1. Money matters? ¥ € $ !!
Consumerism clearly tells away our new religion in sentences full of connotacions such as:
Tesco ergo sum (Tesco stores)
(from Descartes: Cogito ergo sum... therefore I am)
Shop until you drop
You are what you shop
and the noble art of advertising
Brave new brand (plays with the words Brave new world, Huxley's Utopia, taken from Shakespeare)
(you name another couple)
................
........................
.... and advertisers are the new profets.
If you have thought it through thoroughly you may be tempted to agree.
From other traditions we can see a Chinese God of Money on the left.
2. The bare facts:
the UK scene(2005). life in the UK when it comes to money:
Average adult debt is now £4000 and
students are in more debt than they care to think about.
Yet still we strive for more treasure now.
In the USA
American younsgters watch more than 300.000 adverts before they go to collage.
Apple sold more than 300.000 iPADs the first day after the launching.
3. Another world. Beyond individualism, that XXth century plague:
We've seen signs of cooperation and sharing not seen in the old days.
I will not point out to any examples, one of old, the other brand new.
A. Societas Iesu / The Jesuits, hava a noble house in mu town, or
B. Wikipedia to say two impossible things... before you come to think of them as realitites.
Get Rich, Be Happy?. Looking at how to share the gospel by talking about money. Someone has counted up that 15% of what Jesus said concerned money, and there's plenty more beyond the gospels too.
4. From our Christian tradition, we may as well explore the Gospels.
firstly in Luke 12v13-31 speaking into a dispute over inheritance that the real need is to get rich towards God.
Secondly, Jesus words that advise us to invest well, from Matthew 6v19-21. And that the best investment is in that which lasts for eternity, not in things that rot and rust. Our choice of investment declaring the location of our heart.
Finally we may look at Matthew 13v44 where Jesus tells of the joy of finding the kingdom of heaven, and how it is worth selling everything to attain.
5. To members of other faiths/ethics,
Let us not be so easily satisfied, as any mother would warn us. Let us invest in that which is of true value. ... investing elsewhere is both offensive to him and futile if our desire is happiness.
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