{"id":18652,"date":"2014-04-25T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=18652"},"modified":"2014-04-24T19:27:53","modified_gmt":"2014-04-24T23:27:53","slug":"moralistic-consumerism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/04\/moralistic-consumerism\/","title":{"rendered":"Moralistic consumerism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Methodist minister Morgan Guyton has written a post entitled \u201cSix Ways that Capitalism Fails the Church.\u201d\u00a0<\/a> His main point has to do not so much with free market economics as with the way the marketing and consumer mentality is distorting how churches operate.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree with a great deal of what he says, but after the jump, I quote him on what he calls \u201cmoralistic consumerism.\u201d <\/p>\n

From Morgan Guyton, Six ways that capitalism fails the church | Mercy Not Sacrifice<\/a>:<\/p>\n

2) Capitalism fails the church when consumerism becomes a moralistic obligation<\/strong><\/p>\n

It really hit me recently how the greatest competitor, at least among middle-class people, to the kind of kingdom living that church is supposed to instill is not greed or gluttony or laziness, but moralistic consumerism. The reason that so few Christians tithe is not because they\u2019re spending their money on booze and bon-bons. It\u2019s because they\u2019ve been indoctrinated with the sense that \u201cresponsible\u201d people save all that they can for retirement and their children\u2019s college education. It feels like a reckless indulgence to throw a bunch of money at God when there are so many things that could happen to you that would leave your family destitute. The same principle applies to the Sunday travel soccer leagues. Middle-class churchgoers who only make church once a month because of travel soccer or Boy Scout campouts or other children\u2019s obligations are not playing hookey as an act of liberating mischief; they\u2019re doing what they feel obligated to do as \u201cresponsible\u201d parents, and church simply doesn\u2019t feel as obligatory as their children\u2019s other activities. All of this is part of a middle-class existence that is defined by a guilt-ridden moralistic consumerism. We are guilt-tripped into \u201cdoing our homework\u201d for all our purchasing decisions, such as buying bread that doesn\u2019t have high fructose corn syrup or switching over to almond milk because of the latest research on the impact of dairy milk on children\u2019s development. Nothing is wrong with any particular purchasing decision, but they all add up and create a monstrous system of worship that competes with our ability to rest in Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HT:\u00a0 Mary Moerbe<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Methodist minister Morgan Guyton has written a post entitled \u201cSix Ways that Capitalism Fails the Church.\u201d\u00a0 His main point has to do not so much with free market economics as with the way the marketing and consumer mentality is distorting how churches operate.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree with a great deal of what he says, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[372,2903,570],"class_list":["post-18652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-economics","tag-capitalism","tag-churches","tag-consumerism"],"yoast_head":"\nMoralistic consumerism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Methodist minister Morgan Guyton has written a post entitled "Six Ways that Capitalism Fails the Church."\u00a0 His main point has to do not so much with free\" 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