Commodification<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Commodification<\/span> – \u201cTo turn into a commodity; make commercial; to treat as if a commodity.\u201d1<\/p>\n I would like to expand this definition just a bit, not alter it, just expand it.<\/p>\n Commodification<\/span> – \u201cTo make something (or someone), not originally intended to be bought or sold,<\/i><\/b> <\/i>into an item to be exploited, used up and ultimately discarded as empty and without worth.\u201d2<\/p>\n Is that better?\u00a0 A little heavy on the cynicism?\u00a0 Sorry\u2026<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quote for you: \u201cA sacramental view of the world sees all things as part of God\u2019s good creation, potential signs of the glory of God; things become less disposable, more filled with meaning.\u201d<\/em>3 \u00a0Cavanaugh offers this statement with the implicit directive to choose this path, that each of us has the opportunity to wear sacramental lenses when we view our world and that we should take full advantage of that opportunity.\u00a0 Easy, right?\u00a0 Just embrace \u201ca sacramental view\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Ok.<\/p>\n I think by this time in our journey, all of us in the cohort are feeling the pains of our consumerism deeply and personally (Jason, we get it, already!\u00a0 Ease up a little bro!).\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>What I\u2019m trying to dig down into is a little more of the why<\/i> behind the what<\/i>.\u00a0 By this time, we can all clearly articulate the problems, where we have strayed from God’s purposes, but I\u2019m haunted by the \u201cwhy?\u201d\u00a0 We all agree there\u2019s a problem yet we seem to be incapable of altering our routines substantially beyond the occasional altruistic adjustment (\u201cfair-trade\u201d coffee, Tom\u2019s shoes, \u201ccharity\u201d golf tournament etc.) brought on by the pangs of guilt.\u00a0 Fits and starts, winding back up essentially where we began\u2026\u00a0 Tired from our frenetic consumerism, entitled to our comforts, ashamed of our neediness.\u00a0 So, why?<\/p>\n Why do we tend towards commodification?\u00a0 How have we allowed our compulsion to consume to seep into so many corners of our spiritual DNA?\u00a0 We have even commodified the most basic of all relationships, the relationship between the Creator and the created.\u00a0 To consume\u00a0 has \u201cbecome the dominant cultural practice, [systematically misdirecting us] from traditional religious practices into consumption.\u201d4 \u00a0The end result being the commodification of the very thing (religion) intended to make us better, more like our Creator.\u00a0 Our spiritual practices become a sub-set on a menu of self-centric choices:<\/p>\n \u201cFor an appetizer, I\u2019ll have the contemplative spirituality with a side of care for the poor (just a dash please).\u00a0 Then for the main course, give me the narcissistic, wow-factor Sunday service!\u00a0 Then for dessert, the tiny pang of altar-call guilt (my wife and I will be sharing that so bring two spoons please).\u00a0 If we like it, and feel well-treated, we might be back next week\u2026 Unless a better show opens up across town, of course.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Again, I am really good at articulating the problem but every time I attempt to dig into why, I just circle back to \u201cwhat?\u201d\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just the simple reality of the fallen flesh, this is just how we are and we can\u2019t help it!\u00a0 We\u2019re prone to follow the path of least resistance, giving in to our fleshly desires.\u00a0 I don’t know but something in my gut tells me there\u2019s a more sinister action underway here.\u00a0 There seems to be a foggy euphoria triggered every time the thirsts of the flesh are momentarily quenched (even in the realm of the religious\u2026), just enough to make me want more but not enough to truly satisfy.\u00a0 I no longer produce anything that I consume, as if the fruits of my own labors are not good enough, I must have the fruits of another man\u2019s sweat.\u00a0 \u201cWe used to make things; now we buy them.\u201d5 \u00a0And there is never enough to truly satisfy.\u00a0 This MUST be the modern expression of \u201cthe lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life\u201d (1 John 2:16) which are not from God, but rather, from the tempter, seeping into the most sacred of domains \u2014 our relationship with God.\u00a0 My heart is pricked, I must find the \u201cwhy?\u201d so that I can take it before the Lord and surrender it to him.\u00a0 Our world cannot continue with those of us who are supposed to bear the image of God being swallowed up in our own reflections instead.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. Dictionary.com<\/p>\n 2. Lexicon of Jon-isms<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, Economics and Christian Desire <\/i>(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 58.<\/p>\n 4. Vincent J. Miller, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture <\/i>(New York: Continuum, 2008) 225.<\/p>\n 5. Cavanaugh, 37.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Commodification Commodification – \u201cTo turn into a commodity; make commercial; to treat as if a commodity.\u201d1 I would like to expand this definition just a bit, not alter it, just expand it. Commodification – \u201cTo make something (or someone), not originally intended to be bought or sold, into an item to be exploited, used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"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":[618,370,2],"class_list":["post-4443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cavanaugh-miller","tag-commodification","tag-dminlgp","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443","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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4443"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4449,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443\/revisions\/4449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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