Category: Everyday Justice

Discussing Everyday Justice 3

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The recent contest to win a copy of Everyday Justice generated some fantastic comments and questions about justice issues. So over the next few days I will be addressing some of those in blog posts. I don’t assume to have THE answers to anything, but just want to share my perspective and hope you will join in with yours as well.

Arthur asked –
I never did find a good answer to what happens when the big coffee growers quit paying even the token payment to the gatherers? Do they then starve because we refuse to support the corrupt corporations?

and mjb similarily asks –
“if we get too focused on buying local and not causing hardship to the environment by shipping over long distances, etc, are we taking away jobs from the poor in other countries who make the goods we import? ”

This is why I think a balanced perspective is always needed. I think those of us that care about workers and the environment often are assumed to be anti-globalization. The whole idea of buying local or ethically when stated persuasively can have that effect. I do support the idea of buying locally, forming relationships with the people who grow your food and bringing community back into commerce. But I think it is naïve to think we can just pretend that we don’t live in a globalized world. If we turn inward and start thinking only locally, we will end up hurting people around the world.

The world has changed. Most countries worldwide have taken those first steps (or more accurately have been forcefully pushed) into industrialization. Through colonialism, the mandates of the IMF and World Bank, and greedy power-hungry leaders most countries around the world are now trying to compete in an economy designed to oppress them. Decisions have been made that have committed them to developing industry and exporting goods whether the average citizen living there wants to do that or not. The line has been crossed, there is truly no turning back. So while I support the concept of American’s buying locally and of everyone reducing our consumption, the fact of the matter is that people around the world still need jobs in order to survive in this brave new world we’ve forced them into. I don’t want to hurt them even more by protesting the existence of globalization and taking those jobs away from them. Globalization exists. Period. The real question is how we deal with it.

The point of stopping sweatshops or agricultural slavery isn’t to shut those operations down. The point it to improve them, to call them to higher ethical standards. And while on one hand stricter laws and oversight will have to be part of that process. The tightening of the belt and the taking of responsibility should not be passed onto the oppressed workers. Choosing to vote with our money for ethically produced goods shouldn’t result in non-ethical companies shutting their doors and getting rid of jobs. When they see that the public is demanding that they be responsible human beings, they will work to supply the public with what it wants. The idea is for jobs to be retained – just improved.

The truth is though that improvements will not occur just by letting the markets work as they do now. When the rich and powerful prevent the idea of a truly free market economy from ever occurring, there have to be deliberate steps taken to end oppression. Systems like fair trade help eliminate the injustices while retaining jobs. I am uneasy with the people (like Jeffrey Sachs) who say that oppressive working environments like sweatshops are just a necessary part of a country developing. That might have been truly in a pre-globalized world where a country was generally able to end that oppression generally because the religious groups stood up to industry. But it’s going to take the ethically minded in the powerful countries that are home to the oppressive industries to be the voice for the oppressed. The powerful will have to create systems like (fair trade) and make laws to protect workers around the world in order to end oppression this time. It won’t just self-correct. We have to be aware of globalization and work within it in order to ever improve things.

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Justice in Real Life

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I’m a mom.  I have diapers to change, groceries to buy, and lunches to make.  Between keeping up with the kids and paying the bills, most days I’m happy if I can squeeze in the luxurious “me moment” of a shower.  But as a follower of Christ I also know that I am called to love my neighbor as Jesus did – by proclaiming good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free (as mentioned in Luke 4).  Seeking justice for others in these ways is at the heart of what it means to follow Christ.  It’s not just a call for some Christians; it’s for all of us – including us busy moms.

But it can be hard to figure out how I can be seeking justice for others in the midst of my chaotic life.  I read books by guys like Shane Claiborne and am inspired by how they have fully committed their lives to serving others.  Yet even as I am inspired by them, I know that I can’t move into a commune in the inner-city in order to devote my life to others.  It’s a great idea, just not very doable at this stage in life.  It’s frustrating that doing justice in this world often seems to fall into these all or nothing extremes.  Either one devotes every aspect of who they are to seeking justice or they opt out because they just can’t see how they can fit it into their lives.

But seeking justice doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing.  Many of the most serious justice issues in our world today are actually intimately connected to our everyday lives and therefore can be addressed through simple everyday actions as well.  Those diapers I change and those lunches I make are justice issues connecting me to people all over the world – my neighbors who Jesus has asked me to love.  Even in my busy life as a mom, I can be choosing to serve others through these daily actions, seeking justice even in the everyday.

It took me awhile (and a decent amount of research) to realize these things, and even longer to start to implement them into my life.  The whole process started for me with a deliberate choice to only buy fair trade coffee.  I had read the stories that coffee farmers around the world were literally being cheated of their wages for the coffee they grew.  They could no longer send their children to school, and were struggling to even put food on the table.  Many of these farmers were being forced off their land simply because the price they were being paid for their work no longer allowed them to even survive.  Fair trade companies though choose to respect the dignity of the coffee farmers.  By purchasing fair trade coffee I know that the farmers were paid a decent wage for their work, allowed to have a say in how the coffee is grown, and were not abused or threatened as they worked.  Sure, it costs me a little more to buy this coffee, but I’m fine paying the full cost of my coffee instead of cheating the farmers of their wages so I can have cheap coffee.  My morning cup of coffee is a justice issue.

From there I learned how the clothes I wear often are made by children in abusive sweatshops, that the cell phone I use has connections to guerilla squads that terrorize and rape women, that the chocolate I eat was grown by children trafficked into slavery, and that the energy I use has destroyed communities in Appalachia and Nigeria.  My daily life connects me to people around the world, and often my choices inadvertently harm others.  If I wanted to seek justice for them, I needed to start by (slowly) changing habits in my everyday life.  As with coffee, I could buy things that had been fairly produced, seeking alternatives to oppressive systems.  But I could also use my power as a consumer to send letters to companies and the government telling them that I care about how those who produce the goods I consume are treated.   My everyday life would continue, but I wanted to make sure that even in the small things I choose to pursue the paths of justice and love

My life is crazy as a mom, and it would have been easy to think that seeking justice is one of those things I’d get around to one of these days.  But seeing the connections in my everyday life to worldwide justice issues changed me.  I realized that I had no choice but to start seeking justice for others since I was already so intimately connected with the injustices they experience.  It just took figuring out the small everyday ways that I could integrate justice into my life to start that journey.

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OozeTV Interview

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So when I was up in Minneapolis for Christianity21 I got to sit down with Spencer Burke for an interview about Everyday Justice for theoozeTV. It was really fun to chat with him about justice stuff (although we filmed this outside and it was FREEZING). Enjoy!

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Discussing Everyday Justice 2

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The recent contest to win a copy of Everyday Justice generated some fantastic comments and questions about justice issues. So over the next few days I will be addressing some of those in blog posts. I don’t assume to have THE answers to anything, but just want to share my perspective and hope you will join in with yours as well.

Jonathan asked –

to what aspect is Justice culturally relevant? or Universal? would an injustice in the US ever be seen as justice, or acceptable, in a different context?

This is a sticky question. It brings up the whole idea of cultural relativity. I agree that all cultures are different, but also believe that justice can transcend culture. That doesn’t mean that there are absolute ways justice can always be applied, just that the idea of seeking to love the other in all things isn’t limited by culture. But as Derrida rightly pointed out, whenever we start to codify justice we create injustice. Creating the absolute laws help us understand and promote justice, but they too can fail. There will always be exceptions to any blanket statement on justice – and there will be levels of injustices as well. That said, I don’t think this should prevent us from taking stands for what we think is right or to seek to love people, but to realize that our actions sometimes will have to be creative and will always be messy.

Take child labor for instance. It is illegal in the United States and in many other countries. We fought hard in this country to get laws in place to protect children. And technically it is against the law to import any goods into the U.S. that have been made using child labor. I think most of us would agree that children shouldn’t have to do work that is physically dangerous or that causes them developmental harm. In addition, most Americans would assert that children deserve to be children – to have time to play, be imaginative, and be educated. There may be some debate if the latter are rights per se, but most of us would agree that forcing a child to do work that stunts their growth is unjust.

This past week as the story emerged that in this tough economy children have started working alongside their migrant worker parents picking blueberries and tomatoes across the U.S. Around the world it is not uncommon for children to work alongside their parents in the fields. Heck, our school year is structured the way it is so that kids would be off to help their parents with the harvest. But to see pictures of 5 year old girls carrying large buckets of berries is hard. Not only is what she doing against the codified law of our country, she is not getting an education and is being exposed to dangerous pesticides. But she is working so her family can survive. Most children working in factories and fields around the world do so so that their family can put food on the table. Taking a stand for what is right in those situations is messy. One can’t call the situation unjust, force her to return to school, and prosecute the field owners without causing more injustices along the way.

Imposing one idea of justice shouldn’t cause more injustices, but sometimes in the short run, that is unfortunately what happens. Cultural habits or just what one has to do to survive in a culture clash with other culture’s ideas of justice. I personally don’t think we should ever excuse any injustice as inevitable or “just the way things are.” But sometimes seeking justice in diverse cultural setting will require us to look at the bigger picture and not just the moment. I believing rescuing individual children from dangerous situations is the right thing to do across cultures, but it must be done alongside of actions that address why that child was in that situation to begin with. Imposing laws without understand doesn’t help. Working for large scale healing can.

So we have to ask – if these families were being paid fair wages for their work, then perhaps they wouldn’t have to choose to send their children to the fields. If the U.S. didn’t impose harsh stipulations for foreign debt repayment perhaps children in other countries could leave the fields and go to school as well. Or if a religion wasn’t teaching that women are inferior if the girls would get an education and not be cast aside to literally die in sweatshops or brothels. We must work within the systems, understanding them, asking the hard questions to see justice work across the board.

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And the Winner Is…

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Cover of Everyday Justice by Julie ClawsonThank you everyone for participating in the contest to win a copy of Everyday Justice. Congrats to Elisha Murrell who was randomly selected to win a copy of the book! For all of you who didn’t win – the book is available at Amazon or click here to find it at a local bookstore near where you live.

It was exciting to read all the comments about the ways people seek justice. And there were some really good questions raised as well. I’ll be interacting with some of those during the upcoming week, so stay tuned for the continuing conversation.

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Win a Copy of Everyday Justice

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Cover of Everyday Justice by Julie ClawsonLoyal blog readers – you’ve heard me talk about it, commented on my ideas in their original blog rant format, and have seen me publish my book Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices. Now it’s your chance to win a free copy! (non-loyal readers, critics, and newbies are more than welcome to enter too).

If you are unfamiliar with the book, Everyday Justice explores how our daily actions (like what we eat or wear) connect us to people around the world. These daily actions can often though support systems of injustice that cheat and oppress people. Everyday Justice gives biblical support for why seeking justice for the oppressed is a faith issue and gives practical everyday suggestions for how we can choose to subvert systems of oppression and demonstrate love to others instead.

So if you are interested in discovering more about faith and justice, or are looking for practical everyday ways you can work for justice, Everyday Justice can be a valuable resource. And I’m giving away a copy here for my blog readers. All I ask is that you leave a comment below where you tell me either one practical thing you do to seek justice or post a question you have about justice. (I’ll interact with them in later posts). Or if you really can’t think of anything to say because you have no idea what justice is all about (and so really need to read the book) – just leave your name and say “I want the book.” You have until Sunday Nov. 1 at midnight (Central) to leave a comment and the winner (based on some super scientific selection process involving my 4 year old) will be announced Monday morning.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your comments!

(and if you are interested in increasing your chances of winning, the same offer is up at everydayjustice.net)

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Smashing Economic Idols

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So I’ve been having a few interesting conversations about my book Everyday Justice recently. I was being interviewed for a very conservative Christian talk radio show and when I mentioned that a simple way to define biblical justice was “the practical outworking of loving God and loving others” I was told that I need to be careful about encouraging people to love their neighbor because that could lead to socialism. In the soundbite world of talk radio, there wasn’t a chance to challenge that assertion, so I changed tactics and tried to talk about the need for Christians to embrace the spiritual discipline of simplicity and not be overcome by consumerism. Once again I was contradicted by the host who told me that I shouldn’t suggest that people stop or lower their consumption because it is our duty to support the economy by buying stuff. At that point I realized that we were on totally different planets, civilly made my way through the rest of the interview trying to speak a language he might understand, and choose not to then listen for the next hour as he proceeded to tear apart everything I said.

I’m fine with people disagreeing with me or not liking the book. I get that. But his mindset reminded me of the economic idolatry that has crept into our faith. More and more I find Christians who instead of letting their faith influence their economics, they interpret their faith through their preferred economic system. I’ve had to listen to sermons where the pastor went off on how capitalism was the only biblical economic system. I’ve read the books where the guys say stuff like “because the Bible doesn’t talk much about economics we need to bring economics to the Bible.” I’ve encountered those who play the “socialism” card at the first sign of any critique of capitalism. And I’ve heard those claiming that economics are absolute, we can’t change the market so we shouldn’t bother trying even for good biblical reasons.

I get that’s it’s complicated. I get that we like to have our pet philosophies. I get that socialism can be evil too. But none of that excuses making economics into an idol. When our economic theory leads us to make excuses for the oppression of workers, we have a problem. When modern day slavery is justified as being “just the way the market works,” we have a problem. When making a profit becomes more important that the dignity of human beings, we have a problem. When the words of Jesus Christ are dismissed because they might support an alternate economic system, we have a problem. It is as simple as that. When our allegiance to an economic system has us making excuses for injustices then that economic system has become an idol. And idols need to be torn down.

I’m a capitalist. I’m not anti-globalisation. I don’t have any problem with people making money or looking out for their own interests. I don’t think communism or forced socialism are better systems. But there comes a point where we have to say to a system that oppresses – this is wrong and must be changed. This is difficult if not impossible if we have allowed economic theory to become an idol and usurp our faith. We need to be able to “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Col 2:8) Loving God and loving others has to come before Wall Street or Adam Smith – there’s no way around it.

So as inspiration to smash the idols that need smashing, I want to include the following verse. Brian Walsh, co-author of Colossians Remixed, recently posted a targum of Romans 1:16-32 over at the Empire Remixed blog, A targum is a means of interpreting scripture by rewriting it for a particular cultural setting. Traditionally a Hebrew practice, some use the practice today to apply the Bible to contemporary life. This Romans 1 targum addresses this affinity to make idols of economic systems. I highly recommend reading the entire piece, but I wanted to highlight this short section –

So here’s the sad truth, my friends:
this empire of greed,
this narrative of economic growth,
this whole house of cards is based on lies and deception.
This whole culture of consumption,
this whole empire of money,
is based on self-willed ignorance.

Creation proclaims a better way
because creation bears witness to a God of grace.
But we have suppressed this truth,
engaged in denial and cover-up.

Refusing to live a life of gratitude,
refusing to live a life of thanks to the God
who called forth such a rich creation,
refusing to honour this Creator God,
and embracing a culture of entitlement and ingratitude,
we abandoned the God of light and embraced the dark.

And in all of our complex theories
in all of our sophisticated and incomprehensible economic talk,
we became futile in our thinking
we ended up with lots of talk but no sense,
theories that are empty,
vanity of vanities.

And we thought that we were so wise,
we thought that we had it all figured out,
but the joke has been on us,
and it is now clear that we have been fools.

You see, that’s what happens when you get in bed with idols.
That’s what happens when you don’t image God in faithful justice,
but embrace graven images,
cheap imitations,
that look so good,
look so powerful,
but will always fail you,
will always come up short
because they are impotent.

Empty idols, empty minds.
Dumb idols, lives of foolishness.
Betrayal and disappointment.
Fear and terror.

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Everyday Justice is Here!

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Cover of Everyday Justice by Julie ClawsonIf you haven’t heard it already on Facebook or Twitter, my book is in! The official release date is October 30, but it came in from the printer early. So I finally get to have the very surreal feeling of holding my own book. I think the book is shipping already from IVP, and you can add it to your cart at Amazon (currently shipping in 1-3 weeks). If you want to find out more, IVP has the Foreword (by Tom and Christine Sine), the Introduction and the book’s Warning Label available for download at their site.

I’m excited to finally be able to share what I’ve been thinking about for the last two years with everyone. My hope is that Everyday Justice will help people see how they can join in on seeking justice and serving the Kingdom of God. Oftentimes it is easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of justice issues or to feel that you just can’t commit to seeking justice in the ways radical ways that we hear the most about. And I admit – the issues are huge and most of us can’t be a Shane Claiborne or Mother Teresa, but we can still love our neighbor as ourself even with our simple everyday actions. That’s what this book is about – discovering how our daily choices can make a big difference around the world. It’s an introduction to biblical justice for those who are curious and a deeper exploration of a few practical ways that justice can be lived out in our modern world. We all need guides and encouragement along the way, and I hope Everyday Justice can serve readers in those ways.

And, I’m excited to also announce a new website launching in connection with the book – everydayjustice.net. This isn’t a book promo site; it’s a site where people can find out more about the injustices in this world, discover how they can fight for justice, hear stories of the people out there doing justice, and be in community with others seeking justice. It’s intended to be a resource that anyone can contribute to. So if you are passionate about seeking justice or simply want to find out more, I invite you to visit everydayjustice.net. Feel free to join the conversation, submit your story or tip on just living, and help build a community of justice seekers there.

I look forward to seeing where these conversations lead and I hope you enjoy the book and are inspired by it to seek justice in the everyday.

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Everyday Justice

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Cover of Everyday Justice by Julie ClawsonSo I’m excited to reveal the cover of my upcoming book Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices. What do you think?

The book is being published by IVP and will be released in October. I saw it listed in the newest IVP trade catalog recently which was really cool and made the whole thing seem more real. As in – all the writing I tried to squeeze in between diaper changes and playing Candyland is actually becoming something.

The book, as the title implies, is about justice – about the ways each of us can live into the way of life Jesus calls us to live. I think too often we get overwhelmed by justice issues and decide that they are just for the Mother Teresas or the Shane Claibornes of the world to care about. So this book is about the ways each of us in our simple everyday lives can act justly. In it I explore the ways that we can love our neighbors through what we eat, wear, drive, and consume. But the book isn’t just a list of do’s and don’ts, but an exploration of what it means to love our neighbor. It explores what it means not only to pursue justice with our day to day actions, but also how we can avoid supporting systems of injustice with those actions as well.

I’m excited about it – click here if you want to read what others are saying. I just thought I’d share some of the excitement at moving forward in this process with you all here!

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