Guilt or Gratitude?

“So the last principle is to have richness of wealth be matched by a richness of good works. We are not to give to others because we have been infected with wealth, and we, the guilty, want to pass on the cooties. We are to give from a sense of enjoyment and gratitude. A man plagued with guilt will give only enough to bring down the level of guilt to acceptable levels. A man giving from gratitude will always give far more. Consumerism is an ideology — an idolatrous ideology. But we are not to forget who we are. As men and women, we must all be consumers. Not to belabor the obvious, this is because God made us with mouths. And here, as grateeful consumers, we may exhibit our gratitude and thanksgiving for all the stuff. ‘Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness’ (Ps. 65:11)” (Mother Kirk, p. 236).