As regular readers will know, since moving to Newcastle Zoë and I haven’t settled in a local church; consequently the focus of our faith has shifted dramatically; away from a local church community, towards a dispersed group of believers and focus on how we live our lives. And so we come to Leo Hickman’s ‘A Life Stripped Bare’
I heard Leo speak at Greenbelt last year and was well
impressed with what he said and his answers to some difficult questions. The
book is of a similar quality; full of great discussion and jolly humorous
anecdotes, as Leo seeks to live ethically for a year.
Having read the book I am more convinced than ever of the importance of ethical living. Moreover, I am increasingly convinced that this should be at the heart of Christian discipleship. I can fully understand why what we do as Christians is so heavily reliant on key figures in church history (Augustine, Luther, Wesley, St Paul and even Christ himself) but the consequence of this is that discipleship does not deal with some very modern issues; Wesley did not have to consider his carbon footprint as he travelled horseback, Augustine did not have to consider food-miles and I suspect Martin Luther’s robes were not sown together in an Indonesian sweat shop.
For ‘the cloud of witnesses’ that went before us, ethical living probably equated to tithing. Today tithing is not the issue: ethical consumerism is much more important. The good caused by ten percent given to charity is irrelevant if ninety percent screws the planet and those who live in it.
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!!
Posted by: Ruthe | June 27, 2006 at 05:42 PM
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
Posted by: Ben Topham | June 29, 2006 at 05:15 PM
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!
Posted by: Ruthe | June 29, 2006 at 06:34 PM
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!
Posted by: Phil Smith | July 01, 2006 at 09:06 PM
found this site today, might be useful guide on the shopping front :)
http://www.gooshing.co.uk/
Posted by: Ruthe | July 04, 2006 at 11:19 PM