Dear Evangelicals:
The ever-relevant J.K. Rowling tweeted the above reply to a fan and aspiring writer on August 22, 2016.
I've been thinking about what we "have to have" for many weeks now, and while Apple is certainly at the forefront of companies that use classist bigotry to shame us into spending more than we should, it is not the first.
Way back in the late 1970s, two companies -- Jordache and Gloria Vanderbilt -- sunk every dime they had into convincing middle class folks that we were socially inferior if we weren't wearing their designer jeans. Prior to that time, designer jeans didn't even exist. Now, you can't get away from them.
Fast forward to 2009, and a film documentary called The September Issue. It's the story of how Vogue magazine gets its mammoth, fall fashion issue to press. In it, then-Vogue editor, Andre Leon Talley, breathlessly informs us that it is his goal to use the magazine as a tool to prod middle class consumers into purchasing luxury goods as a matter of course.
Needless to say, Talley's dream went global, and now, middle class folks are working two or three jobs just to keep up. It turns out what they're keeping up with is the Joneses.
You know what the Bible says about this kind of thing. If you don't, do a quick read of Acts 4:32-37.
You can scream about socialism (and many of you do when confronted with this passage), or you can examine your own behavior. Do you look down on people because they don't have the MacBook Air, the gourmet sea salt caramels, the $200.00 shirt?
Any Christian worth the name would be lifting up people who can't afford those things. Any Christian worth the name would share those things, if they had them, with the least among us. Any Christian worth the name would boycott the mindless consumption of luxury goods and overpriced "necessities" like Apple computers, Starbucks coffee, and designer jeans. Any Christian worth the name would spit on the idea that brand equals value.
The question is, what kind of Christian are you?
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