This passage from Don Cupitt hit me like a revelation:
The great majority of people are becoming lumpenconsumers whose lives consist of nothing but work, consumption and the media.
It just seemed so true. Most people have almost no room left for questions of value and meaning. Work has become more and more dominant in their lives. We are in a media landscape that is saturated with advertising that elicits more and more wants rather than needs and that portrays the affluent lifestyle of the rich and famous, making us want to spend money to become at least a little bit like them. And the media naturally gravitates to providing entertainment so that we are confronted with a plethora of entertaining possibilities that can easily fill up our lives. Even the news often gives us entertaining or salacious stories of little real news value.
Now Cupitt himself offers this thought as part of a complex argument so while he has some sympathy for it, he finds it necessary to counter the perspective to advocate for a future church that still looks something like the traditional church. But even the most dedicated churchgoers no doubt spend much more time watching TV or social media than they do going to church. It’s just natural that work and the media and shopping play a big role in their lives.
The Editor