We are in the middle of a very serious epidemic in this country. No, the Centers for Disease Control have not issued any warnings, and doctors and healthcare professionals have not reported any outbreak of disease or plague. But the epidemic we face is real, powerful and very dangerous. It is an Affluenza epidemic.
Affluenza is the desire to possess more and more stuff, and it is spreading throughout our culture at epidemic pace. Unfortunately, though Christians follow a man of poverty, we too have fallen victim to Affluenza.
Jesus had a great deal to say about wealth and possessions and our proper response to them. Indeed, Jesus constantly provoked his hearers with radical ideas about wealth and possessions; ideas so radical that we still attempt to explain them away or ignore them altogether. At the heart of his message was a strong warning against Affluenza, or to use a more offensive term, greed.
Kendall – Thank you for the posting. One concern I have is the apparent conflation of greed with affluenza. While those with means (almost by definition) are those at risk for falling into the unfulfilling cycle of purchasing more and more outside the scope of need, certainly the those without means can (and do) let the desire to acquire or excessive dwelling on material scarcity overpower them. Coming from an extended family with many from the latter group, I see it first hand.
#1 is more than correct. It is not wealth, but accumulation: The sin, if it be that, is not greed, but allowing oneself to be made into the Perfect Consumer, one who buys and buys because it is America’s most important Good, and who throws away or stores and buys again because America cannot survive without constant purchasing. This is a faith, a True Belief, and turns even the most ordinary man into a puppet, and a willing one at that. When the only world that one can believe in is this one, t hen it is the things of this world which provide salvation. Larry
What we have here is the stereotypical “Christian Communist” whine re: “horizontal affluenza.” Most of these whiner don’t even tithe to their churches. To paraphrase Wesley – “make all you can (ethically, that is) and give away all you can.”
The Bible is very comprehensive on this topic-namely, that ones attitude towards manna is the key. Proverbs alone paints a good picture of this. Proverbs 23:4-5 warn: “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.”
And yet just as forcefully, the wisdom of God instructs: “Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds; For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations.
When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in, the lambs will be for your clothing,
and the goats will bring the price of a field, and there will be goats’ milk enough for your food, for the food of your household, and sustenance for your maidens.” (Proverbs 27:23-27)
Something that I had never seen before is that the virtuous woman passage in Proverbs 31 pulls these ideas together.
She is described as industrious, frugal, a wise shopper, and capable enough to make fine linens and belts to sell at market. And yet we also read: “She extends her hand to the poor, and she stretches out her hands to the needy.”
I could bore you with a lot of other texts, and perhaps I’m preaching to the choir. Suffice to say that the message of scripture seems to be that wealth itself is not a problem; its ones attitude toward it that makes the difference.