The Triumph of Self-Fulfillment?

“And so good feelings become the acceptable alternative for justifying our compassion, . . .. ‘Should’ drops out; choice predominates. To explain why we are involved, it is then easier to assert simply that it feels good . . .. It is perhaps not surprising that the language of sacrifice has dropped out of our vocabulary with the triumph of fulfillment.”  (Robert Wuthnow)

Wuthnow is not alone in his conclusions. “Throughout most of this [twentieth] century,” cultural analyst Daniel Yankelovich wrote in the 1970s, “Americans believed that self-denial made sense, sacrifice made sense, obeying the rules made sense, subordination to the institution made sense. But doubts have set in, and Americans believe that the old giving/getting compact needlessly restricts the individual.”

Has the “language of sacrifice . . . dropped out of our vocabulary” of giving? Do we believe that “the old giving/getting compact needlessly restricts the individual?”

If your answer is a double “yes,” then contemplate the consequences of these developments for the future. Gains? Losses?

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Break the Materialistic Stronghold?

In his provocative book, Rich Christians in an Age of Poverty, Ronald Sider told of his family’s search for a standard of giving. “When my wife, Arbutus, and I decided to adopt a graduated scale for our giving in 1969, we sat down and tried to calculate honestly what we need for a year. We wanted a figure that would permit reasonable comfort, but not all the luxuries. We decided that we would give a tithe (ten percent) on our base figure and then give a graduated tithe (15 percent) on income above that. For each thousand dollars, we decided to increase our giving by another 5 percent on that thousand.

“The graduated tithe,” he declared, “is one of many models that can help break the materialistic stranglehold. It is not the only useful model but it has proved helpful in our family.” Is it “helpful” to you?

What other models “can help break the materialistic stranglehold”?

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Banish the Word “Sacrifice”?

“Unfortunately or not, though, the word sacrifice today has lost all of its innocence. It can no longer be employed without a very disturbing recognition of its high costs . . .. The image repertoire of sacrifice, which retains vestiges of victimization in the service of a rigid social structure, helps perpetuate the myth that giving must involve the will to suffer, even to do violence to oneself.” (Stephen H. Webb)

Comments?  Are words ever innocent?  Does “sacrificial giving” always suggest the “myth that giving must involve the will to suffer, even to do violence to oneself”?  What do you think the phrase – “sacrificial giving” – means?