Simple living offers antidote to ‘affluenza’
By Julie K. Buzbee

It’s almost dinnertime, and the kitchen at the Wesches’ house in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hub of activity. Laura Wesche is chopping vegetables and dropping them into a bubbling pot of what will be chicken noodle soup.

“When we don’t know what to have, we boil a chicken,” she says, as husband Gary nods in agreement.

Two of their three children, Brandon, 11, and Amanda, 5, pop in and out, munching on freshly sliced bread. Nathan, 14, is playing football in an out-of-town game.

Talk flows freely. Unlike many homes, you won’t find a television set blaring. In fact, you’ll have a hard time finding the TV—there is only one in the large home. And that lone TV is not connected to cable. “Cable is a major temptation,” Laura says. “It was a conscious decision never to have it.” Family and church life are important to the Wesches, who belong to Central United Methodist Church in Kansas City.

“If a family spends their money to have 500 channels on a TV set, then they don’t have to talk to each other at all,” Laura says.

Statements like that, and a way of life that models good stewardship, prompted their pastor, the Rev. Diane Nunnelee, to think of the Wesches when asked to recommend a family living out the gospel.

When a man in their church needed a place to stay, Nunnelee says, the Wesches took him in. He remains a tenant in their home a year later.

People in the United States have the wrong perspective in more than one way when it comes to material goods, Nunnelee says.

“We talk about how blessed we are. No, we’re advantaged. Blessings from God don’t come in what we have materially,” she says. “This society is so seductive. For those who need it, who have to have it, it becomes addictive.”

That addiction has a name, “affluenza,” thanks to Vicki Robin, co-author with Joe Dominguez of the book Your Money or Your Life.

Others, too, are addressing affluenza. The Public Broadcasting System has made two documentaries on affluenza, defining it as “the bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses; an epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream; an unsustainable addiction to economic growth.”

It’s not just secular society that is guilty. Christians share in that guilt, Nunnelee says. “We’ve lost the sense of what’s enough,” she says.

Her district superintendent, the Rev. Ken Lutgen of Heartland Central District in the Missouri West Conference, agrees.

A former director of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Lutgen preaches a global point of view.

“If you ask a typical Christian if he is rich,” he says, “his response will be, ‘Why no, at best I’m middle class.’” People look at the abundance of resources of what we have rather than in the larger global context. We really have a lot of resources that could make a difference in the world in the lives of poor people and developing countries. The problem is we really don’t have a global vision,” he says.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, did have a global vision and a heart for the poor, says the Rev. Theodore Runyon, professor emeritus at United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

Wesley’s works offer a whole judgment on American culture, Runyon says. He recommends three sermons in particular: “The Use of Money,” “The Danger of Riches,” and “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity.”

“The way we use that which is entrusted to us is a way in which we’re answerable to God,” Runyon says.

‘Abominable’ giving
Stewardship often is equated with money, and giving is important because dollars allow the church to undertake vital missions, church leaders say. Tithing alone can do great things, says the Rev. Tex Sample of Arizona, professor emeritus of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City.

“If we could get people in the church to give 10 percent of their income, that would be a revolutionary act,” he says. “The giving in the United Methodist Church is abominable.” He adds that he and his wife, Peggy, give 12 percent of their income plus time and talent.

Nunnelee says she learned what tithing really means a few years ago, when her mission work in South Africa brought her into contact with a woman named Margaret. In their first encounter, Margaret—who was on crutches and living in a shanty—asked forgiveness because she hadn’t met her pledge to the church.

“When was the last time one of us asked to be forgiven?” the pastor asks. “This was about a vow she’d made to God out of thanksgiving.”

The Wesches give 10 percent of Laura’s IBM salary to their church and use other income to support other charities and arts organizations. But there’s more to stewardship, Laura says.

“We believe the instructions in Scripture to be more than giving of income, but giving of time and talents,” she says.

Doing so keeps us accountable to God, says the Rev. Tony Campolo, a Christian author and speaker featured in “Curing Affluenza,” a six-part video series.

“Everybody knows that the Bible calls us to a simple lifestyle; we just don’t want to face up to it,” he says. He acknowledges that his life on the road isn’t simple because he’s housed in hotels and fed good meals.

But simple lifestyles don’t have to be Spartan, says Janet Luhrs of Seattle, editor of Simple Living Oasis magazine. “So many people have simplicity confused with living in chicken coops.”

Simple living
Luhrs focuses on how people make a difference in the world and defines simplicity this way: working and shopping less, spending more time with friends and families, volunteering in communities and enjoying life more.

“Faith gives you a desire for a deeper, richer life, and simplicity gives you the tools to make that happen,” she says.

One of her peers in the simplicity movement, Gerald Iversen, national coordinator of Alternatives for Simple Living, concurs.

“We take a very holistic view of simplicity,” he says. “It’s not just a matter of growing your own tomatoes. The first step is the personal, the second is the interpersonal, the third is what we call advocacy.”

He advocates simple living as an antidote to societal ills such as credit cards, personal debt, shopping malls, big SUVs, depleting the earth’s resources, and not spending time with family.

A heart for missions
Lutgen has another idea about how to sensitize people to overconsumption. “What I hope people will do is commit themselves to some kind of immersion experience in a Third World setting,” he says. “I took 95 people to Mozambique this summer. I’ve heard testimony after testimony about how this simple little program has transformed lives.”

Gary Wesche recalls a mission trip that he took to South Africa two years ago with his son, Nathan. Gary had seen similar living conditions in the 1980s, on mission trips to Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

“What I learned in South Africa, I learned through the eyes of my 12-year-old son, who was with me,” Gary says. “I realized then, even stronger, that you don’t wait to be an adult to be in missions. My responsibility as a father is to give my children a heart for missions.”

That trip, along with several others in the United States, taught the Wesches much about hospitality. Members of their church have said the family’s greatest gift is hospitality.

“We’ve always had the drive to share our house, share our family,” Laura says. She and her husband don’t buy gifts to celebrate their anniversary, she adds. “Our gift to each other is filling our house with friends.”

“With stewardship, there’s the power to transform a person’s life with how they use the gifts, and graces that they have,” Lutgen says.

Even the youngest Wesches can recite what’s important: “Prayers, presence, gifts and service.”

“People get so wrapped up in saying it’s about money,” Nunnelee says, “but it’s a stewardship of life. Stewardship is about your relationship with God and how that shapes your using your life in service.”

Julie K. Buzbee is a journalist residing in St. Joseph, Missouri. Adapted from United Methodist News Service.

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