Does popular culture dilute religion?

This is pretty generalised and may seem short-sighted, but these are the questions that filled my mind when I thought about this. And the answers that flowed weren’t the answers I wanted to hear. You see, I’m not religious, (I’m confused) and I often dream of having enough money to fill my wardrobe with designer clothes. Does this make me human? Or, does it make me one of those people letting the side down?

In such a fast-paced, mediated world, we have become conditioned to seek constantly. We look for instant gratification but we never seem fulfilled. Are we all constantly searching? Are those people who have chosen religious lifestyles still trying to find something more? Has materialism reached us all, or does it just lie with the superficial and the weak?

Pop culture provides us with instantly gratifying, although fleeting, answers to the questions we ask. The questions we are ask are determined by pop culture, and pop culture answers them the only way it knows how – commercially. Is leading a wholesome, religious lifestyle kept separate from pop culture? Probably not. People who have embedded their lives within a religious framework may not be seeking what pop culture can provide them with. They’re seeking to become better people, to sin less, to forgive more. But people who have embedded their lives within a mediated world, a commodity, a world informed by pop culture and celebrity obsessions, are seeking to find the money to buy that new pair of shoes or concert tickets to see that singer that we love. Is this the real difference? It seems almost impossible to refuse to allow pop culture to inform your sense of self. How sad is that. Does the answer to the materialism-obsessed, insecure society rest in a selfless worshiping of God? Is it even possible to really be selfless, to not chase money, to not become consumed by consumption?

I wrote a blog about spirituality versus religion a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure why it mattered that new-aged, individualised spirituality was becoming more and more popular. Now it seems that this kind of religiosity, the kind that is highly personalised and tailored to suit your own needs does not allow the self-development necessary to become selfless, to stop chasing the high or the money or the fashion. If we adapt religion to fit our new, fast, 21^st Century lives, we’ll only become what the 21^st Century is, obsessed with things that are faster, more expensive, better. What if, we eventually lose sight of humanity and community because we’re always competing with each other? What if religion becomes so diluted by popular culture that we lose the grounding, the values and the selflessness that comes with it?