« No posts and no apology... | Main | U2 lovers this way... »

Comments

Ruthe

Amen. I very much believe we cannot seperate who we are as people of faith from who we are as people of action. If we sit happy in our own salvation yet live a life that damages others we fail to be Jesus to the world! I do believe however that discipleship needs to be all encompassing, we need to equip people to live out life in faith knowing their salvation is through grace and their life in response to this requires a heart of worship, worship that turns everything to the glory of God, whether this is helping someone out, buying ethical or sharing in the community of believers!
In the same way I am passionate our evangelism must be the same, word and deed. For too long we have prioritised word and spiritual response but failed to respond to the needs of our neighbour. In the same way responding to need without sharing the message of salvation through grace has no eternal significance. Sermonising again but it is a little area in Church life that should be a big area to make a huge difference!!

Ben Topham

Hi mate, I agree with all said, but find all this fair trade a little hard for the following reasons. I give these reasons not to be argumentative, but as a plea for guidance for someone who, although realises the issue is there, don't have the time to explore it deeply so wants you to do the leg work!!

1) I buy my fair trade bananas, coffee, sugar and cards from the trade craft stall, but what about my beans, hair gel, memory sticks, cd’s fish tank and shoe polish? The fair trade issue has gone soooo far that it is impossible to shop fairly. It is impossible to be fully fair.
2) I have a horrible feeling about all this. Jo Bloggs is growing bananas in the Caribbean on a little farm, as is Dave Boggs his mate next door. Jo and Dave are both exploited and the big mean west literally takes them for all they have and pays them about sixpence for the privilege. We all know this happens. A week later, Dave is approached by tradecraft and from then on is paid the correct amount for what he does. Unfortunately, though, there isn’t enough custom for Jo to be purchased by tradecraft. There is then a rich poor divide on the Caribbean island. As the west buys more fair-trade products, the rich guy expands his farm as the west gets more fair traded bananas and resultantly, Dave buys out Jo.
Does this happen?
3) I have a 2-1 and am very good at my job, I am so talented that I used to earn in the region of 70,000 a year before I did any qualifications. I am now fully qualified doing a respectable job and paid 12,000 for the privilege. When I'm paid fair, I’ll trade fair! This isn’t just an over seas problem.


Help

Ben

Ruthe

Ben!
Good questions I had to comment!
1. You cannot buy everything fair trade true but you can attempt to live ethically as possible ... some companies invest their money in dodgy-er places than others, the 'life stripped bare' book is a good guide as is 'the good shopping guide' many aren't free from controversy but it tells you who's best n who's not ... oh n why bother with hair gel? clean your shoes with beeswax but no answer to the memory stick ;)
2. Generally farmers don't out-do each other because goods are bought from co-op's ... a handful of local farmers too small to tackle the big corporations so they join together and sell to a fair-trade buyer. Its about the small farmer reclaiming his life and land that has been out done buy big bucks buying it up and paying rubbish.
3. Not a good wage your on and it frustrates me that Churches don't pay what people are worth (I pressume it's a Church?) but in contrast to the sweat shop workers £2 a week who can't afford to house feed or educate his kids we do pretty ok in the west!

Phil Smith

Great posts guys thanks! Ruth I agree with what you say about evangelism, I think ethical living gives evangelism an authenticity: I'm more likely to listen to what someone says about Christ if that person cares for his world.
Ben, I share your frustration on pretty much every account. Re buying products, if you regularly buy something or have a big investment, it's worth googling to see if they're boycotted. Saying that I'm pretty bad at doing that and make classic mistakes (FILA trainers etc!)
Re fair-trade Ruth is totally right. The idea that people live next door and are competing is very western; the vast majority of fair trade products, especially foods products, are from co-ops.
And finally re money, bloody churches! Do what you can do and don't beat yourself up about what you can't do. Nb. buying from the stall at church means much more money goes to working with producers and much less more goes to the supermarkets!
Thanks again for commenting, makes all this much more fun!

Ruthe

found this site today, might be useful guide on the shopping front :)
http://www.gooshing.co.uk/

The comments to this entry are closed.