This week I visited the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) for the first time in a few years. It is an odd experience as, while, practically, a very useful opportunity to see a wide range of suppliers and products, it makes transparent the extent to which Christianity is immersed in capitalism at the same time that this reality is resolutely ignored.
The exhibition features well over 300 suppliers each with a product to sell yet this is not written about or spoken of as a commercial event instead it is described as an exhibition providing everything needed to resource, equip and empower the Church. In this way, the commercial nature of the event is disguised by the use of spiritual language to describe what occurs.
CRE also provides "practical and resourcing seminars" and workshops, together with opportunities to "enjoy the very best in Christian theatre and music" but again each are provided by those who have products to sell in the main exhibition. Unless you are willing to separate the presentations and performances from the product placement, this produces some odd disjunctions. So, Stuart Townend began leading worship by saying that this was time out from viewing cassocks to worship God. Yet, if worship is holistic, then viewing cassocks is as much worship as is singing songs, as, perhaps, is selling product which was, after all, among the reasons Townend was there as his most recent album was being heavily promoted in the main exhibition with a huge advert on the Kingsway stand featuring his face.
This is not intended as an attack on CRE or Townend (we'll be singing at least one of his songs tomorrow at St John's Seven Kings) but simply as an observation that we tend not, as a Church, to actively acknowledge the extent to which we imitate the consumerist Capitalist culture of which we are part. Now I would fully acknowledge that I am as complicit in this as the next person having chosen to work within existing structures and needing many of the suppliers and products at CRE in order to do mission and ministry at St John's Seven Kings. My main complaint is that we don't honestly acknowledge the reality of what we are doing but instead dress it up in spiritual language and, in fact, seem to need to do this in order to sell the products which we are promoting.
There are several implications. First, that we cannot truly provide an alternative to consumerism when we are so enmeshed in it ourselves. Second, that much of what we then promote is safe, rather than radical, at least in part because that is what sells. It was interesting to note that none of the groups involved in emerging church appeared to be represented at CRE and that those who are seen as representatives for that movement, which seeks to work at least to some extent outside of mainstream Christian structures and culture, were not being heavily promoted by those who were there at CRE. Having said that such groups are still implicated usually having their own product to sell albeit via other channels.
Can we escape the dilemma? Possibly not, or not fully, being part of a consumerist culture but the debate about the extent to which we may or may not cannot really start until we honestly acknowledge that the extent to which we participate in consumerism.
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The Jam - In The Crowd.
Showing posts with label cre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cre. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 May 2011
The ethics and limits of atheistic evolution
On Tuesday I heard Anna Robbins (Senior Lecturer in Theology and Contemporary Culture, London School of Theology) speak at the Christian Resources Exhibition on Using the Bible in Ethics.
As an example of the application of the Bible in ethics, Anna contrasted the ethical implications of the Christian story of creation (as opposed to Creationism) with those of the story of atheistic evolution, which she argued is the current dominant story told in Western culture.
Atheistic evolution, she suggested, sees the development of life as a closed system requiring no external divine intervention in which the purpose of life is the transmission of genes through procreation. The ethical implications of this story then lead, she argued, to the sexualisation of our culture, something which can be seen, for example, in the lyrics of the Top 5 downloads (currently in the UK - 1. Where Them Girls At (feat. Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida) David Guetta; 2. The Lazy Song Bruno Mars; 3. Party Rock Anthem (feat. Lauren Bennet and GoonRock) LMFAO; 4. Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer) Pitbull; 5. Beautiful People (feat. Benny Benassi) Chris Brown) and the premature sexualisation of children through such things as retailers selling items of clothing inappropriate for the age they're targeting, sexually provocative music videos and newsagents stocking lads' mags in the eyeline of toddlers, among other examples.
I've preached on this theme on several occasions, particularly at baptisms, mixing the following poem by Steve Turner, the understanding of the 'world' which Stephen Verney argues is found in John's Gospel, and Switchfoot's New Way To Be Human:
"These are your first lessons in living.
To begin we drag you head-first from your shelter,
away from your food, from your warmth.
We cut you apart from your only known friend.
We take you and beat you until strange gases
rush your lungs and pain jerks your frame.
These are your first lessons in living.
They will stand you in good stead."
In this poem life is portrayed as something hard and painful. It says that we are being born into a world where, if we don’t look out for ourselves, we will dragged from everything we enjoy and beaten up. And it says that our first lessons in living when we emerge from our mother’s womb, the placenta is cut and the nurse strikes us on the back to get us breathing are important lessons for us in survival. The lesson to learn is that in a world like this we need to put ourselves first, we need to look after No. 1, otherwise someone else will take what we have and hurt us in the process. It is what scientists describe when they talk about us having selfish genes which get us ready to live in a world that is about the survival of the fittest.
John the Baptist talks about this way of understanding life when he says that Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The word used for ‘world’ means a way of life centred on our egocentricity. In this way of life “the ruling principle is the dictator ME”. My ego is all-important. The world revolves around me, my needs and my wishes. I do what I want when I want and to whom I want. When society is organised like that people spend all their time competing with each other, manipulating each other and trying to control each other. It’s called the survival of the fittest and it is what scientists say the world we are born into is like.
John the Baptist says that that is a sinful way of life and that Jesus came to take it away. Jesus shows us a new way of being human. His way of being human can be summed up in the words of John 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”. He looks at all of us, at all human beings, and says, “You are my friends”. Jesus allowed his own life to end so that all people could know what it is like to really live. Not to live in the old, selfish, self-centred way of being human but to live in his new way of being human, loving God with all our being and loving our neighbours as ourselves.
Similarly, in a recent post I used the recent Royal Wedding as an example of the way in which the language of what Robbins calls atheistic evolution is inadequate to capture our experience of the relationality of love:
"Instead of being about the mutual celebrations of love and affection which we saw between the couple themselves and also between the people of this country and the royal family, on the basis of measurable scientific knowledge what occurred Friday simply becomes about the survival of the fittest through the passing on of selfish genes in procreation. Our experiences of love and faith cannot be adequately captured through the language of scientific measurement. Instead, we need the languages of belief and imagination to give voice to what we truly experience of love and faith. As the Bishop of London said in his sermon, 'Faith and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life.'”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Switchfoot - New Way To Be Human.
As an example of the application of the Bible in ethics, Anna contrasted the ethical implications of the Christian story of creation (as opposed to Creationism) with those of the story of atheistic evolution, which she argued is the current dominant story told in Western culture.
Atheistic evolution, she suggested, sees the development of life as a closed system requiring no external divine intervention in which the purpose of life is the transmission of genes through procreation. The ethical implications of this story then lead, she argued, to the sexualisation of our culture, something which can be seen, for example, in the lyrics of the Top 5 downloads (currently in the UK - 1. Where Them Girls At (feat. Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida) David Guetta; 2. The Lazy Song Bruno Mars; 3. Party Rock Anthem (feat. Lauren Bennet and GoonRock) LMFAO; 4. Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer) Pitbull; 5. Beautiful People (feat. Benny Benassi) Chris Brown) and the premature sexualisation of children through such things as retailers selling items of clothing inappropriate for the age they're targeting, sexually provocative music videos and newsagents stocking lads' mags in the eyeline of toddlers, among other examples.
I've preached on this theme on several occasions, particularly at baptisms, mixing the following poem by Steve Turner, the understanding of the 'world' which Stephen Verney argues is found in John's Gospel, and Switchfoot's New Way To Be Human:
"These are your first lessons in living.
To begin we drag you head-first from your shelter,
away from your food, from your warmth.
We cut you apart from your only known friend.
We take you and beat you until strange gases
rush your lungs and pain jerks your frame.
These are your first lessons in living.
They will stand you in good stead."
In this poem life is portrayed as something hard and painful. It says that we are being born into a world where, if we don’t look out for ourselves, we will dragged from everything we enjoy and beaten up. And it says that our first lessons in living when we emerge from our mother’s womb, the placenta is cut and the nurse strikes us on the back to get us breathing are important lessons for us in survival. The lesson to learn is that in a world like this we need to put ourselves first, we need to look after No. 1, otherwise someone else will take what we have and hurt us in the process. It is what scientists describe when they talk about us having selfish genes which get us ready to live in a world that is about the survival of the fittest.
John the Baptist talks about this way of understanding life when he says that Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The word used for ‘world’ means a way of life centred on our egocentricity. In this way of life “the ruling principle is the dictator ME”. My ego is all-important. The world revolves around me, my needs and my wishes. I do what I want when I want and to whom I want. When society is organised like that people spend all their time competing with each other, manipulating each other and trying to control each other. It’s called the survival of the fittest and it is what scientists say the world we are born into is like.
John the Baptist says that that is a sinful way of life and that Jesus came to take it away. Jesus shows us a new way of being human. His way of being human can be summed up in the words of John 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”. He looks at all of us, at all human beings, and says, “You are my friends”. Jesus allowed his own life to end so that all people could know what it is like to really live. Not to live in the old, selfish, self-centred way of being human but to live in his new way of being human, loving God with all our being and loving our neighbours as ourselves.
Similarly, in a recent post I used the recent Royal Wedding as an example of the way in which the language of what Robbins calls atheistic evolution is inadequate to capture our experience of the relationality of love:
"Instead of being about the mutual celebrations of love and affection which we saw between the couple themselves and also between the people of this country and the royal family, on the basis of measurable scientific knowledge what occurred Friday simply becomes about the survival of the fittest through the passing on of selfish genes in procreation. Our experiences of love and faith cannot be adequately captured through the language of scientific measurement. Instead, we need the languages of belief and imagination to give voice to what we truly experience of love and faith. As the Bishop of London said in his sermon, 'Faith and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life.'”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Switchfoot - New Way To Be Human.
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