Culture

The High Price of Materialism

/ Martin / 2 Comments

This short video was posted by a friend on Facebook – have a look and see what you think….

It is also posted on the website for ‘The Centre for a New American Dream‘ who introduced it as follows:

In this short animation, psychologist Tim Kasser discusses how America’s culture of consumerism undermines our well-being. When people buy into the ever-present marketing messages that “the good life” is “the goods life,” they not only use up Earth’s limited resources, but they are less happy and less inclined toward helping others.

The animation both lays out the problems of excess materialism and points toward solutions that promise a healthier, more just, and more sustainable life.

What do you think?

Personally, I think it would be hard to develop ‘intrinsic values’ within a secular culture that encourages an unhealthy obsession with the ‘self’….but when you consider it from a Gospel and Kingdom of God perspective then it all sort of makes more sense…creativity and generosity rather than consumption and greed….sounds like heaven to me 🙂

HT: Darius Namdaran

Occupy Wall St – The Revolution Is Love

/ Martin / 4 Comments

How about this as an expression of the Kingdom of God….

This is the biblical vision of the Kingdom of God…the guy just doesn’t realise it. This is what Jesus came and died to achieve.  This is what the world is like with Jesus as King…he just doesn’t articulate it in that way.

It’s bigger than the church…because the church is just part of the Kingdom of God – admitedly it’s God’s chosen vehicle to express His Kingdom mission (which it doesn’t do very well), but the Kingdom is still much bigger – God is doing so much more through restitution, reconciliation, recreation and resurrection….and Jesus is the singularity at the centre of it all – whether people realise it or not…..

The ironic thing is that this is what the church is (or should be) preaching…but no-one will recognise it as the gospel because the way that the church has historically expressed it is just NOT perceived as good news by so many people in our contemporary culture….