Shopping as a Spiritual Discipline
As a result of my most recent sojourn in the gospels I’ve decided to stop shopping at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. This is a theological decision based on a fresh understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus.
When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God/Heaven, he didn’t mean the afterlife. He meant this life, as in “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth . . .” When he told his followers to, “seek first his (God’s) kingdom and his righteousness,” it had to do with their daily lives, not their eternal destinies.
Study his message in context and you’ll see it centers on compassion for the underclass and justice for the poor here-and-now. Compassion is “a feeling with, and a way of acting that flows out of that feeling.” And justice is “the social form of compassion.”
Re-read the Sermon on the Mount and parables like The Good Samaritan and The Judgment of the Sheep and Goats to see that Jesus emphasized ethical behavior not orthodox belief.
Jesus spoke out against—and was ultimately executed by—the dominant kingdom of his day: Rome. (Rome referred to itself as a kingdom, not an empire as historians do.) The emperor was considered divine and called the Son of God. Rome subjugated and mistreated those it conquered. The elite lived off the labor of slaves and an oppressed peasant class.
The dominant kingdom today isn’t a country, it’s an economic system: Capitalism. Its foundational principles aren’t evil but some of its practices definitely are. Where it oppresses the poor, Christians should oppose it.
What does all this have to do with Wal-Mart? In the retail world Wal-Mart is the largest and most aggressive expression of the dominant kingdom in our day. While it provides jobs and savings to millions, it also has a track record of underpaying employees and exploiting workers in developing countries(1). In the free-market triangle of producers, retailers and consumers, the first two are short-changed so the third can save money.
We can’t completely avoid companies with unethical practices, but we can choose to patronize those that take better care of their employees, pay fairer prices to their suppliers and have a stronger social conscience.
That’s why I’ve switched to Costco(2), which ranks 22nd on Fortune’s List Of Most Admired Companies in 2009, and Whole Foods(3), which currently ranks 22nd in Fortune’s Best Companies To Work For.
In Consumer Reports’ May, 2009 Supermarket Ratings, Costco and Whole Foods ranked 7th and 8th respectively while Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart ranked 38th and 56th.
I know Costco and Whole Foods are not perfect and Wal-Mart is not totally evil, so don’t send me news clips about lawsuits and awards. But they do have distinct corporate value systems. Although they are secular companies and not spiritual entities, they can be judged by their deeds, which is what Jesus told us to do. Then we should align ourselves with those that are trying to do good, even if it costs more at the register.
Kingdom living isn’t about religious practices; it’s about practicing righteousness. It’s not about tithing but about how you spend the rest of your money. Why send a few dollars to promote missions in the third-world and then spend hundreds on under-priced goods made by its exploited citizenry?
We all want to earn a fair wage for our work and make a decent profit on what we produce. To afford others the same right is to obey Jesus when he said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
I’m not about to picket Wal-Mart or judge anyone who goes there. I’ve been reading the Bible almost 40 years and have just now come to this realization. (I’m a slow learner.) Far be it from me to insist others suddenly share my conviction. But I can encourage you to see shopping as a spiritual discipline and buying groceries as kingdom business.
(1) WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price
(2) Costco CEO Finds Pro-Worker Means Profitability
(3) Whole Foods Market Makes Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies To Work For’ List for 12th Consecutive Year
5 Comments
April 25, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Michael:
Very interesting commentary. Worth praying over. Sp – what does do if a friend is employed with them?
Barry Michael
April 26, 2009 at 10:11 am
Don’t judge others, but you might tell your friend he/she would earn more money if he/she could get a job at Costco or Whole Foods.
April 23, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Have you read the book Nickel and Dimed? It is a good read and fits well with your comment about Wal-Mart.
April 23, 2009 at 3:44 pm
I like it… glad you jumped on the bandwagon
April 23, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I always follow your example.