Simplicity

by Lesley Misrahi

Simplicity is one of the virtues which are particularly important to Anabaptists. We know some groups demonstrate this by avoiding technology and modern dress. Yet we can be accused of hypocrisy because clearly we use cars and live in cities and watch TV. So how can we say that we have a simple lifestyle, and do we even want one?

Simplicity is not a simple subject and the term seems to represent a variety of lifestyles, some of them contradictory. Why is one person’s simplicity so different from another’s? And what do we do when living ‘simply’ involves a great deal more work? It’s not easy to say what simple living is, but we all know what it’s not.

It ‘s not the celebrity lifestyle that has spilled out of the pages of Hello magazine and seems now to be a major plank of popular culture - in which people are measured only by their wealth, looks, money and who they’re sleeping with at the moment.

It‘s not the driven life in which the ambitious person works longer and longer hours to gain status and money - money which is spent on providing the house, the car, the clothes, the possessions appropriate to their status and in paying for the nanny, the cleaner, the restaurant meals, which enable such hard work to continue. And of course it funds the expensive holidays so they can recuperate - if they have time

Simplicity is also not poverty. The whole point about the simple living which we are discussing is that you choose to do certain things which simplify your life. The essence of poverty and social deprivation is lack of choice – of residence, of diet, of work, of transport, of the things that affect individuals and families. And people need to be able to make choices if they are not to fall into depression. So, lacking any other options, they may choose things that are unhelpful, such as smoking.

Simplicity is only simplicity if it is freely chosen. A person obliged to live in that way cannot be said to have opted for the simple lifestyle and may feel oppressed. So the Amish, for instance, wisely give each young person a chance to taste the alternatives and to decide for themselves whether they want to be part of the community or not.

That is what simplicity is not, but what is it? I have tried to categorise the different approaches to simple living according to the aims of the people practising it and the reasons they might give for their choices.

A. Frugality

The first approach that springs to mind is what we might call ‘frugality’ - using fewer of resources of the world. Buying less, spending less, using things till they wear out, ‘living more lightly on the earth’.

1. Green – preserving the world
One of the most common reasons for doing this is ecological – to preserve the environment for ourselves and future generations. It’s a high profile issue at the moment and with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reporting recently it’s clear that this is a matter of urgency. For Christians and other believers there is the added incentive that this is a world created by God, that the land is not ours but only lent to us as stewards. And it is a Creation in which God is deeply concerned as we see from the laws he gave his people:

If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long .(Deut 22:6-7)

2. Providing for the poor
Although contemporary writers often assume that ecological awareness is a necessary component of voluntary simplicity, as recently as 1980, books such as ‘Living More Simply’ edited by Ron Sider, barely give environmental sustainability a mention. Their concern is all for the poor and the ways in which the huge consumption in the affluent nations goes hand in hand with poverty, exploitation and hunger in the majority of the world. The slogan is ‘Live simply, so that others may simply live’ with the idea that using less means more to go around for others. Christians may see this as a priority because the Bible insists that God’s people should look after those in need, from the commands to the Israelites to care for the orphan and widow to Jesus’ promise of good news to the poor. Simple living to help the poor may mean that people need to earn less because they consume less, and so have a less pressured life. A variant of this is saving money so as to give more to others in need.

Of course the ecological and anti-poverty approaches can go hand in hand and are often seen as two sides of the same coin.

B Anti-materialism - rejecting the system

Simplicity can involve rejecting the systems and values that lead to inequality, over-consumption and environmental damage in the first place. This can come from both political and religious values.

1. Living by different values
. Socialism has traditionally rejected the capitalist system as leading to poverty and exploitation. Christians may reject consumer culture because, in its pursuit of getting and spending, it values objects more than the God who created them. For Paul covetousness is a form of idolatry. The description of the Church in Acts immediately after Pentecost shows Jesus-followers forming a new type of society whose values and practices were to be governed by worship and sharing.

2. Justice: Solidarity with the poor
Anti-materialism for whatever motive often has a strong current of concern for justice for the poor. Social justice runs throughout the Bible and love of our neighbour is for Christians second only to our love for God.

Someone who is concerned about poverty and the environment is keen to reduce their own consumption, but the anti-materialist version of living simply may emphasise showing solidarity with the poor by sharing their lifestyle and refusing to benefit from a system which exploits others. This could involve deciding not to scramble up the corporate ladder but to do a service job for lower pay or living in an inner-city neighbourhood.

3. Demonstrating difference
Many groups, both secular and religious have marked their antipathy to their society’s values dress and behaviour. This applies to hippies and New Agers as well as Anabaptist churches.

During the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries in Britain and North America, Christian piety was expressed in the rejection of worldly values. The Puritans were the extreme manifestation of a society which came to expect Christians to not wear ostentatious clothing, nor to seek privileged status. This was especially so in republican North America. The Pennsylvania Germans had always stressed the virtues of simplicity but as, during the nineteenth century gentility and refinement in dress and manners became the fashion, they reacted against the new trend. They showed their rejection of the world in favour of godly values by clinging to plain and outmoded costumes and not embracing modern gadgets.

Many Mennonites have given up this way of showing their faith, as it not only can lead to legalism but also means a concentration on material things – by how plain they are, rather than how fancy or fashionable. The question remains, though, how do we show that we have rejected the values of the world around us?

C Health and well-being - too much is bad for you

1. Psychological
Psychologists are realising that greater affluence does not make people happier overall. Once individuals have enough money for their basic needs, money does relatively little to improve happiness. Neither national economic growth nor increased personal income have much effect on changes in the personal happiness of a population. Psychological research has shown that people who embrace the messages of consumer culture report lower personal well-being.
So there is another approach to simple living, exemplified by New Age philosophies, but often found in Christian discussions of simplicity these days, which is about improving one’s own well-being by living a simpler life. It involves gaining psychological health by pressurizing oneself less, examining my life to see what habits are making me more stressed, avoiding the complexities which make life more difficult and getting rid of clutter.

2. Physical
On the physical side, reducing consumption in this approach is aimed at making individuals more healthy by vegetarian, organic or wholefood diet, or avoiding toxins for instance. We can observe these ideas creeping into the old custom of fasting for spiritual well-being, with people giving up smoking or chocolate for Lent.

The frugal and anti-materialistic approaches to simplicity we have already looked at can complement each other quite well, but simplicity for personal well-being can cut across these, as this approach seeks to benefit the self rather than others..
An emphasis on feeling less stressed can contradict ideas about reducing use of resources or solidarity with the poor. To consume less of the world’s resources can be harder. Recycling and using public transport involve more physical effort. Living in a poor neighbourhood tends to be more stressful than living in a better-off one. Personally speaking, I find that a bowl of chickpeas is not nearly as satisfying emotionally as shepherd’s pie. To the person whose idea of simple living is avoiding stress, the anti-materialist who chooses to live in an inner-city tower block and spends long hours involved in local politics is not living a simple life.

In fact the person who seeks simplicity for their own well-being has much the same motive as the materialistic culture that surrounds us, which provides feelings of self-worth in an age when many of the community supports are no longer available. When people feel powerless, shopping gives an illusion of control. Increasingly, people’s identities are determined by what they buy and how much they earn. What they look like and owning the right things has become more important than character and the traditional virtues. Our culture seems only to value youth and beauty and the cosmetic ad’s slogan ‘because I’m worth it,‘ shows that the ability to pamper oneself has become a measure of individual worth.

Married to a husband who never wanted to buy anything for himself, I found that I got angry when I was expected not to want anything either. I realised it was because I felt I deserved more; I was worth more than the poorest and cheapest of everything. He put me to shame as a Christian because he genuinely didn’t care about owning things as he hardly bothered at all about what people thought.

Francois Fenélon, a seventeenth century French archbishop, wrote that “simplicity is an uprightness of soul that prevents self-consciousness”. He goes on, “Many people are sincere who are not simple because they are forever thinking about themselves”. It seems that simplicity demands a surrendering of our self-preoccupation and a concentration on something else.

D.Spirituality - avoiding what separates us from God

People of faith throughout the ages have known that simple living can enable us to come closer to God. Jesus taught that a person could not be devoted both to God and material prosperity. Paul warns against the dangers of seeking wealth. The first century church knew this, but by the fourth century St. John Chrysostom was deploring the inconsistency between the values Christians preached and the way they lived:
“This is why the gentiles do not believe what we say. They want us to show them a doctrine not through our words but our works. When they see us building magnificent houses, planting gardens, buying fields, however, they find it difficult to believe that we are preparing a journey to another city.”

1. Asceticism
To counter this, the ascetic movement grew up, with monks living in poverty and self-imposed deprivation in the desert. Extreme fasting, hair shirts and self-flagellation to mortify the flesh became marks of piety. They were particularly popular in Europe in the middle ages during the Black Death, as if God’s favour had to be paid for by an offering of pain and suffering.

But Jesus was not an ascetic, nor did he advocate self-mortification. He enjoyed a good party, though he could go without a roof over his head for the sake of his mission. He did not condemn fasting, but its purpose should be to enable a person to concentrate on God, and do God’s work, not to benefit themselves, spiritually or materially.

2. Putting God first

The philosopher Kierkegaard said that purity of heart is to will one thing, which he calls the Good. As Christians, our aim is not to live simply, it is to be faithful to our calling in Jesus. The new life that we have found in Christ, though it may be intensely personal, is not private. It will affect the way that we live our lives. Ultimately, a simple lifestyle will arise naturally and unselfconsciously out of a life that focuses on God. When other concerns fall away, there is no need for much of the things we buy and do.

The ancient Hebrews knew this. As Proverbs 30 prays, "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God," The aim is to be true to God – and that leads to simple living.

There aren’t any easy answers to the dilemmas about whether it is more important to reduce stress or to buy our food at the farmer’s market, or whether it’s right to indulge in a new dress or pursue promotion. But for Christians, it becomes clearer the closer we come to God and the more we concentrate on Christ alone. I can see it but I haven’t got there. My goal is just to be willing to obey the first commandment - to love the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. That would be true simplicity. I only wish it were easy!