all to identify the holes that consumerism attempts to fill and instead model Jesus’ teachings of community, justice, peace and hope. I find that when someone asks about my faith, invariably the conversation leads to how the teachings of Jesus provide the fulfilment that our alternative religion of today, Consumerism, has no answers for. Throughout the Old Testament, God uses ordinary individuals to demonstrate his power over the idols and false gods of the day. I believe he would want to do the same in 2008. I pray that we as a community of believers would have a theology of consumerism, rather than ignoring the implicit religion that, like it or not, we interact with daily.
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