A gospel-informed reading of our 21st century western culture might conclude that the exaltation of the indidual and his need for salvation in evangelical circles does not translate into the meeting of individual needs in society, where the individual is being swallowed up amid the cultural deification of the many. Consumerization in the market place has led to the emphasis of quantity over quality such that the individual's value is determined by his ability en masse to produce enough quantity for ever-reducing margins of profit to succeed in maintaining growth. The individual has become a small cog in the large wheel of ever-increasing needs for quantity of goods sufficient to drive the economic engine of a consumer society. As the profit margin declines so does the value (and pay scale) of the average worker. The evangelical church, unfortunately, has ignored the plight of average citizens in its zeal to maintain its own viability, which it maintains chiefly in ministry to the upper middle and professional classes. True preaching of the gospel must begin to address the economic ills of society which ever-increasingly devalue the individual. Saving the individual is not enough: society itself must be brought to the throne of God's judgment. Abortion and homosexuality are not the chief ills of American society; consumerism and its near kin materialism are.