November 20, 1990

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26 NIV)

These words of Jesus show clearly what he thought about accumulating wealth, about excessive consumerism. Jesus did not specifically say that these excesses would cause degradation of the created world, but that could be implied from the phrase "a man forfeiting his soul."

How difficult it is today to heed these words of Jesus! We are bombarded on all sides by messages to buy, to accumulate, to consume.

Alan Durning in an article in World Watch magazine (November 12, 1990) says that the advertising industry in the United States spends nearly $500 per person per year to get us to consume. This advertising has helped encourage Americans to consume more than enough -- more than their fair share.

Evidence pointed out by Durning include:

• "Since 1950 American consumption has soared. Per capita energy use climbed 60 percent, car travel more than doubled, plastic use multiplied 20-fold, and air travel jumped 25-fold."

• "The average human living today is four and one-half times richer than his or her great-grandparents and the factor is larger still among the world's consuming class."

• "American children under age 13 have more spending money -- $230 per year -- than the 300 million poorest people in the world."

• "Americans now drink more soda pop than water from the kitchen tap -- 47 gallons of pop to only 37 gallons of water."

• "Americans throw away enough aluminum cans each year to make 6,000 DC-10 jet airplanes."

It has been calculated that a typical person in the industrialized world uses 15 times as much paper, 12 times as much fuel, and 10 times as much steel as a person in the Third World. The average person in the United States consumes most of his or her own weight in basic materials every day.

Speaking about food consumption, Durning suggests that there are three levels of individuals in the world today. First are the 630 million (World Bank estimate) who lack sufficient calories to function adequately; second are the 3.4 billion "grain eaters" who get sufficient calories and plenty of plant-based protein; and third are the 1.25 billion who are primarily meat eaters. They eat three times as much fat per person as the remaining 4 billion people. These people pay the price of their luxurious diet in high death rates from the "diseases of affluence": Heart attacks, strokes and some forms of cancer.

Can the earth afford the kind of consumption and accumulation of wealth exhibited by the industrialized world? No.

Professor Robert Williams of Princeton University and a world-wide team of researchers conducted a study of the potential to reduce fossil fuel consumption through greater efficiency and use of renewable energy. The present world population, Williams concluded, could live with a modest quality of energy services something like that of Western Europe today, but the entire world population definitely could not live in the style of Americans with their large homes, big cars and all manner of electrical gadgets.

A question that each of us as individuals might ask is this: If everyone on earth lived like I do, would there be enough for all?

Does the fact that Americans are richer and consume more energy and natural resources than ever before mean that they are happier? Hardly. Recent opinion polls find that no more people are satisfied with their status today than they were in 1957.

How much is enough? Each of us must decide this question in the light of our own understanding. The scriptures give us adequate guidance if we would adhere to them rather than to the culture of our day. Proverbs 30:7-9 provides good advice: "Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." (NIV)

The words of Jesus about worry in Matthew 6 are also instructive to us regarding "how much is enough?". "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" (vs. 25-26, NIV)

The apostle Paul, in writing to the Christians at Philippi, suggests that one be content in whatever situation he or she is in. This implies that we not strive to accumulate riches or go after things. In Philippians 4, Paul writes, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (vs. 12-13, NIV)

To know "how much is enough" in today's culture demands that we interpret such Scriptures as those above with the collective wisdom of Christian brothers or sisters in a supportive community. It is only in this way that the seductive culture in which we live can be successfully countered and our overconsumption and accumulation of riches be curtailed.