Religion and Consumption

[vitamin]

Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking about the role that religion (particularly Christianity) may play in the consumption-oriented nature of American culture.

For better or worse, the US is primarily composed of Christians and I'm starting to wonder how those beliefs interact with the value we (as a nation) place on the consumption of food, resources and consumer goods.

Have any of you been able to form some kind of opinion on the subject, or (better yet) run across any information on the topic?

[Darth Rotor]

Have any of you been able to form some kind of opinion on the subject, or (better yet) run across any information on the topic?

Eat more bacon.

[Limbo]

Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking about the role that religion (particularly Christianity) may play in the consumption-oriented nature of American culture.

For better or worse, the US is primarily composed of Christians and I'm starting to wonder how those beliefs interact with the value we (as a nation) place on the consumption of food, resources and consumer goods.

Have any of you been able to form some kind of opinion on the subject, or (better yet) run across any information on the topic?


Have you seen Century of the Self? It's on google video.

[mike3]

Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking about the role that religion (particularly Christianity) may play in the consumption-oriented nature of American culture.

For better or worse, the US is primarily composed of Christians and I'm starting to wonder how those beliefs interact with the value we (as a nation) place on the consumption of food, resources and consumer goods.

Have any of you been able to form some kind of opinion on the subject, or (better yet) run across any information on the topic?

It would be interesting, esp. since religions like Christianity say in their book that doing such things is wrong (look at the laws against greed, gluttony, etc.). The problem it seems is that lots of people claim to follow these religions but don't, and instead follow some church or their peer instead, and there's the problem.

[bruto]

Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking about the role that religion (particularly Christianity) may play in the consumption-oriented nature of American culture.

For better or worse, the US is primarily composed of Christians and I'm starting to wonder how those beliefs interact with the value we (as a nation) place on the consumption of food, resources and consumer goods.

Have any of you been able to form some kind of opinion on the subject, or (better yet) run across any information on the topic?

I suppose you could look at America's history and come up with a surmise. So far, it seems, Christianity has not curbed our consumption, and some would suggest that it has fueled our disregard for the environment, whether out of a sense of entitlement or a belief that the world will end before we have a chance to use it all up.

[Flo]

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?
By Hanna Rosin
The “prosperity gospel” encouraged financial risk in the name of God for millions (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/rosin-prosperity-gospel)


Horrible headline, writen with an extra-super-duper-wide brush, but excellent article on the subject in this month The Atlantic (no, Darth, I don't believe all Christians, or christianity as a whole, are responsible for the subprime mortgage debacle, neither does the author).

[Fnord]

From the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28:

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Well, that settles it. Let's rape the land, subjugate minorities, enslave animals, and generally make a mess of everything because that's the word, and the word is the law!

[Darth Rotor]

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?
By Hanna Rosin
The “prosperity gospel” encouraged financial risk in the name of God for millions (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/rosin-prosperity-gospel)

Horrible headline, writen with an extra-super-duper-wide brush, but excellent article on the subject in this month The Atlantic (no, Darth, I don't believe all Christians, or christianity as a whole, are responsible for the subprime mortgage debacle, neither does the author).

I get the Atlantic, will check to see if the issue has arrived at the house. Looks like an interesting article.

Question: if one is to use a deliberate question begging for a headline, should we blame Rosin, or the editors of Atlantic who probably word smithed the title? When one chooses to deliberately conflate "prosperity gospel" (with which I am familiar, see Joel Osteen among others) with "Christian" in general, one is open to attack for being, perish the thought, dishonest.
Among mainstream, nondenominational megachurches, where much of American religious life takes place,
????????? Rosin has no clue what she's talking about here.
One theme emerging in these suits is how banks teamed up with pastors to win over new customers for subprime loans.
And there you have it: does the parson serve God, or Mammon?
The idea of reaching out to churches took off quickly, Jacobson recalls. The branch managers figured pastors had a lot of influence with their parishioners and could give the loan officers credibility and new customers. Jacobson remembers a conference call where sales managers discussed the new strategy. The plan was to send officers to guest-speak at church-sponsored “wealth-building seminars” like the ones Bowler attended, and dazzle the participants with the possibility of a new house. They would tell pastors that for every person who took out a mortgage, $350 would be donated to the church, or to a charity of the parishioner’s choice. “They wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, Mr. Minister. We want to give your people a bunch of subprime loans,” Jacobson told me. “They would say, ‘Your congregants will be homeowners! They will be able to live the American dream!’”
(Some sort of joke about false prophets and false profits seems apropos here, does it not?)
The tenets of the prosperity gospel, and the practical advice that pastors often give their parishioners, help immigrants learn “not just how to survive but how to thrive; not just live paycheck to paycheck but handle money—manage complicated payrolls, invest in equipment,” Lin told me. Along the way, they become assimilated. “While they’re trying to be closer to God, instead they become American,” he says, from their optimism and entrepreneurialism to the very nature of their dreams.
That's an interesting observation.
Once, I asked Garay how you would know for certain if God had told you to buy a house, and he answered like a roulette dealer. “Ten Christians will say that God told them to buy a house. In nine of the cases, it will go bad. The 10th one is the real Christian.” And the other nine? “For them, there’s always another house.”
Well there you go: wear the kilt to church, and the house is a done deal. :p





DR

[Flo]

I get the Atlantic, will check to see if the issue has arrived at the house. Looks like an interesting article.

It is. It confirmed some observations about the ravages the prosperity gospel has done in some parts of West Africa (I'm familiar with the situation in Ivory Coast and Cameroon, and a bit of Nigeria).

Question: if one is to use a deliberate question begging for a headline, should we blame Rosin, or the editors of Atlantic who probably word smithed the title? When one chooses to deliberately conflate "prosperity gospel" (with which I am familiar, see Joel Osteen among others) with "Christian" in general, one is open to attack for being, perish the thought, dishonest.

I totally agree. The authors of the headline, whoever they are, should be tarred and feathered, preferably with the brush they used ...