There is so much going on in our current times that we sometimes forget what the core values are in our fast-paced lives. One thing I have noticed in recent culture is the use of media and communication to drive us to become consumers. Consumers of social media and trending culture, with the bottom line being getting an individual to follow a person, show, dress style, etc. In other words, that which is popular. To follow the current trends, one must literally buy into the item being sold or promoted.

I often wonder whether we have surrendered our free will to be popular, or at the very least to be seen as part of the acceptable lifestyle being marketed.

If we look closely at this promotion of contemporary culture, there is a sinister side — control. For whatever reason, people seem eager to give their lives over to trends, fads, and consumer products that demand allegiance, if not at a cost. There is a subtext of control here.

I am speaking as a Christian; my observations arise from studying human nature and recognizing that we are, as Christians, given a path. For the last three hundred years, religion has been under scrutiny. I think here of the thinker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). He was a philosopher of Naturalism. This idea was that the state of nature held the right path for society.

Civilized society made humans selfish, self-centered, and morally bankrupt. It was the freedom we have in being our natural self, in short, it was about society and the corruption that created social problems. These ideas, along with a whole bevy of other thinkers (John Locke, Voltaire, Hobbes, Kant, to mention a few). It was these thinkers who fueled the ideas of the French Revolution. A revolution that was more about a social change than the dynamics of government. The revolutions in both America and France were the products of new social thought.

They saw religion as keeping our human nature grounded in a negative way, based on Faith. Christianity, for many of these thinkers, was not grounded in actual, factual, measurable ideas. Christianity was also associated with the realm of authority, in which the Church and State were intertwined. This, in many instances, led to social unrest and violence over belief and the Church. It was in this pool of thinkers that new ideas emerged about the origins of power and authority. Recall that it was our own Thomas Jefferson, imbued by many of these ideas, who said in the Declaration of Independence that authority rests in the people. These rights were given by God himself. Up until this time authority called “The Divine Right of Kings”, that is, the power to govern, came directly from God. The people, according to the new thought, were given the right to govern themselves as they were given this “Unalienable” right from God. Enlightenment ideas sought not only to change the concept of authority but also to create a secular state in which Church and State were separate.

There is an understanding here that the governed in this new secular state would be of a Christian background. That morality would follow the Christian path but would not interfere with or impose demands on the government. Why would I bring this up? For several reasons. First, the United States has become a diverse society in which people follow divergent moral paths.

The most consistent belief today is that society should be secular and tolerate many paths of moral behavior. But we have also become the largest market in the world, consuming more stuff than any other country on the globe. Is this a bad thing? Consuming things, fads, and celebrities has become the way we live our lives. Values grounded in Christian principles have become secondary to the acquisition of items that signal success and personal worth. As Christians abstract values come to life through use. What are these values? Compassion, empathy, care for others. In Christian shorthand, these are Faith, Hope, and Love. All of these abstracts are inherent in a Christian life. A Christian should reflect these values in both home and work. Many Christians today attend church, but it is lip service; they like the ideals of the Christian life but do not allow its teachings to affect their ordinary lives.

Christianity, I remind you, gives us the tools and grace to serve our families and community with the Truth. It instills humility and helps us embrace the responsibility for our actions. It provides an opportunity to amend our behavior and to respect all those we meet on our path. We are unique creations and we are loved by God. We do not need things to define ourselves; we do not need to dress, buy, or follow ideologies that make us question our human value as individuals loved by God. When these values are lost, the pool of consumerism and social acceptance of manufactured culture becomes a threat to our community life.

” By your patient endurance you will win your souls” (Luke 21:19)