{"id":82,"date":"2010-10-07T11:50:51","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T11:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html"},"modified":"2010-10-07T11:50:51","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T11:50:51","slug":"does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html","title":{"rendered":"Does God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dollar_Ellen_jw<\/form>\n

This week over at Episcopal Cafe<\/a>, Ellen Painter Dollar<\/a> (at left) has a great post on a question that plagues me perpetually: how much is too much? Why do I feel more virtuous today, when I hauled a bed frame and a bag of old clothes and books to the front porch to be picked up by the Vietnam Veterans, than I did yesterday, when the only decluttering I did was to eat leftover mini-Snickers? <\/p>\n

How does God feel about our houses full of stuff<\/i>? Like Ellen, I am a neat freak by nature, one who is quick to see the unhealthiness of holding on to clutter for too long. (My husband is the same way, but he has a fascination with the lives of the people on the TV show Hoarders<\/a><\/i>; whenever he watches an episode, he has a strong desire to clean something, so of course this is viewing that I encourage.)  <\/p>\n

But also like Ellen, I am coming around the idea that matter matters<\/i>. Beloved objects are memories, and memories bond us to people and to this earth, as Ellen points out. –JKR<\/p>\n

The Lessons of a Cluttered Life<\/a>
By Ellen Painter Dollar<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my 20s, I attended a church that embraced material simplicity and
\ndetachment from stuff long before it became trendy. We engaged regularly
\nin soul-searching conversations about our attachment to possessions.
\nOne friend’s long-ago purchase of a $900 wing chair continued to haunt
\nhim as a symbol of material excess. He talked about that chair so often
\nthat it’s the only vivid detail I can recall of him. Another friend
\nworried that his arrival at a school reunion driving a used Camry would
\nshock his former roommates, who might recall how he had spoken out
\nagainst the purchase of even mundane items like house paint in a call
\nfor solidarity with the poor. Now here he was, driving a car that
\npractically defines suburban material comfort. And Christmas…oy, such an
\noccasion of angst Christmas was, with all those excessive, unnecessary
\ngifts in the name of a baby born into poverty. <\/p>\n

Now that I am a mother of three who drives a Honda Odyssey minivan (the
\nsupersized symbol of suburban material comfort), the Christian
\nsimplicity ethic has gotten mixed up in my mind with the clutter-free
\nliving extolled in the pages of shelter magazines and on
\nhome-improvement shows, in which everything, from mail and sports
\nequipment to craft supplies and kitchen staples, is sorted into
\ncolor-coordinated storage systems, and anything that goes unused for a
\nfew months is thrown away, recycled, or repurposed. I am also naturally
\ninclined to dislike clutter; I possess a writerly desire for a “clean
\nwell-lighted room” in which to work. <\/p>\n

The simplicity ethic on top of cultural values extolling clutter-free
\nliving and my own predisposition has led to my quasi-spiritual certainty
\nthat God just doesn’t like stuff….<\/p>\n

Finish reading this post at Episcopal Cafe.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week over at Episcopal Cafe, Ellen Painter Dollar (at left) has a great post on a question that plagues me perpetually: how much is too much? Why do I feel more virtuous today, when I hauled a bed frame and a bag of old clothes and books to the front porch to be picked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-cultural-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . . - Flunking Sainthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . . - Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week over at Episcopal Cafe, Ellen Painter Dollar (at left) has a great post on a question that plagues me perpetually: how much is too much? Why do I feel more virtuous today, when I hauled a bed frame and a bag of old clothes and books to the front porch to be picked…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-07T11:50:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/import\/Dollar_Ellen_jw%2046%20-%20Version%203.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Riess\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . . - Flunking Sainthood","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . . - Flunking Sainthood","og_description":"This week over at Episcopal Cafe, Ellen Painter Dollar (at left) has a great post on a question that plagues me perpetually: how much is too much? Why do I feel more virtuous today, when I hauled a bed frame and a bag of old clothes and books to the front porch to be picked…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html","og_site_name":"Flunking Sainthood","article_published_time":"2010-10-07T11:50:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/import\/Dollar_Ellen_jw%2046%20-%20Version%203.jpg"}],"author":"Jana Riess","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html","name":"Does God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . . - Flunking Sainthood","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/import\/Dollar_Ellen_jw%2046%20-%20Version%203.jpg","datePublished":"2010-10-07T11:50:51+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-07T11:50:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/fe5046ba89e9602d4de4c0e9b4ef53f8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/import\/Dollar_Ellen_jw%2046%20-%20Version%203.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/import\/Dollar_Ellen_jw%2046%20-%20Version%203.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/does-god-hate-clutter-ellen-painter-dollar-thinks-so-maybe.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Does God Hate Clutter? Ellen Painter Dollar Used To Think So, But . . ."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/","name":"Flunking Sainthood","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jana Riess","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/fe5046ba89e9602d4de4c0e9b4ef53f8","name":"Jana Riess","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/954\/9541c99a399647166f0db1fe22b238ecx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/954\/9541c99a399647166f0db1fe22b238ecx96.jpg","caption":"Jana Riess"},"description":"Jana Riess is the author of Flunking Sainthood, a 2011 book about failing at twelve different spiritual practices. She is also currently working on The Twible, a three-year Twitter project with humorous daily Bible updates for your amusement (find her on Twitter as @janariess). She has a few silly degrees from swanky schools but was never once able to climb the rope in gym class. Her spiritual director is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/author\/jriess"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}