You really don't need all of this stuff, but you still want more. And as you collect material things, your quality of life is actually declining. You may not be spending as much time with your spouse and children. You may have dropped out of church. You don't pray as much as you once did, and you don't study the Bible at all.

You don't spend as much time with old friends and you haven't made a new friend in years. Your life is caught up in collecting stuff.

Now, it's not only your hobby but a way of life.

In fact, the United States may be the only society on Earth that uses hoarding as a way of life.

But since the 1960s, a growing number of religious people have set out to change the U.S. mindset. They want to convince people that everything they buy puts a greater burden on the poor. They want to show people that a comfortable life is possible without hoarding.

And some of them want you to know that their concern comes out of their religious values. Ken and Shirley Gowdy, for example, have been living simply for nearly 30 years, and they say it all comes from being raised in limited circumstances and from their Christian faith.

"The roots of our values come out of Jesus' concern for the poor," Ken Gowdy said. "What we are contending against is the love of wealth and the misuse of wealth. But we had to be converted, and there were many influences. We decided if our conversion doesn't reach into our pocket books, then it isn't a real conversion."

Their religious-based philosophy is distinct from some others in the loosely defined "voluntary simplicity" movement, which includes many who have made a lifestyle choice to reduce stress and workaholic tendencies, increase free time and serenity and generally leave the societal rat race behind.

For Gowdy and others, simple living is all about taking personal responsibility for the condition of the world.

Gerald Iversen of Alternatives for Simple Living in Sioux City, Iowa, says his movement is all about sustaining the health of the world. Iversen's organization works with churches and secular people across the United States.

"We try to make them understand sustainability," Iversen said. "We tell them the Earth is not to plunder but to keep and to till. Our North American lifestyle is not sustainable - that is, it uses up more than it puts back. It's not sustainable for us, yet we are working to impose it on the whole world. Instead of working for sustainability - something that can be kept going for a long time - we are working for overconsumption.

"We tell them to put the emphasis on personal relationships rather than on stuff. We try to tell people to get relationships with others, with ourselves and with God."

Iversen estimates about 10 percent of the people in the United States are trying in some way to live simple lives.

"They want to do this for happiness," Iversen said. "Less stress and less debt - that's the personal reason. But there is also a faith reason.

"We promote what we call alternative giving. U.S. citizens now spend more money on gambling than on food. That means you have less money to give to other causes. There is phenomenal need. So people are doing it for their personal happiness but also to help others."

Barbara DeGrote-Sorensen and her husband, the Rev. David Sorensen, have written two books about simple living, " 'Tis a Gift to Be Simple" and "Six Weeks to Simple Living." DeGrote-Sorensen said she and her husband both were working full time and became overextended, a problem for many couples.

"Yes, it was a faith response and also it wasn't," DeGrote-Sorensen said. "Mainly it just hurt too much to be living that way. The pace was nonstop and there was emotional pain. We started to have headaches and other health problems. The part that hurt so much was we worked so hard and still couldn't keep up.

"We were both working and we had three kids under 8," DeGrote-Sorensen said. "We were doing this at the kids' expense. But we were settled, and my husband didn't want to talk about it. Then he went to Tanzania and when he came home, he wanted to talk."

So the DeGrote-Sorensen family did a 50 percent reduction in everything: They bought a smaller house closer to her husband's church. They worked fewer hours and spent less time away from home. And they purchased a used van.

There has been some backsliding, and Barbara now is working full time again as the coordinator of the gifted program for the schools in Long Prairie, Minn.

But they are determined not to let material things become a trap in their lives.

The Gowdy family, on the other hand, is not backsliding. Both Ken and Shirley are committed to living simply as a response to their faith. They buy most of their food from co-ops. Ken walks or bicycles to work. Shirley hangs her wash inside the house in the winter and outside in the summer. And they live in a multiple-family dwelling with two of their daughters.

Allison Squire of Minneapolis said the practice of Buddhism convinced her to scale back her life.

"It doesn't make sense to go after all these things," Squire said. "I bike to work because we've made a decision to have only one car. And it does seem true that the more you have, the more pain you have.

"Buddhism teaches you to question the idea we have of the solid existence of anything," Squire said. "Life is constantly changing from one moment to the next. If you're thinking about the world that way, it certainly makes material things and important titles irrelevant."

In fact, entire congregations have made a conscious decision to live simply.

The Rev. Ron Johnson, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, said his congregation decided years ago to refurbish the church building to improve energy costs.

"We have pretty good stewardship here," Johnson said. "We have many social activists and many who try to live simply. We've put about $300,000 into this building to make it energy efficient.

"We've put plastic over the stained glass windows both for protection and for energy needs," Johnson said. "We put in new windows and insulated all the walls and ceilings. We have kept energy costs down. And we've talked about our own homes and how we can save energy."

The Holy Trinity congregation then takes the money it saves on energy and uses it to build a secondary school and a seminary in Tanzania. A small group of people go to Africa every year for three weeks to construct buildings. Another group goes to Central America and works with people there.

Ralph Hilgendorf, a Quaker in St. Paul, says the most important thing is to lead a God-centered life rather than a self-centered life.

"The essential thing is to not allow your possessions to control you," Hilgendorf said. "And that's a tough one. In a capitalistic society we're supposed to own our own homes, our cars. Then you have to have a certain kind of lawn. There's all this pressure to live a certain lifestyle. Every town has to have golf courses and arenas for pro sports teams. You have to constantly ask the question, "What do I really need for an adequate life?"

Clark D. Morphew