As Christians, perhaps especially at the spending spree of Christmas time, we need to know where the world is coming from if we are to live and witness well for Christ.
The secular gospel
Consumerism can be seen as the contemporary secular good news. It holds out the promise of happiness through material goods and services and focuses particularly on the pleasure we get from acquisition and exercising personal choice.
Money and the ability to acquire things makes us feel secure, comfortable and, to an extent, powerful. But it is the choice/option aspect of consumerism which distinguishes it from mere materialism. For example, the Revlon company makes 177 different shades of lipstick. To be able to choose whatever we want puts us in the almost godlike category, and in a self-centred and increasingly anonymous society, people get a buzz from personal choice because it is an avenue of self-expression.
