Andrew Lightbown, an Anglican deacon and co-editor of Theonomics - a book bringing together theology and economics, reflects on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

ON Friday, the world went retail mad.

The message of Black Friday was: spend, spend and spend some more. And, by the way, don’t stop to think of the impact of your behaviour on others.

The BBC News website reported that “police have been called to supermarkets across the UK amid crowd surges as people hunt for Black Friday offers”.

Now, hunting can be a dangerous ‘sport’, so it is no surprise that the BBC also say that “in one Tesco store in Manchester three men were arrested and a woman was hurt by a falling television".

Bizarrely Black Friday’s tentacles spread beyond the high-street and off into cyberspace.

A colleague - an Archdeacon no less—told a group of colleagues on Friday morning that she had decided to see what offers were available for coffee machines using her iPad and received a message saying that there was a one hour queue. So much for electronic purchases saving time!

Black Friday’s sibling, Cyber Monday, possesses the same potential to inflict psychological and economic damage.

Visa estimated that £518 million of purchases were made in online credit card transactions, so it is clear that Black Friday purchases may result in ever greater levels of household debt. Visa have estimated even larger volumes of new transactions on Cyber Monday.

I was asked, as the editor of Theonomics, a publication that seeks to align theology and economic practice, how I felt about Black Friday from a faith, perspective.

My first thought was one of ill-ease; the whole concept seems a bit indecent. But, this isn’t solely a faith perspective, for I am sure that many people, who wouldn’t associate themselves with any of the religions, feel the same.

In itself this raises an interesting perspective on religion, dispelling the myth that religious and humanistic sensitivities are necessarily in conflict with each other. The opposite is in some senses true with religious practice at its best confirming humanities basic goodness and decency. This thought sits at the heart of Advent.

Another central idea, expressed through Advent, that speaks prophetically in a market place enthralled by Black Friday, and its sibling Cyber Monday, is the idea of deferred gratification. The economist Adam Smith, in many ways the founding father of our modern economic system, in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, majored on the importance of deferred gratification.

Where Black Friday says buy, buy and do it now, Advent responds no, wait. Advent’s message to all of us is yes, but not just yet.

Through the Advent season, Christians reflect on the gift they are about to receive - a gift beyond value, a gift which cannot be purchased, a gift worth waiting for.

Advent leads into Christmas when we receive the greatest of gifts, the vulnerable Christ child. It is a gift Christians are asked to cherish. To cherish means valuing and caring for someone, or something, without considering of price and cost.

I suspect that most of the goods purchased on Black Friday will not be cherished; instead they will simply be used in the vain pursuit of happiness. But, these goods won’t make us happy, for if they did we wouldn’t bother replacing them. Black Friday seeks to reduce human flourishing to consumption, and that is irreligious.

Advent shares one of the marketing industry’s most famous strap lines, “because you’re worth it”, but at the same time asks us to reflect on the fact that the virtue is in the waiting, for when we wait for something we truly desire we are more likely to cherish, share it and, yes, enjoy it.

This principle doesn’t need to kept in a box marked ‘exclusively Christian.’ We can all take pleasure in finding out what our friends and family will really value, for surely this makes real the old saying that ‘it is better to give than to receive?’

The concept of deferred gratification, practiced through Advent, teaches us not only how to give but also how to receive. When we wait for the things that really count, when our purchases are made in a spirit of decency, after and after careful thought, we act with reverence towards ourselves and each other, we confirm each other’s humanity and, we become the epitome of the economic behaviour at its best.

Go on and wait a little while longer, because you are worth it.