The Threat of Christian Teaching - Research Paper Example

Gift-Giving Executive Summary Christmas time in predominantly Christian nation is a great opportunity to market goods and services since it is customary to give gifts during this time. However, some Christians are being persuaded by their leaders that the true meaning of Christmas is not found giving of material things. Rather, it is in celebrating what God has done when He sent Jesus Christ on the cross for humanity. Therefore, showing love by spending time together with family and friends or giving hand-made Christmas cards would suffice. This kind of teaching, if internalized and applied, would definitely be post a challenge during this time. Thus, this paper investigates the threat of this Christian teaching mentioned in the context of gift-giving and recommends marketing strategies to address this threat. Chapter 1 Literature Review 1.1 Gift-giving and the Economy According to Sherry, gift-giving is a universal behavior that social scientist have not fully and satisfactorily explained. Beatty and Kahle support this universality as they found out in their study this exists in both the occidental and oriental cultures (1991). Moreover, according to Sherry, it is a means of the means by which a society is integrated. Gift-giving has a symbolic dimension, making it a statement of expressions that mediate meanings in cultures. There are actually four functions of a gift: (1) communication; (2) social exchange; (3) economic exchange, and (4) socialization. Because of this wide range of functions, consumer researchers have been drawn to it. Two of such researchers were Belshaw and Davis. In their investigation in the mid-60s to early 70s, it was revealed that in retail sales alone, gift-giving has been found to be a significant factor in the national and regional economies. (Sherry 1983) Now, from an economic point of view, Braun and Evans report that during Christmas season, total factor productivity rapidly grows at 16% annually. During this season, there is an increase in returns and time-varying labor effort. (1998) Garner and Wagner, however, reports that its full potential to economics have not been adequately covered by past studies. The probable reason for this is the conflict between fundamental assumptions of traditional theory of economics that is based on market exchange and gift-giving which is a form of market exchange. Thus, this phenomenon has been investigated more from the point of view of the social sciences rather than economics. These authors, however, asserts that market exchange and gift exchange are not mutually exclusive. In fact, spending for gifts to individuals and charity such as goods and cash gifts have a bearing economically. For instance, it was found out that in the United States that more than 4% of the family budget goes to gifts and more than 33% of this is allocated for people outside the family. Over 2% of the household budget, on the other hand, goes to charity. It was estimated that at least $ 78 billion annually are spent in giving outside of the house hold, necessitating the need to study its economic dimension. (1991) 1.2 Christmas and Gift-giving Gift-giving has its origin in the time of the Romans during their festival of Kalends. Every first of January, the Emperor of Rome would receive gifts from his subjects as required. In the early days, evergreen branches were given as gifts but were later on replaced by honey and cake, symbolizing sweetness and prosperity for the coming year. (Alan 2002) It was not until the 1820s, however, when gift-giving became a part of the western culture in the US despite the fact that advertising for the concept came in years earlier. It was only in 1840s when it became popular in the mainstream society of Amery about 10 years of extensive marketing campaign of Coca-cola which incorporated Santa Claus. Today, Lacher et. al. asserts that it is the time of the year when the consumption is the largest. After 30 years, Christmas became a national legal holiday and, as Alan mentioned, secular traditions such as Santa Claus and gift-giving have been picked up. However, it was Christmas had been instituted long before this when Bishop Julius I proclaimed December 25, 350 A.D. to be Christmas day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. This celebration coincided with traditional European celebrations at about the same time such as Yule of the Norse, honoring of Oden by Germans and Saturn by Romans. (Alan 2008) Today, gift-giving during Christmas is particularly expressive as it serves wide-range functions in the society, economy and the person. Love, affection, and esteem for the recipient are the primary message conveyed by Christmas gifts. (Fisher & Arnold 1990) Ideally, Christians would give for the joy of giving. In other words, unselfish generosity would be its main indication and this would fall under what Ilmonen would call disinterested economy. (2004) Christmas, has its negative aspects, too, and commercialism is regarded to be one of them. However, the behaviors which commercialism promote was found out to be not generally affected by this general view. For instance, the issue of Santa Claus has been considered by some Christians as a symbol of this. (Lacher et. al.) 1.3 Materialism Materialism refers to the significance consumer attaches to worldly possessions, making it central in a persons life and resulting in either great satisfaction or dissatisfaction on the part of the consumer. For nations with low tax rates and high income, this type of behavior is more prevalent. However, this is not always the case for there exists rich societies which gives more importance to lower order needs and progress to more abstract, less materialistic goals such as what proponents of Christianity teach. (Belk 1985) Christmas, according to Belk, is a time where the message materialism is powerfully sent through family traditions (Belk 2001). He even asserts that this is so regardless of ones religion and income status of the nation. For instance, Singapore and Hongkong which are not predominantly Christian nations have grander Christmas celebration than the United States. Romania and Ukraine, one the other hand, are poor and communist nations, but are among the top four nations in terms of level of materials. (Ger & Miller 1996) In line with this, Miller suggests that it is possible that Christmas would even be the first global consumer holiday. (1993) There have been efforts in some Christian churches to combat materialism through preaching against it for spiritual purpose and the effect of this cannot just be undermined. Historically, Hilton has proven that religious thought affected philosophy, science, politics and even economics during the first half of the 19th century which means, the same phenomenon could also happen now with the proliferation of anti-materialism ideas. Moreover, latest research by Kasser and Sheldon, reveal that there is also some practical dimension to it, making the case against materialism even stronger. In their study of persons from ages 18 to 80, they found out that the materialistic aspects of Christmas celebrations today adversely affect well-being. It is actually family and spiritual activities such as those proliferated by the church that could help people to have a higher satisfaction. (2002) Chapter 2 Research Focus Section 1.1 pointed out that indeed, gift-giving affect the economy and other aspects of the society as it serves various functions. Section 1.2 further traced the roots gift-giving while Section 1.3 talked about materialism, how it peaks during Christmas time. This research would focus on how Christian teaching on Christmas would, if indeed it would, affect the economy in the same way that religious thought have been affected the economy in the past, as well, as shown in Section 1.3, especially now that it was reported by Kasser and Sheldon that subscribing to materialism has negative implications on people. In this paper, a pastors preaching would be analyzed and examined as a form of case study. Based on his views communicated in the pulpit, a qualitative research would be pursued in accordance to its possible effect, should the congregation take this to heart.. The quantitative aspect of this, on the other hand, would pertain to quantifying the overall attitude of the members of the congregation of the pastor based on this, predict whether or not it would have an effect on the economy of the nation with the assumption that this particular congregation is representative of Christians in the nation. Chapter 3 Methodology As mentioned in Chapter 2.1, a case study approach would be used in this research. The purpose of this is to filter information from the primary and secondary sources. The difference between primary and secondary sources is that primary sources are produced during research while secondary sources are interpretations of events during this period based on primary sources. (Bell 1999). There are two types of research methods that were applied in this research – quantitative and qualitative methods. The former is desirable due to the fact that outcomes are based on widely comparable experience. Data gathering, in this case, was done primarily through the use of survey and processed through statistical analysis. The latter, on the other hand, is the converse of the former. Gaining insights, rather than facts, is the stress of this method. In this research, a case study will be undertaken to determine the effects of a local church pastors message against materialism, particularly during Christmas time. The relationship under study, in this case, would be the idea communicated, the perception of the congregation and their translation of this into action. A survey questionnaire was used for three purposes: First, it is intended to produce a higher rate of response. Second, it is a means by which suitability of the respondents is established. And third, it establish a wider choices of answers required for the topic. For this research, applicants were asked to evaluate their pastor message (if any) on materialism and gift-giving during Christmas time and determine their attitude towards it. A sample questionnaire is provided below. Respondents were asked to answer each of these questions in terms of rating for each of the statements below. A rating of seven (7) is given when the respondent fully agrees with the statements while a rating of one (1) is given when he/she does not fully agree. A rating of four (4) is given when the respondent is indifferent to a particular statement. A rating slightly above or slightly below four (4) is given when the respondent somewhat agrees (i.e., a higher rating) or somewhat disagrees i.e., a lower rating) with each statement: 1. My pastor taught taught us that materialism is bad. 2. I personally agree with what my pastor taught us. 3. I intended to buy gifts for my family and friends even before the pastor taught against materialism. 4. I intended to buy gifts for acquaintances even before the pastor taught us against materialism. 5. I would like to receive gifts that I like for Christmas such as laptop and i-pod. 6. I wouldnt mind giving gifts like laptop and i-pod for Christmas if I can afford it. 7. After hearing his message, I intend not to buy gifts anymore. Rather, I would just make my own gifts like a personalized Christmas card made from recycled materials. The questionnaire was administered to a group of 30 Christian students in a graduate dormitory in the university. Graduate students who regard themselves as Christians were a particular interest since they all came from the different parts of the country and from different age groups. Moreover, all of them are working for some time now and have the capacity to impact the economy. In as much as primary and secondary sources are great source of knowledge, they also have problems and limitations if they are not properly addressed. For primary research, it was observed that questionnaires primarily generate low response due to the fact that they require too many answers which are extensive and detailed in nature. Secondary research, on the other hand, have technology working against it as numerous sources of information can be found in the world wide web which covers the topic but lack extensive and detailed analysis. To address this problem, the questionnaire described above has only five questions so as not to bother the respondents so much, causing a higher response rate as it is very easy to fill out. As for secondary information, sources a screened in such a way that a particular website where information is obtained should not be perceived as having a vested interest in saying a particular statement. For instance, favorable views of materialism would not be taken from a toy store web site unless it is used only as an illustration, not as supporting statement to a particular argument. Reliability and validity are also important issues to consider as they make sure that findings are accurate. Reliability, according to Priest, refers to yielding same or similar results if a particular measurement or experiment is repeated. Validity, on the other hand, refers to “whether the researcher is measuring or observing what he or she thinks is being observed. (Priest 1996, p. 225). By keeping the survey simple and statements concrete, it is hoped that these two factors would not be an issue. Chapter 5 Qualitative Research A list of residents was obtained from the dormitory manager. Each student was assigned a random number through the random number function in excel. Then, based on the random numbers, the list was rearranged from lowest to largest. The first 30 students in the list was contacted within a period of one week during the evening when most of them are expected to be in the dormitory. A problem encountered during this part of the research is that not all respondents are in the dormitory during on the same night. Therefore, the researcher has to go back again for several times during the week in the dormitory in order to contact all the individuals concerned but was not able to reach them all. So, the researchers proceeded to tabulate the results while examining if answers to questions are valid. For instance, a score of eight (8) from any item invalidates a questionnaire. The number of invalid survey forms were counted and added to the number of people the researcher was not able to contact. In this case, there were two invalid questionnaires and six persons not contacted during the previous week. So, the next eight people on the dormer list arranged by random numbers were contacted and the survey was administered to them. Chapter 6 Findings and Analysis 6.1 Quantitative Research Results of the quantitative research are as follows: Statements Mean Standard Deviation My pastor taught taught us that materialism is bad. 4.43 1.57 I personally agree with what my pastor taught us. 4.67 1.09 I intended to buy gifts for my family and friends even before the pastor taught against materialism. 4.77 1.01 I intended to buy gifts for acquaintances even before the pastor taught us against materialism. 4.83 0.91 I would like to receive gifts that I like for Christmas such as laptop and i-pod. 5.27 1.2 I wouldnt mind giving gifts like laptop and i-pod for Christmas if I can afford it. 4.8 0.81 After hearing his message, I intend not to buy gifts anymore. Rather, I would just make my own gifts like a personalized Christmas card made from recycled materials. 3.67 0.80 The qualitative aspect of this research shows that most pastors teach that materialism is a negative trait as given by a mean score of 4.43 which is nearer to 7.0 than to 1.0. Moreover, this survey shows that respondents also agree with their pastor. Before they even hear any preaching against materialism, the group intended to buy gifts for their family, friends and even acquaintances. After hearing the message, however, they still intend to buy gifts as suggested by the score of 3.67 in the last question (which is negatively stated.) They also would want to receive material gifts and do not mind giving stuff if they have the capacity. These results suggest that Christians mentally agree that materialism is bad but are still inclined to it in practice. Given this, it is possible that the figures given by Garner and Wagner would not be drastically affected. That would mean family budget which goes to gifts would still be maintained at about 4%. Moreover, since a score of 4.8 in the sixth question implies generosity and a score of 4.83 on the fourth question implies this generosity can be potentially extended to people out side the family, then the figure of 33% of the budget for gifts allocated for people outside the family which Garner and Wagner mentioned would also be maintained or even increases. 6.2 Qualitative Research This part of the research deals with the case study of a Christmas sermon a pastor gave before Christmas which addresses the issue of giving. The main text for the message was taken from John 3:16 which tells that because the world is very much loved by God the Father, He gave His Only Son, Jesus Christ so that those who will believe in Him will not die but have a life that is everlasting. This, the Pastor said, the reason why Christians give during Christmas and even during other occasions is to follow the example of God when He gave Jesus Christ to the world. From this, he went further to explain the kind of gift the Father gave – sacrificial and perfect. At this point, Christians might already pause and consider the kind of gift they give. Are they gifts perfect and sacrificial? If these two qualities alone should be pursued, then one would expect that it would even have a positive impact on market dynamics. The total productivity growth factor Braun and Evans reported could be maintained or even increased as people would still go to the market to find the sacrificial and perfect gift which, in most cases, is expensive and they would not normally buy for themselves or for others, werent they motivated by what God has done through Christ, increasing returns and time-varying effort. At the very least, a disinterested economy, as Ilmonen suggested, would result from this teaching. But the preaching didnt stop here. The pastor also asserted that gifts need not be bought. In fact, the congregation should safeguard themselves against buying stuff lest they be polluted with materialism. The supporting verse discussed for this can be found on Matthew 6 where Jesus talks about contentment. Hand-made crafts and cards from recycled materials are as much expression of sacrifice as those bought with hard-earned money since it would require a significant amount of time and effort to make them “perfect.” 6.3 New Information Generated To add to the literature on this topic, this research was able to show, through the quantitative aspect just how far head knowledge is from practice. As described in Section 6.1, it can be seen that on the average, individuals still retained their previous attitude regarding giving even after they have been admonished by their pastors against it. Moreover, it has been shown in Section 6.2 that sacrifice and perfection are two very important concepts which must be considered in the context of gift-giving. Now, merging the results of the qualitative and quantitative research, it appears that Christians are able to absorb the concept of perfect and sacrificial gift but not the warning of their Pastor against materialism. A possible explanation for this is that such concept would take years before fruition takes place since people have been so used to material gift-giving tradition which started centuries ago, in the time of the Romans. (See Section 1.2.) Favoring the economy, it has been shown from the literature review that gift-giving has positive impact. Favoring the church, on the other hand, it was also found out by Kasser and Sheldon that family and spiritual activities do good to the individual. Therefore, in the case of gift-giving, a merging of this two concepts can be pursued for the benefit of both the individual and the economy. This would have impact in different aspects of the market such as marketing strategy which will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapter. Chapter 7 Conclusion It is therefore concluded that the Christian teaching on love which is hope to address the problem of materialism is not a threat at all to the economy, at least as far the present day context is concerned. Data presented in 6.1 suggest that although the respondents were inclined towards certain beliefs and actions, they dont feel strongly on a certain issue since scores usually fall around the area of indifference or 4.0. However, the power of consistent teaching must never be underestimated as this could indeed affect future behavior. Based on Section 1, it was also found out that materialism, particularly in the context of gift-giving, do good to the economy. Therefore, Christian conviction must never get in the way of this. Thus, it is suggested that marketing strategy capitalize on this. This could be in the form of making commercials which would highlight the Christian value of love and sacrifice in the products. In doing so, Christians, would be encouraged to act like they used to, positively affecting the economy. On the other hand, they would also get the benefit of satisfaction by believing that what they are doing are some form of spiritual exercise. (Kasser & Sheldon 2002) It is suggested that further study on this topic be undertaken in qualifying the effect of consistent teaching as well as quantifying the effect on the anti-Materialism campaign of Christian leaders. The sample population under study can be expanded to include representatives from different sectors of the society and not just from a single dormitory. A case study might also be considered which would cover a representative from the different Christian denominations in order to have more comprehensive results. In this way, future trends can also be investigated and future problems which may arise because of this can be mitigated. Bibliography Alan, B. 2008. History of Christmas Gift-giving. [online] Available: http://www.fireworks.com/christmas/gift-giving.asp [Accessed 21 January 2008] Beatty, S. & Kahle, L. 1991. Personal values and gift-giving behaviors: a study across cultures. Journal of Business Research. 22(2), pp. 149-157 Belk, R. 1985. Materialism: trait aspects of living in the material world. The Journal of Consumer Research. 12(3), pp. 265-180 Belk, R. 2001. Materialism and You. Journal of Consumer Research. (1), n.p. Bell, J. (1999) Doing your research project, 2nd ed. Milton Keynes: Open University Press Braun, R. & Evans, C. 1998. Seasonal slow residuals and Christmas: A Case for Labor Hoarding and Increasing Returns. 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