The following quote comes from David Cowan in Economic Parables: The Monetary Teaching of Jesus Christ. I almost jumped from my chair and shouted “YES!” when I came to this passage; it expresses my sentiments so well.
Those who would want to undermine the free market system are escapists. They too have economic aspirations. This protest movement has its own style of dress, music, and language, branded and sold like any other commodity in the economic world. The celebrities who preach to us about the ills of free enterprise earn huge advertising contracts from major companies. They are, in effect, the chief executive officers of multi-million-dollar-a-year corporations, something along the line of “U2 Inc.” and the “George Clooney Corporation.” They are what they protest.
The crowds who gather to protest free enterprise and globalization warn us of environmental cynicism and poor stewardship and link these to poverty. Are they the crowds to be feared? I suggest not. The crowd Jesus faced was not a group of well-healed protestors in designer jeans, organized via the Internet. They did not cheer rock stars with wealth beyond their dreams at “poverty concerts.” The crowds who gather to protest capitalism are what they protest. They fly to the protests using cheap Internet airline deals, seek the best hotel packages, and wear designer clothes. They seek identity in this economy, a cause that will set them apart, showing themselves to radically different from people in the business suits or doing an honest day’s work. Where is the prophecy in that?
The protestors have become, in essence, “consumers of poverty,” purchasing the feel-good factor of thinking that they have done something about the problem. Poverty is deeply troubling and complex, with many causes and with many barriers standing in the way of change. Many of the environmental problems are in poorer countries, which do not have the economic resources to tackle their difficulties. One effect of better economic management in these countries will be better environmental conditions. There are people in poor countries who can help themselves; they need the capital to invest and the know-how, not sympathy. (106-108)
Cowan says “consumers of poverty.” I might have said “consumers of poverty activism.” So much of what passes as social justice advocacy is little more than activist consumerism. Activists deride the church for its consumerism. Churches are charged with offering ministries that merely cater to the felt-needs of the congregants without calling for genuine transformation. What is being offered in its place?
Much of what is being trumpeted as emerging Christianity is precisely the same. Segments of the church feel disaffected from the “product” and identity being offered from the church they grew up with. New identity competitors have risen up to meet the felt-needs of these disaffected folks. These new suppliers cater to the felt-need for activism and the need for an identity that will distinguish the advocacy consumer from lesser evolved and out of style consumers of the old Christian consumerism. Populist events and online campaigns are organized so customers can have their identity reinforced by like-minded consumers. Idealistic leaders are molded for mass consumption through personal appearances, print, and electronic media. Enemies are identified and singled out (say, market economy sympathizers or U. N. skeptics) for either attack or marginalization. This too helps increase loyalty of advocacy consumers to advocacy products and their purveyors.
Meanwhile, precious few customers of this Christian advocacy product actually have seriously wrestled with the advocated issues. The willingness of people to polemically engage economic issues, for instance, without ever having taken a class in economics or even making minimal effort to be acquainted with the most fundamental economic concepts is pervasive. It should not be a surprise, since the real issue is not about the poor but rather the felt-needs of the advocacy consumer to be an advocate for justice. It is no different from the consumerism advocates deride in the “consumer church” where discipleship is not truly about discipleship but about the customers felt-need to feel spiritual. In advocacy consumerism, the poor are made an object for satisfying felt needs of consumers. So maybe Cowan is right after all. Maybe they should be called “consumers of poverty.”
True pursuit of justice requires consumption. We must consume a variety of ideas and experiences that are in the marketplace of ideas as we collectively seek God’s wisdom. We have to be vigilant in finding our identity in God and not in our systems of understanding. Regrettably, much of what represents itself as prophetic advocacy is not a healthy consumption of knowledge and wisdom but merely advocacy consumerism.
