{"id":11725,"date":"2017-02-15T22:49:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T06:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=11725"},"modified":"2017-02-15T22:49:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T06:49:39","slug":"healthy-relationships-offset-consumerism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/healthy-relationships-offset-consumerism\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Relationships Offset Consumerism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Relationship\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is no secret that capitalistic societies have influenced a consumer mentality in churches and society. I appreciated the clear summary and strong points Miller addresses to the negative effects of consumerism and the impact this is having on society and religion. Although he offered some tactics to combat consumerism in his final chapters for the individual and community, I found myself longing for the solutions to be more culturally relevant and contextual in introducing people to a non-consuming, relational God.<\/p>\n

In two areas I would like to offer a different perspective. Miller references the development of the therapeutic self, and although it is true, an over-emphasis on self has developed more narcissism and increased consumption, I do not think this has been the exclusive outcome of the development of the therapeutic self. Therapy can be a positive solution to counter the shame induced and fear-based religious teachings that have had a negative effect on the self-esteem of people and beliefs of God throughout history. Perhaps, if churches were teaching more about a loving and relational God, full of grace, respect, power and adventure, many would find themselves wandering into church instead of therapy or psychiatric offices to offset the destructive, negative teachings of an un-relational, patriarchal, punitive, God. With the three primary relationships of: God, self and others, it is not uncommon for churches to neglect the relationship with self. We cannot give what we do not have, and when we are substituting things for people, operating with self-contempt, isolating in shame, and unaware of un-forgiveness, I believe this has been a contributing factor in creating harsh, judgmental communities not living the Golden Rule or acting in love. If the therapeutic process involves all three of these primary relationships versus just an exclusive focus on self, an individual can have a healthy self-actualization process, an accurate perception of God, and become better equipped to love and relate to others successfully.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Miller references “Sheliasms” which was named after a Shelia Larson, who grounded her faith in her inner voice, psychotherapy, and was uninfluenced by spiritual communities (Miller, 88 & 89). This is a typical client I service. Tragically, there is so much gender bias through marginalization and objectifying of women in the churches in my area, they struggle with emotional and spiritual stability. The healthy ones have had to: grieve, find alternate ways to worship, develop emotional and spiritual boundaries when attending church, or create other healthy church communities. Most of the women I have worked with do not want to leave the church\u00a0and wrestle bravely to stay while keeping themselves safe and sane. They are trained not to complain, as it is “selfish”, and struggle to be respected or they leave like Shelia, opting for more accepting environments. It has been very rewarding assisting churches in cultivating nurturing cultures\u00a0and helping women to establish healthy roles within their church.<\/p>\n

It appears healthy relationships are essential to combating consumerism in our capitalistic societies so people are not replaced by things. In society and our churches, it would be refreshing if we placed more emphasis on living loving relationships full of mutuality, instruction on how to have healthy community in our relationships, and encouragement to have a healthy relationship with God and others without excluding a loving relationship with yourself.<\/p>\n

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It is no secret that capitalistic societies have influenced a consumer mentality in churches and society. I appreciated the clear summary and strong points Miller addresses to the negative effects of consumerism and the impact this is having on society and religion. Although he offered some tactics to combat consumerism in his final chapters for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[255],"class_list":["post-11725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-miller","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}