A Response to the Wal-Mart affect

Kathleen Parker has an interesting op-ed here talking about how Wal-Mart is changing the way people think and consume. She chides Wal-Mart for its lack of ethical behavior. At the end of her column, she asks what kind of country do we want to live in?

My folks and I were talking about this on Sunday afternoon, not in so many words, but we were talking about altruistic behavior. We hope that someone will volunteer to defend our country, but not our children or spouses. We hope that someone will pay taxes to support government services, but not us. We hope that someone will give to charities that help make society a better place, but not us. We hope that someone will be in favor of alternative energy, but not in our yard. We hope that someone will step up to the moral plate, but we don’t want to do it ourselves.

It’s easy to say that you’re in favor of the war in Iraq, or bombing Iran, or whatever the current military mission is. It’s hard when someone you love steps up to the plate. It’s easy to say, “I want to fund education, or prisons, or the government service of your choice,” but it is hard to pay taxes. It is easy to say that there should be a charity that provides food for the poor, or shelter for the homeless, or what have you, but it is hard to give of our time and resources to get it done. It’s easy to say you want to reduce dependency on foreign resources, but we won’t build nuclear plants or use other fuel sources.

It is OK to express sweeping statements that our nation is going down hill. I agree. However, the fight against moral decline does not start with the aggregate, it starts with the individual. I have to answer for my own consumption, how I spend my own time, how I treat my friends and family, and how I treat my community. Perhaps if I start to put my beliefs into practice, I may become a more conscious consumer, a more productive person, a more compassionate person, and a more responsible citizen. And perhaps through my influence, I may inspire others to do the same as I am inspired by my parents and husband.

If I want to live in a nation of altruistic people, I need to look in the mirror, confess my sins and failings before God, repent of my sins and failings, ask God for his forgiveness for the sake of Christ who paid my penalty, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, leave my life of sins and failings. I cannot ask someone to do what I will not do myself.