Richie
The latest issue of re:generation (not online yet, sorry!) has some really powerful stuff in it. (Maybe later in the week I'll pull together my comments on Read Schuchardt's article on Disney.)

Becky Baer Porteous' article "From Race to Taste: Wealth and Status in the Postmodern World," felt a bit like a kick in the teeth in the best possible way (if that makes any sense). She asserts that "having the wealth to consume and display certain sorts of 'taste,' even a taste for packaged ethnic diversity, makes anyone acceptable....In a postmodern world, it's what's over the skin that counts--the surface and the image it sustains." Okay, sounds like a typical anti-materialism story condemning the upper crust, right?

Well, Porteous goes on to describe feeling depressed while living in Zimbabwe, and realizing it came from being separated from home, from being accustomed to "being a wealthy person in a wealth contry, constantly stimulated by color and taste and aroma and touch--by things I coveted and wanted to consume." She comes to the realization that much of her former happiness came from being a white American and that life should be about sharing in Christ's sufferings in the world.

Even if my wardrobe isn't terribly stylish and we drive an older, dented up car, equating hapiness with stuff is still a big problem for me. I'm not at all eager to forgo my plush, comfortable bed and full cupboards to suffer for Christ.