In The( Magic) Kingdom of God, Michael Budde describes the transformation of capitalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Facing diminishing returns from mass-market production, capitalism shifted to new strategies to sustain the cycle of production and consumption. The primary strategy was the development of the niche market.
H.J. Heinz Company is an example of this development. After building its reputation in the mustard market with its signature square-faceted jar and familiar label and logo, Heinz began to develop new kinds of mustard, most notably, Grey Poupon, which fed a market of young professionals (Yuppies) seeking a more gourmet experience not offered by the plain yellow mustard they ate while growing up. As one “yuppie” put it— “All I want is a place where I can buy twelve kinds of mustard.”
Mass communications media, telecommunications and marketing firms excel at developing products especially shaped for each niche in order to maximize the potential for sales and profits. In that environment, the market will take anything and everything that it can in order to package it and offer it as a new product to the consumptive public, including religious forms of culture.With the establishment of the products (religious symbols and practices) and the cultivation of the consumers (individuals in niche markets), the late-Capitalist market economy provides congregations with a nearly irresistible temptation to accept their place in modernity, relegated to the realm of the private, left to seek relevance and legitimacy through consumer popularity. If the Church find itself in this story, what should the response be?
Budde suggests that pastors and lay leadership be self-critical, acknowledging the constant temptation to serve the market through a focus on the individual. Theological reflection on ecclesiology and practices must consider these realities. Unless such reflection makes the church a “called, gathered community of disciples their primary point of reference and identity, the gospel will remain marginalized by the effects of the culture industries.”
In his book Another City, Barry Harvey mentions two places in modern societies where the Church seeks legitimation—the state and the market. Regarding the state, Harvey argues that most post-Reformation churches continue to embrace some form of Constantinianism, proclaiming with joy the end of that era, yet…never hesitating “to issue advice to the states as if they were Christian kingdoms.”
If a church turns to the market for legitimacy, it accepts the role of providing religious goods and services to individual consumers. The modern understanding of religion was a good fit for America, says political columnist George Will: “The founders wished to tame and domesticate religious passions…by establishing a commercial republic – capitalism." Persons seeking religion are “encouraged to pick and choose from a vast inventory of religious symbols and doctrines, to select those beliefs that best express his or her private sentiments.” The obvious danger to any American church lies in measuring its legitimacy (success) by consumer response, by the popularity of the product.
