One thing I am coming to appreciate more about French culture is its resistance to becoming consumer driven. At first, it drove me crazy that most stores close at noon for two or even three hours, so that ALL the employees can have a leisurely lunch - at the same time. No concept of staggered lunch hours here, no siree. If you need to run to the corner grocery to get a few staples during your lunch break, you will hear a resounding "no" to the question "Got milk?" It was a bit hard to adjust to the fact that the customer is not always right in France, nor is anyone particularly motivated to please him or her. Money does talk here, but it seems the euro speaks in considerably softer and less demanding tones than does the almighty dollar. The French are trying hard in a competetive international market to hold on to traditional ways of doing things which they consider to be more valuable than simply making more money. In other words, there is more to life than selling out to wealth and status. I kind of like it. Especially because I am seeing how a consumer driven mentality elsewhere is adversely affecting two things I like a lot - sports and church.
I have watched with dismay how the rules of the games I love have changed over the years. I am a sports purist who feels comfortably anchored in tradition, which puts me in opposition to such trends and advancements such as instant replay, college football conference realignments, designated hitters, and the 24 second clock, just to name a few. And most of these changes were for the purpose of attracting and retaining more fans and spectators by speeding up the action and creating more scoring. But my point is, if you are a true fan, you love the game - as is. There is no need to speed up the game or change its rules if you already enjoy every minute of it. The real problem lies in the sport attempting to adapt to consumer-enthusiasts who are not really true fans, but shallow dabblers who lose interest when the rules of the sport do not produce a game to suit their fickle tastes and short attention spans. Ticket and merchandise sales as well as television broadcasting rights are what fuel the evolution of sports. In our consumer-driven sociey, profit trumps purity.
Tim Tebow and his team, the Denver Broncos, are causing an uproar in the NFL because they are playing a style of football that was once played by men who earned little and sacrificed much, just for the privilege to play. And that game was played before non-televised audiences who respected the game and passed on its hallowed, timeless traditions to the next generation. Today, sports has to come in trendy, flashy packaging that produces slick highlights, inspires sound-bites and sells tickets. Yet Tebow is literally turning back the clock; a throw-back to such a distant era that he is today considered cutting edge, if not polarizing. He's standing up for traditional values and being a solid role-model instead of spending his free-time with gangsters, strippers, or drug-dealers. Where have we come as a society when we love athletes more who have DUIs and get arrested for domestic violence than someone who prays publicly and serves the poor on humanitarian trips, as long as they win and give us bragging rights around the water cooler? Yes, as a quarterback Tebow runs better than he throws, which is not typical for his position. But this only flies in the face of a game that has come to be shaped and defined by consumers who speak with their wallets and demand to see a football game that meets its quota of long bombs and exciting catches. If not, they'd rather turn the channel to something more entertaining, like cage fighting or WWF Smackdown.
Sadly, the church is not immune to the influence brought by consumerism. People have become so accustomed to being pleased and pampered as consumers and fans, that they carry this mentality into the house of God. And we see that the church and its function and purpose slowly become shaped by the parishoners rather than the parson. What a mistake. I would like to think that the church could inherit a little backbone from the French where the process is equally important to the product. I think my French friends have it right in that regard. They will not sacrifice quality and longevity of life for the sake of short-term gain. May we as believers and leaders in the greatest enterprise the world has ever known not allow oursleves to be driven by church-shoppers and congregation-hoppers. Change is good, and many times necessary. But change for the sake of pleasing participants who major on using and taking, rather than sacrificing and giving, is joining the ranks of consumer driven supermarkets and super bowl contenders. The King and His kingdom should be served by loyal subjects. And I am a purist in that regard as well.
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