Fair Trade Christmas

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So the stores are already playing Christmas music and down here in Texas the highs are only the 70s and 80s, so the holiday season must be upon us. But as we gear up for the celebrations, the spiritual reflections, and the traditions now is a good time to start deliberately planning how we can make this Christmas a just Christmas. In other words, how can we subvert systems of oppression and exploitation through our holiday habits. And while I think some of those habits might need to be reevaluated, some of them are beautiful and hold special meaning. So while I am wary of over-consumption, we still practice the giving of gifts in my family. I just do my best to therefore try to make my consumption ethical.

So I’m excited by Trade As One’s campaign this holiday season to encourage all of us to buy Fair Trade gifts this Christmas. We turn our traditions into a way to help and love others through such purchases. And if enough of us do it, we can make a big difference. They write – “Think about this: Just One Fair Trade purchase from every American churchgoer this Christmas would lift one million families out of abusive poverty for one whole year. Let’s make sure that when gifts are given, they speak of the sort of world that Jesus came to show us—one where the last is first, where the poor are included, the sick are healed, and the captive is set free.”

 

There are numerous ways one can support Fair Trade or other justice causes this Christmas. We are excited this year to find a Fair Trade Chocolate Advent Calendar. And I take time with the kids to support families around the world by purchasing animals from Heifer International. But there are numerous places online where one can find Fair Trade items to give this Christmas. I’ve listed some of my favorite sites below. But all it takes is just a little tweak to our holiday habits this Christmas to help show love to people around the world.

Clothing and Accessories

Food, Coffee, and Gifts

Other

So have yourself a merry little fair trade Christmas. Celebrate traditions and do some good while you are at it.

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Human Trafficking, Justice, and CSI

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csi nycsi nyI’ve gotten used to popular TV shows going the after-school special route and highlighting some issue or another.  Granted, it boosts their ratings, but it also brings attention to issues that need attention.  So I was intrigued this past week when the CSI franchise did a story-arc across all three shows that focused on the issue of human trafficking.  It pulled no punches.  They showed the horror involved in trafficking and what a complicated system it is.  From moving girls around to sell for sex, or as wombs, or for body parts there are a lot of people making money off of the exploitation of others.  And there are so many people involved in such a large and complex system, that there are no easy solutions to the problems.  The CSI’s weren’t able in other words to solve the crime and and have all the perpetrators behind bars by the end of the 60 minute episode.  The writers were smart enough not to trivialize the issue by giving it a neat solution.  But they were also smart enough to make trafficking about real people.  These girls aren’t just nameless faces – they are someone’s daughter.  And even if those working for justice can’t fix the entire system, they can do something to help one girl, and that is significant.

They also hit the (obvious) nail on the head in trying to explain why this happens.  Basically because the demand is there.  Trafficking isn’t just some evil crime committed by sociopaths, it’s done by corrupt and greed guys who know that there is a high demand for human flesh.  If the businessmen at conferences in Vegas weren’t looking for sex on demand then kidnapping, abusing, raping, and breaking women into submissive prostitutes wouldn’t be such a lucrative business.  But evil and injustice continue to exist because we demand it.  From cheap sex to cheap clothes or candy, we demand that others be oppressed for our benefit.

At one point in the CSI episode, the bad-guy of the week, a Russian pimp (played by the amazing Mark Sheppard), tried to justify why girls supposedly choose to be prostitutes.  He said, “inside, [all women] are whores. They will love to hear the things they want to believe – they are so beautiful, so fascinating, so special that they deserve the best of everything, the finest clothes, champagne, and jewels that money can buy.  And you know how you get the whore to emerge? Tell her there is an easy way to get all of this.”  His words were ironic coming after the unfolding story of girls being kidnapped, drugged, raped, beaten, and murdered by traffickers.  Instead of describing the girls, they more accurately described the traffickers and the johns.  But they also describe all of us who have found easy ways to get whatever we want even if it is at the expense of others.  We will sell our souls because we believe we deserve the best of everything.

The sad thing is, there are no CSI’s out there working to put us behind bars so that the oppression stops.  We are not going to be punished for benefiting from crimes like human trafficking and slave labor.  And we wont be rewarded either for choosing to step outside of systems of oppression.  There is no carrot or stick when it comes to making a deliberate choice to love others.  We just have to decide that we care enough for someone else’s daughter or son to stop demanding that they be oppressed so that we can have everything we desire.

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Discussing Everyday Justice 4

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The recent contest to win a copy of Everyday Justice generated some fantastic comments and questions about justice issues. So I’ve been 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.

Christi Bowman commented –
“As an American is it possible to not be exploitative…which is where begging for mercy from Jesus everyday comes in…no matter what I do their are countless ways in which I am exploitative and don’t know it and some ways I am exploitative and as of yet have not found ways to discontinue being exploitative…I am responsible for the damage living my life causes those who have to pay the price. I live in Babylon…I am the oppressor! You can step out of the empire in a day but it takes a life time to get the empire out of you (Shane Claiborne)“

And Dave honestly stated–
“What worries me most about the whole issue of justice is that I kind of see “working for justice” as working against me. I can’t shake the feeling that when people cry out against the unjust, the people they’re crying out against are people who live just like me and my friends. This makes me extremely uneasy.”

I admit, it is scary and it makes me uneasy too. Basically I don’t want to have to hear that I am part of the problem – that it is my actions that are what are hurting other people. Because if I know the truth, then I have a choice to make. I can continue hurting others or I can make changes so that I stop. If I am a decent human being who isn’t afraid to be responsible for my actions, then I have no choice but to choose to change my actions. But of course, I don’t want to change because change is uncomfortable and hard. If I were being completely truthful, I’d say I’d rather remain in ignorance and not have to be responsible or change anything. But I know I can’t.

The truth about injustice makes many people so uneasy that instead of taking responsibility they start making excuses for why we don’t need to bother. (and Dave, I’m not saying this is you at all, just some stuff your statement prompted me to respond to) I hear a lot, especially from Christians in this Western individualized world, about how we in reality have no such communal responsibility. That our participation in culture can’t be faulted since that is just the air we breathe. That we need to care just about the individuals we encounter, especially our own friends and family. That there is no reason to be forced to feel guilty about someone we will never meet, systems we don’t control, or events that happened in the past. I understand how a lot of that is based in a mentality of fear and a serious aversion to change, but I’ve also come to see how such attitudes are unfortunately rooted in a culture (religion) of individualism. Our faith even is individualized – all about our personal relationship with God. We’ve lost the idea of being a communal body that cares for all of its members. And we’ve forgotten the idea of corporate sin – our ability to perpetrate sins on a communal level. In fact we are so used to sin being just about personal individual heart things that we assume that the purpose of anyone pointing out issues with our actions is just to make us feel bad about ourselves.

But that’s not the point.

The point of telling the stories of injustice is to help us start living as a community – to admit that we are part of that community and be willing to work with that community. To admit that we are part of Babylon and that like it or not we are involved in the oppression of others. And that if we want to build healthy communities where the needs of all members are respected, then we need to get over this idea that it’s all about just feeling guilty. Change doesn’t come about just because we feel bad. Change happens when we admit we are part of the problem and then do whatever we can to stop. Sure, feelings will be involved, but when we start caring more about how we feel than about the injustices themselves our priorities are seriously messed up. I have a hard time understanding how people can be more upset at me for making them feel guilty about eating chocolate tainted with child slavery than they are about the child slavery. I wish I could just tell them – “Stop making this all about you and just start working to make things better! Be a part of this global community and be responsible for your role in it.”

But it’s hard to challenge individualism and personalized conceptions of faith. It’s hard to admit we’ve done things wrong. And it’s hard to change. I get that this has to be a slow process. I get that we will never create a perfect world. I get that it is impossible to ever step fully outside of systems of oppression and exploitation. I get that we just have to do what we can. I’m all about finding everyday ways to seek justice. I’m all about doing whatever is doable where you are at. I understand it’s messy. I understand that crying out to Jesus for mercy is all we can do at times. But I’m sick of those that use all of those excuses and more to just do nothing. To abdicate responsibility. To wallow in guilt and inaction. To not live as a communal body.

Being part of the Kingdom of God is hard. It is uncomfortable. It takes work. It requires us to get over ourselves and not insist that the world should revolve around our desires. That’s not a popular message in a faith that has attracted followers based on the message that Christianity is all about the wonderful things Christ does for us. But nevertheless, it is what it means to be a part of the body of Christ, and hard or not, it’s how we are called to live.

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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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Encounters with Sexism

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Every now and then I get that slap in the face reminder that sexism is alive and thriving in our world. Sometimes it can be easy to think otherwise. I attend a church that affirms my value as a woman, I have intelligent friends, I participate in emerging church forums, and I live in a progressive town. So in my day to day life I can pretend that most of the world actually thinks I’m human.  And many of the people I know are uncomfortable taking a stand for women mostly because they don’t see any apparent problems.  Then come the wake up calls.

I started the week at a women’s book discussion at my church where we are reading through Sue Monk Kidd’s Dance of the Dissident Daughter. I love that story of one woman’s awakening, and it served as a significant part of my journey in affirming my worth as a woman. Our discussion this week focused on how language is still often used to demean women. When the worst insults in our culture are to call someone a girl, when women are still pressured to have sons, and apologize for birthing daughters, when in business meetings women are ignored, or forced to be and dress like men in order to compete – sexism is alive and well. The constant blows at who we are surround us, and we all lamented that when we point out this stuff we are dismissed as angry bitches. That whole discussion was reflective and theoretical, but then I went out this week and saw it all in play.

A couple weeks ago I signed a letter to the Presidential Selection Committee for my alma mater Wheaton College encouraging them to consider female and minority candidates for the next President of Wheaton. Dr. Duane Litfin is retiring after 17 years of leading the college with an ultra-conservative hand. He was selected to steer the college away from a perceived “liberal” turn in the 1980s. So he brought his dispensational, cessationist, anti-ecumenical and anti-egalitarian views to the college. My former pastor, a friend of his, told me as I headed off to college that Litfin’s greatest fear for the college was the growing amount of women entering the biblical studies field. And while I was there, great efforts were taken to promote “Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” and silence the students for biblical equality groups. But now as he is leaving, there is a chance for the college to break those chains and take a stand for women. Yet even proposing that option has met with disdain. Responses to the mere suggestion of considering a woman or minority include – “You have got to be kidding me. Only in academia and government are such bogus voices funded and stroked. I feel specifically called to buy something with a pink ribbon emblem and then go wretch.” and “This is silliness. And it’s a classic example of what happens when people ignore the Pendulum of Truth” and “I do not think, however, that they should be set on finding a female or minority president. It is very likely that in doing that, they may end up with someone that will lead the school in a very dangerous direction.” Along with numerous assertions that the college should hire the most-qualified candidate, implying that a woman or a minority would not fit that bill. Sexism is alive and well.

Then here in Austin a couple of weeks ago, the DJ’s of my favorite morning radio show were suspended for using offensive language. The British radio host had used a phrase that sounded like a racial slur, and they laughed about the awkwardness of what her phrase sounded like. They were suspended without pay for a couple of weeks and forced to take cultural sensitivity classes. Since returning they have been very careful not to really say anything about other races, even stopping themselves in the middle of stories. But the use of women as insults has continued in full force. They constantly compare people to girls to show how weak and pathetic they are. They use references to women’s anatomy to insult people – especially the ever-popular term “douchebag.” Lesson learned – we have to be sensitive to other races but women are scum to be used however we like.

Similar lesson from this whole recent controvery about the Deadly Viper book. In the promo for the book about men’s intigrity published by Zondervan, the authors made use of Asian cultural references in really inappropriate and insensitive ways. It was obviously offensive, and a number of us in the Christian community pointed out that offense and asked for an apology. I fully affirm that an apology was needed to my Asian brothers and sisters, and the Christian community in general. At the same time, I was disturbed that many of the people calling for an apology were saying stuff like “I think the content of the book is great, I just have problems with the culturally insensitive packaging.” I think they were saying that to be nice and build bridges, but in all truth the curriculum is full of sexist stereotypes that use women as insults. The authors even have a video on their website promoting their Mancave series that is simply a series of gender stereotypes where manly=good and girly=bad. I applaud the efforts to stand up to insensitive racial stereotypes in the church, but wish people hadn’t affirmed gender stereotypes in the process. And I really wonder if that same group of people would put forth the effort to take a stand for treating women in the church with respect just like they asked for Asians in the church to be treated with respect. I want to believe they would, but far too often I see sexism protected by the shield of “theology” in ways that racism can never be in our modern world.

Sexism is alive and well. This week has just been a reminder of how far we have to go until women are respected as fully human and not demeaned for the sake of entertainment.

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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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TransFORM

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I’m excited about the formation of a new network for missional communities TransFORM. The purpose of TransFORM is to bring together men and women who are on the verge of starting new communities (i.e., community catalysts) or are already cultivating new communities and to give them the encouragement and resources they need to get started and be sustainable. This would happen by providing training in missional community development, practical start-up issues, and theological engagement, by connecting community catalysts with potential support structures, by helping community catalysts negotiate complicated and challenging support structure relationships and hurdles, and by linking community catalysts with mentors/spiritual directors.

This video highlights some of why the network formed.

TransFORM: Missional Community Formation from TransFORM on Vimeo.

If you are interested in finding out more, join the TransFORM network or plan to attend the upcoming gathering. They are gathering missional practitioners on the East Coast to learn from each other and to mobilize others for forming new missional communities. Whether you’re a pastor, prospective “church planter,” or simply interested in finding out more about transformational missional communities of practice, this gathering is designed to inspire and equip you to go and do likewise! Speakers include Brian McLaren, Kathy Escobar, Pete Rollins, and Anthony Smith.

Time: April 30, 2010 at 8am to May 2, 2010 at 1pm
Location: Wesley Theological Seminary
City/Town: Washington, D.C.

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