I had an unsettling experience the other evening. Feeling a bit under the weather, I retreated to the sofa and proceeded to do a little channel hopping. Nothing sparked my interest as I moved through the evening TV lineup. Then I came upon a reality show I'd never heard of before entitled The Real Housewives of Orange County. I spent a few moments trying to figure out what the show was about before clicking to the next option. Like seeing a bad car wreck on the side of the road, I found myself unable to avert my eyes and sat for the next hour in submission to the television screen.

The show is about several 'real' women and their families who live in an affluent Orange County, California neighborhood.  Most of these women are in their forties and early fifties, with the exception of one twenty-something. A camera follows the women and their families throughout their everyday activities. The common theme underlying this gated-community group is a flagrant obsession with money, prestige, and image. Their homes are massive, they have numerous luxury cars, as do their children, and they're generally 'living life large' in every possible way.

The course of the women's days include shopping - a lot of shopping, meeting for drinks at local country or equestrian clubs, hosting Botox parties, visiting day spas, going to Playboy parties at the Hefner mansion, overindulging their children's desires, and traveling to luxury resorts. Some of the women work outside the home - real estate, insurance execs - and the youngest woman is 'kept' by a much older man. All of the women have had plastic surgery, to a point where some have started to look a bit warped in the face. Their young daughters have also been given plastic surgery procedures as 'gifts' for graduations and birthdays. Being seen as sexy, much younger than they really are, and fabulously gorgeous is the central purpose of their lives.

As a Christian feminist woman, I have to admit to being stunned by what I saw. This 'lives of the rich and famous' docu-drama was one of the saddest things I've ever seen - as sad as the women I've encountered in countless refugee camps and slums around the globe. The complete and utter emptiness of these women's lives (and the lives of their children), the spiritual void they live within, their lack of any real understanding of value, and their total preoccupation with themselves were sickening to watch. In fact, if there was ever an argument to change the values of our culture, this show is it. But of course, this 'reality' show was created with the intent to make the rest of us want to emulate these women's lives, to have all of the stuff they have, to live the 'perfect' life.

People sometimes ask me if Ministry of Money is a ministry for the rich - and why should the rich need ministry when there is so much suffering among the poor?  How can you equate the 'invisible' suffering of the affluent with the obvious suffering of the poor and marginalized? I have struggled through the years with these questions. It's like the experience of a young man from my church years ago who was trying to raise money to go into missionary work in Paris: there was an assumption that ministering in Paris is much easier, and less Godly somehow, than ministering in the Congo or Haiti or Calcutta.

My current response to these questions is that there is suffering on both sides of the growing economic disparity - and each group suffers because of the other. Without ministering to both, there is no relief for either. The poverty of spirit among the affluent cuts as deeply as the hunger pangs of the impoverished. Now I realize that's hard for some of us to wrap our heads around, but I've come to believe it is the truth. Mother Teresa talked of it when she said that America was the poorest place she'd ever been. The rest of the world understands that 'the haves' need some ministering to: everyone everywhere would lead happier lives if we Americans spent less money, energy, natural resources and military power protecting our 'stuff' and our unsustainable affluent lifestyles.

It's us, the affluent West, the women of Orange County, and the rest of us who live less luxurious but still comfortable and insulated lives who need to be told (and obviously re-told) of God's unfathomable love for us. And we are responsible to care for and love others as much as we care for and love ourselves. If we were to really believe that and live it out, the suffering of the poor would diminish drastically - and so would the spiritual poverty so many of us experience when we hold more than our share of God's provision.

If you want to understand this even better, try watching 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' sometime.

Blessings,