Years ago, I heard a story of a middle-aged woman named Nancy who lived in Pennsylvania and one summer traveled to California to visit her sister. Nancy and her sister decided to go shopping in Tijuana, a Mexican border town below California. On their way back to the car to head to California, Nancy saw a little dog shivering in the gutter. Her heart immediately went out to the dog and in anger she said to her sister, \u201cWhat idiot would leave their Chihuahua her to die?\u201d Nancy picked up the dog and it barely responded to her. She could see it was dying and barely breathing. On their way back to her sister\u2019s home she bought dog food and tried to feed the dog. He did not eat and barely responded to Nancy. <\/p>\n
That evening Nancy allowed the dog to sleep with her hoping she could provide some motherly comfort. But in the morning, there was barely any response from the dog. Nancy took the dog to the veterinarian, and he was able to inspect it. In less than thirty seconds the doctor asked, \u201cMam, where did you get this animal?\u201d Nancy knew it was illegal to bring a dog from Mexico to California, so she lied and said, \u201cMy sister is on vacation, and I am watching her little sweet Chihuahua until she returns.\u201d But the doctor firmly insisted, \u201cWhere did you get this animal?\u201d Nancy fearfully replied, \u201cI found the Chihuahua in the gutter dying and my heart went out to him. I wasn\u2019t gonna let him die right there!\u201d The doctor quietly responded, \u201cMam, this is no Chihuahua. This is a Mexican rabid river rat. One bite and your dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about Nancy\u2019s story a couple of times as I read Consuming Religion by Vincent Miller. I am sure you are thinking, what in the world do they have in common? Well, they have three things in common I want to emphasize.<\/p>\n
1.\tUnawareness.
\n2.\tSelf-deception.
\n3.\tShame .<\/p>\n
Unawareness<\/strong><\/p>\n Nancy was unaware of the difference between a Chihuahua and a Mexican river rat. Miller analyzes how consumer culture commodifies everything, including religious practice, making it impossible to confront it head on. \u201cThis book explores how consumer culture changes our relationship with religious beliefs, narratives, and symbols.\u201d1 It changes our relationship with religious beliefs because we have been unaware of how consumerism has influenced us. It is rare for us to question ourselves by asking, \u201cHow unaware am I of being influenced by consumer culture?\u201d Most of us do not realize the origins of where a consumer product comes from. We are unaware. When we buy a product, we tend not to think, \u201cWas this made in a sweat shop? How does this company treat its employees? Is there a problem or negative pattern with many people who have been fired from this company in the past ten years? Even though I can afford this, how much money will it take away from investing in the poor? Will this promotion impact my Sunday morning attendance? When I miss church due to a better job or because I need to work to pay for my shiny toys, who are the people that will be missing out on my ministry to them?\u201d Like Nancy, we tend to be totally blinded or are unaware of our decisions. <\/p>\n Self-deception.<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Nancy had no awareness of the danger of her decision her compassion, kindness, love, and grace actually compelled her to hold onto something that was dangerous. She even used her money unwisely to help her cause. Webster\u2019s Dictionary defines self-deception as \u201cthe action or practice of allowing oneself to believe that a false or unvalidated feeling, idea, or situation is true.\u201d2 Miller asks, \u201cIf consumption is a dominant social practice, we must consider what people are able to accomplish through it. Are beliefs and values completely reduced to disposable objects of consumption, or are people able to accomplish politically significant things through such consumption?\u201d3 Could it be that since we can afford so much, we think we are always accomplishing so much? Could it be because we have so much, we actually feel blessed because of our material gain? Is there any truth to the fact that we might deeply think, \u201cthe bigger the church the better.\u201d Miller has proven that we are valuing stuff over relationships. Deep down inside I do not believe we want to but that\u2019s what self-deception does. \u201cConsumer culture disarms religious traditions.\u201d4 Consumer culture brings an ever increasing self-deception. It blinds us to how we are actually hurting ourselves and others. Nancy put herself and her sister in danger. <\/p>\n Shame.<\/strong><\/p>\n Once Nancy was confronted with the truth, due to her compassion, she dug in with her belief of doing the right thing. As she was confronted a little deeper and was told what was really going on, there was most likely shame, fear, and \u201cOh no, what did I do! Do I have rabi\u2019s?\u201d Because of consumer culture religion becomes something that must be personalized to suit the individual consumer. Consumerism may lead people to make choices that prioritize their own desires and comforts over the needs of others. It can foster an environment where economic disparities persist, and vulnerable populations suffer. Consumerism often fosters greed, envy, and a sense of entitlement. The Bible contains numerous passages that caution against the dangers of materialism and greed. For instance, in the New Testament, Jesus warns, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money”5<\/p>\n When a person becomes aware of her consumeristic ways, it can lead to shame because of understanding all the ways she was unaware of her self-deception and unaware of treating others including herself like a commodity. \u201cBelievers increasingly relate to religious traditions as repositories of insights and practices that they appropriate for their own personal syntheses.\u201d6 So, why did Nancy really pick up that animal when she knew it was illegal to bring it across the border. Could it be because consumerism often fosters greed, envy, and a sense of entitlement?<\/p>\n 1.\tMiller, Vincent. Consuming Religion. P. 3. Years ago, I heard a story of a middle-aged woman named Nancy who lived in Pennsylvania and one summer traveled to California to visit her sister. Nancy and her sister decided to go shopping in Tijuana, a Mexican border town below California. On their way back to the car to head to California, Nancy saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"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":[2310],"tags":[2904],"class_list":["post-34029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02-miller-clark","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34029","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34030,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34029\/revisions\/34030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2.\tMerriam-Webster Dictionary, New edition, 2022. P. 1043.
\n3.\tMiller, Vincent. Consuming Religion. P. 12.
\n4.\tIbid. P.148.
\n5.\tIbid. P.145.
\n6.\tIbid. P. 90.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"