 Summer 1998 Vol.1, No.1 |
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Summer 1998 Vol.1, No.1 |
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Maybe you’ve seen the commercial: an announcement over the p.a. system in a room full of men at a fitness center. “There is a tan minivan in the parking lot with its lights on.” No one moves. Every male in the place is afraid of being “found out” as the owner. Why? It’s not a 4-wheel drive, all-terrain, big-tired, big-engined, riding-rough-shod-over-boulder-shrewn-creeks SUV. The van only gets the kids to soccer practice, not to “4-wheel drive” places like the gym.
And it won’t get you the image. That’s what seems to count the most in car-buying habits these days. But while we may look sharp, feel good and cross that stream if we had to, there’s a price to being en vogue. Environmentally, these vehicles at best get half the gas mileage of mid- or small-sized cars, and thus emit twice the greehhouse gases. There are hidden costs of the energy and water consumed in the manufacturing and mining processes. And there is the plain high cost of the vehicles, which now account for nearly 20 percent of the U.S. car market despite their exorbitant and well-publicized mark-ups.
But perhaps the biggest cost is not financial or environmental, but spiritual. We so easily allow ourselves to be defined by what we own, drive or wear rather than by our intrinsic worth as people made in the image of God. Marketers quickly exploit the vacuum, providing just what we need to be somebody–at least until sales flatten, when a new product line will help us be somebody else.
So, much of the exploitation of God’s earth can be traced to First World consumers attempting to fill the void in their lives with things. As biblical folks, we know that this is ultimately futile. And while adults fuss over their children’s attempts to create an image by dyeing hair or piercing body parts, their own “image problem” is at least as damaging as a head full of orange hair.
Stewardship of God’s earth begins with simple satisfaction–satisfaction with who we are before others, and ultimately who we are before God. God help us–and our earth–while we figure that out.
David Radcliff
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