Student News

Discussing the ubiquity of consumerism drew my attention to an artifact right in the midst of Calvin College: the daily Student News email. This morning’s bulletin had several announcements:

-Group fitness

-Night of Worship

-Chapel

-Orientation board

-Wake-up weekend

-Band

-Faith and international development conference

-Community dining plan

-Art exhibit

-Breakdance party

-Film showing

-Nite-Life

-Nite-Life

-January series

What shocked me initially were the constant references to money.

-Group fitness is FREE

-Film showing is FREE

-Both Nite-Life announcements emphasize the prize money

I originally noticed this phenomenon, of putting money references (either promises of no charge or large rewards) in the subject line when I received an email announcing a dorm event that had as its subject line something about winning $10,000. When you actually opened the email, you realized that it had nothing to do with money; that had only been used to get the reader to pay attention. Draw your own conclusions.

So then I wondered, if this bulletin was someone’s only encounter with Calvin College, what values might they think we cared about?

-Getting things for free

-Worshiping God

-How awesome Calvin is

-Social justice

-Art

-Food

-Winning money

-Learning about the world

Then:

What is the purpose of humans? To do good things, and get as much money as possible while doing them

Where is evil? In the world outside of Calvin

What do Christians spend their free time doing? Exercising, worshiping, learning, watching, winning

Calvin College has a lot of great aspects, but maybe we need to start paying attention when people use money to get our attention. It says something about them…but it also says something about us. After all, it’s a consumer-driven market.

Discussion questions:

1) Where did our obsession with money come from?

2) Is it okay that Calvin's bulletin looks like this?