What sort of Jesus fish looks best on my Hummer?

Just today I received Vincent Miller’s Consuming Religion from an anonymous source (probably Amanda). The book chronicles the intersection between consumer culture and Christianity, a subject that fascinated me even before I fully committed to Christ. You can imagine how excited I was to crack it open (read: hella excited).

I could fill an entire blog with my problems with and objections to capitalism and the market economy. It’s likely that blog would consist of mostly hysterical rants that serve nothing but my own ego. In addition, each fault I point out in society only reflects my own hypocrisy – I buy things I don’t need all the time. It could be argued that much of my hostility towards the predominant American Christian culture (“Boy, that sermon on helping the poor sure was swell. Maybe when I get a little cash I’ll give it to Compassion. Wanna get some Starbucks?”) stems from my own guilt in being an active participant in that culture. I am a worshipper of the market; comfort is my idol.

Which brings me to the very first sentence on the book’s cover flap:

The most profound problem with consumerism, argues Vincent Miller, is not the consumption of consumer goods, but the ways in which it trains us to treat everything, including religion, as an object of consumption.

I wasn’t even five years old when the advertising explosion hit its stride in the early 90′s. How much of my worldview has been shaped by the worship of Want? Going further, how much of my rejection of consumption has itself been consumed?

I’ll leave you with another quote. From page two of the introduction:

The relationship of beliefs, narratives, and symbols to concrete practice is always complex. In consumer cultures it is particularly so, owing to advanced capitalism’s protean power to exploit critique. This ability to encompass dissent is a serious concern for theology, because it presumes that the beliefs, narratives, and symbols that it stewards inform the life and politics of the Christian community.

Buy Nothing Christmas.

For the last couple of birthdays and Christmases I’ve toyed with the idea of Adbusters’ Buy Nothing Day campaign, failing each time. I pay lip service to the idea of simple living and for the most part do pretty well at it, but special events are my weakness. The idea of getting something for free is simply too enticing to pass up.

No longer.

As a missionary, my life is lived through the gifts of others. The idea of getting an “extra-special” gift simply because our society has constructed a ridiculous tradition of over-consumption is simply too much to handle now. Each gift I give will be either hand-made or a free service. While this will make it far more difficult to get gifts, it will make each gift that much more meaningful.

I would encourage everyone to do the same.

Visit buynothingchristmas.org for more information.

Fall DTS Canceled.

I walked into Vegas with no expectations.
I was still surprised by what I found.

The Discipleship Training School started a week after I arrived with a grand total of three students – all girls. It was the lowest student total the base had ever seen. One girl was from England, one from Holland, and one from Idaho. Already we were strapped for funding, as three students leaves little breathing room to cover basic costs. In YWAM lecture speakers usually receive honorariums in exchange for their services, and we couldn’t pay any of them. When the school started several of the speakers had withdrawn, including our first week’s lecturer. The situation wasn’t exactly desperate, but it was close.

And then the other shoe dropped. On Thursday of orientation week, just the fourth day into the school, one of the students informed us that she had already bought her ticket home. She felt homesick, out of place, that she was here for the wrong reasons. There were no hard feelings from her or us – she certainly didn’t mean to hurt us, and we didn’t want to force her into anything she didn’t feel called to do. On a shoestring budget, however, the loss of one-third of the student fees was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We were forced to cancel the school.

Willy G. on Nonviolence.

Per Wikipedia:

William Lloyd Garrison (December 13, 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer…

“The history of mankind is crowded with evidences proving that physical coercion is not adapted to moral regeneration, and that the sinful dipositions of men can be subdued only by love; that evil can be exterminated only by good; that it is not safe to rely upon the strength of an armto preserve us from harm; that there is great security in being gentle, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy; that it is only the meek who shall inherit the earth; for those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.”

New Sign for The Pier.

The Pier is YWAM Las Vegas’ community resource center, located at 522 West Washington in North Las Vegas. It occupies what used to be the EOB building (I’m still not sure what EOB actually stands for, Economic Opportunity Bureau or something) and even though we’ve had it for over a year a lot of people still refer to it as such. In an effort to declare our presence we had a banner made which I designed. I’m pretty proud of it.