I was appalled to hear on the news that Australians are expected to spend $30 billion for Christmas this year (in 2013 it was $18 billion). For a country of just over 23 million people, $30 billion is a lot of money. And a lot of money that could be more usefully directed to support people and projects in our global village. It would be staggering to calculate the spending for Christmas around the world. I am mindful of sisters and brothers in our diaconal community around the world, and especially those living in countries where life is a struggle.
David Mitchell notes, 'Christmas extravagance only continues with our collective consent'. Brian Konkol writes: 'To call this all an unintended consequence of Jesus’ birth may be one of the greatest understatements in all of Christian history'.
The focus in the parable from Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats from Sunday's readings serves as a sobering reminder about the way we as individuals and communities respond to the compelling need to feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and welcome the stranger.
Brian Konkol has written a provocative article, When Decemberisation Crucifies Christmas, published on the Sojourners blog. I commend it to you for reflection. He writes:
One of the dominant dogmas of the season seems to be both loud and clear: Our value as human beings is often dictated by our capacity to contribute toward economic growth.
This is what happens when Decemberism crucifies Christmas.
One may define “Decemberism” as a state in which the value of human life is determined exclusively by our personal rates of production and consumption. We notice this condition most often, of course, in December. Decemberism is the predominant religious tradition of the so-called “holiday shopping season,” and the significance of Christmas is consistently crucified as a result.
As Victor Lebow states: “Our enormously productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption … we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”
In striking contrast to the Christmas ramifications of God’s incarnation, to be a human of any value in our current context is closely connected with supply and demand, even if it all leads to our personal and public self-destruction.
To appraise human value based solely upon production and consumption, as Decemberism does, is an explicit form of dehumanization. Specifically, “mechanistic dehumanization” is a way in which powerful systemic processes – such as our enormously productive and consumptive economy – strip away the dignity of human life by plugging us into mass mechanisms such as Decemberism.
Our culture of obedience to the so-called invisible hand of the market has a direct impact upon our sense of personal value (not to mention our public health), for the desire to belong and be validated in society seems directly related to whether we make offerings to the gods of gross domestic product. And so, because the highest rates of selling and spending typically occur during the final months of the calendar year, and due in part to our longing for communal acceptance, the Christmas season is — in many ways — a period of mechanistic dehumanization, for economic participation seems to be the accepted price of our personal justification. To call this all an unintended consequence of Jesus’ birth may be one of the greatest understatements in all of Christian history.
David Mitchell notes, 'Christmas extravagance only continues with our collective consent'. Brian Konkol writes: 'To call this all an unintended consequence of Jesus’ birth may be one of the greatest understatements in all of Christian history'.
The focus in the parable from Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats from Sunday's readings serves as a sobering reminder about the way we as individuals and communities respond to the compelling need to feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and welcome the stranger.
Brian Konkol has written a provocative article, When Decemberisation Crucifies Christmas, published on the Sojourners blog. I commend it to you for reflection. He writes:
One of the dominant dogmas of the season seems to be both loud and clear: Our value as human beings is often dictated by our capacity to contribute toward economic growth.
This is what happens when Decemberism crucifies Christmas.
One may define “Decemberism” as a state in which the value of human life is determined exclusively by our personal rates of production and consumption. We notice this condition most often, of course, in December. Decemberism is the predominant religious tradition of the so-called “holiday shopping season,” and the significance of Christmas is consistently crucified as a result.
As Victor Lebow states: “Our enormously productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption … we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”
In striking contrast to the Christmas ramifications of God’s incarnation, to be a human of any value in our current context is closely connected with supply and demand, even if it all leads to our personal and public self-destruction.
To appraise human value based solely upon production and consumption, as Decemberism does, is an explicit form of dehumanization. Specifically, “mechanistic dehumanization” is a way in which powerful systemic processes – such as our enormously productive and consumptive economy – strip away the dignity of human life by plugging us into mass mechanisms such as Decemberism.
Our culture of obedience to the so-called invisible hand of the market has a direct impact upon our sense of personal value (not to mention our public health), for the desire to belong and be validated in society seems directly related to whether we make offerings to the gods of gross domestic product. And so, because the highest rates of selling and spending typically occur during the final months of the calendar year, and due in part to our longing for communal acceptance, the Christmas season is — in many ways — a period of mechanistic dehumanization, for economic participation seems to be the accepted price of our personal justification. To call this all an unintended consequence of Jesus’ birth may be one of the greatest understatements in all of Christian history.
