The Vertical Self: How Biblical Faith Can Help Us Discover Who We Are in an Age of Self Obsession by Mark Sayers

Author:Mark Sayers
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Christian
ISBN: 9781418555344
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Interestingly, while Christian holiness is passé, our secular culture cannot avoid other forms of rigid “holinesses” that attempt to regulate our behavior. We may think we are hip, laid-back, twenty-first-century people, but we can get pretty puritanical about certain behaviors today. Just take a look at the green movement sweeping the globe.

We may buy organic foods for our health or take measures to reduce our carbon footprint or drink fair-trade coffee—all great things to do. However, we should realize that a multimillion-dollar industry has created a consumer culture for people who want to feel less guilty about their lives. It is a corporate attempt to keep us giving in to our temptations and buying our way into pleasure while keeping our consciences clear. As Jess Worth illustrates, “So much of the ethical consumption boom focuses on luxury goods. . . . Their main impact is to make the shopper feel good—‘I’m doing something for the planet!’—without having to change their lifestyle one bit, while the companies laugh all the way to the bank.”7 Yet the problem is that sometimes these good activities act as offsets to placate our guilt about the rest of our behavior. Instead of giving us hope that we can grow spiritually, when exercised just in and of themselves, they keep us in the same patterns of spiritual stagnation.

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