Written by: Stefania Tarasut on April 16, 2014

The way I see it, there are two problems with consumerism. Actually, there are a lot more than two, but for the sake of this post I will only focus on two. First, “Consumerism is a type of spirituality… it is a way of pursuing meaning and identity, a way of connecting with other people.”[1] Most Christians will either roll their eyes at such a statement or agree with it but quickly point the finger to others in the Christian community. As Christians, our first desire is to make Christ the center of our lives. It’s hard for us to admit that in fact we gain our identity and meaning from the things we own.

Second, consumerism has caused us to be “detached from the producers, the people who actually make our things.”[2] Those people are are invisible to us, therefore we can continue to sustain our consumer habits because we are blind to the consequences. We are detatched from people and things. Detatchement takes away value and importance. It’s easy to throw away the things you don’t value… things, or people.

A few years ago Voice of the Martyrs held a conference in Portland. I took my youth group because I wanted them to hear the stories of what Christians go through around the world. A young woman from China told her story. She was imprisoned in a work camp for being a Christian. She told us of how for years she was made to work in a factory for 14 hours a day making Christmas tree lights that were later exported to America. “My fingers were bleeding as I was putting these lights together,” she said. “When you look at them, you see beautiful things… when I look at them I see pain and sorrow,” she continued. That year I was determined not to buy Christmas lights made in China… but do you know how hard it is to find Christmas lights not made in China?  It was impossible… Our tree went without.

Consumerism is evil packaged in beauty. It’s sorrow packaged in joy. It’s my freedom at the cost of anothers.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” I think that God will hold us accountable for our relationships with those that make our stuff… the people that go without so that I can have the freedom to throw things away.

About the Author

Stefania Tarasut