Consumerism v. Christianity
A Meditation on Shopping and Desire
Theology comes to terms with consumer culture.
by Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado | Religion Dispatches Magazine | Dec. 15, 2010I love to shop. This questionable passion led me to write a book on shopping. I will also confess, like any good Catholic, that guilt is a motivator here as well. Plagued by a consumerist culture that defines our worth and value by what we spend, yet informed by a Christian ethical vision that attempts to undermine that very ideology, I sought to reconcile the two.
While disagreeing with this particular logic, I do agree that shopping is an ethical act. Today we live in a culture of cheap. We have an unprecedented access to cheap goods, yet we must recognize that cheap goods are cheaply made. I am not speaking of quality, I am speaking of cheap labor. We must recognize that through the act of shopping, whether it is for an article of clothing, a toy, a pint of strawberries, or even our morning cup of coffee, we participate in a global economy that values profit over people. Disposable goods are made by disposable people, faceless individuals whose backbreaking and unjustly paid labor produce the goods we consume.
What we buy and where we buy it is a political act. It is also, I argue, a religious act.
If material goods define who you are and how you judge others, then you have a problem. If you are constantly seduced into buying things you do not need and cannot afford, then you have been seduced by our consumerist culture. The saying “born to shop” is not entirely untrue. We all have to shop; it is part of our everyday lives and survival. However if we truly “live to shop” we may want to take a pause, and sit this season out.