Cool People Care

Check out this website, Cool People Care. It's based out of Nashville. They send out great tips every day for doing small things to help better the world around you. Everything from making it easier to recycle, to encouraging those around you, to living more simply.

You can subscribe for free to either their RSS feed or get a daily email. They call it, "5 minutes of caring."

Enjoy!
Matt

The Great Warming

I have ordered a copy of the "faith edition" of the movie, The Great Warming. Earth Day is April 22nd. I've talked with a couple of you about showing the movie on that day (it's a Tuesday--but we could do Sunday instead of or in addition to).

The Great Warming

Thoughts? Anyone want to help brainstorm the context for showing the film?

Helping Wieuca's congregation become "more sustainable"

This note was sent by GIPL and forwarded to me, with pressure, by Matt. Acknowledging the long unmet need for our group, I will go to the training this Sunday afternoon.

Can anyone else attend so that we can take in both tracks? Otherwise I am not sure which one would be best for me to catch.

Scott

Join us for our spring Congregational Representative Training on Sunday, March
16 at Epiphany Episcopal Church (2089 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30307)
from 2 pm to 5 pm. We will have two tracks – one for congregations just
starting out and one for going beyond first steps. Feel free to bring
multiple representatives from your congregations and go to both tracks!
Topics covered will include: Starting a Green Team in your congregation, Ideas
for Education, Light Bulb Sales and Swaps, Green Worship, Energy Audits, and
more. We will also have an introduction to our new, improved Power Lite
program and to Cool Congregations – a program for engaging congregational
members in taking measurable carbon-reduction steps at home.

Methodist Buy Less Credit Card for Lent

Click here to learn more



In a move that is designed as a challenge to "consumerism as usual" and a reminder of the dominance of money in our lives, the Methodist Church in Britain has launched an alternative Credit Card containing a "buy less" message.

The new Methodist campaign is encouraging people to consume less and live more this Lent, the traditional time of Christian reflection and life review, which remembers the Gospel story of Jesus' sojourn in the desert - when he was tempted, and rejected, various offers of wealth and power.

The alternative Buy Less: Live More credit card cannot be used to make purchases. Rather, it is designed to be placed in a wallet in front of other credit and debit cards to remind people to think twice before they spend.

Buy Less: Live More aims to challenge people to curb their spending and shrink their carbon footprint.

It will also be seen as relevant to current concerns about the consumer credit boom, which has been leaving an increasing number of people in debt.

The Revd Michaela Youngson, Methodist Secretary for Pastoral Care and Spirituality, says: "When we take time to think about the things we buy and why we buy them, it can help us to reconsider our priorities. I may well want to buy something, but does that mean that I need it?"

She continues: "However, Buy Less: Live More isn’t about depriving yourself of those things you want; it’s about looking at life in a new way, trying different things and taking a few risks. So as well as reducing your carbon footprint by getting off the consumer treadmill, you can live life in all its fullness."

The initiative is supported by a website (www.buylesslivemore.org.uk) and a dedicated group on the popular networking site Facebook.

During Lent, in February, people who sign up will receive a daily email with 2 challenges or ideas for buying less and living more. These updates will also be available on the website and Facebook group.

Participants will also be able to share their experiences online, swapping stories, questions and advice.

Buy less: Live More credit cards can be ordered in packs of 10 from mph (www.mph.org.uk , 01733 325002) for free, with a small charge for postage. Product Code: PA 512.

The Methodist Church is one of the largest Christian churches in Britain, with nearly 300,000 members and regular contact with over 800,000 people. It has about 5,800 churches and maintains links with other Methodist churches totalling a worldwide membership of 70 million.

Screening info for Golden Rule Politics

David Key is director for the Baptist Studies program at Candler.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Key
Date: Jan 13, 2008 7:30 PM
Subject: Screening info for Golden Rule Politics
To: baptist@emory.edu



Dear Friend,

I want to invite you to a screening in Atlanta of our new DVD "Golden Rule Politics" on Tuesday evening, January 29. Panelists include: Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist and winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary; and Jason Carter, Atlanta attorney, co-founder of Democrats Work, and grandson of former president Jimmy Carter.

I also need your help. Will you forward this e-mail to your Atlanta-area friends, encouraging them to attend this screening?

Sponsored by the Baptist Studies Program at Candler School of Theology and the Baptist Center for Ethics, the screening will be in Room 311 in Bishops Hall at Emory University's Candler school of Theology, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Seating is limited.

"Golden Rule Politics: Reclaiming the Rightful Role of Faith in Politics" is a 36-minute documentary-style DVD, produced by the Baptist Center for Ethics, that challenges the Christian Right's political myth constructed over 25 years that GOP stands for God's Only Party. The DVD is rooted in the theological conviction that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, that neither party is thoroughly moral, nor completely immoral. The DVD explores the rightful role of faith in politics through interviews with clergy and politicians in Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee. It expands the moral agenda from the narrow list of issues prioritized by the Christian Right to the fuller expression of issues found in the Christian tradition, beginning with the biblical priority of doing justice.

In addition to Tucker and Carter, other panelists include: John Peterson, Canon for Global Justice and Reconciliation at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.; and Kasim Reed, Georgia State Senator, who belongs to the Cascade United Methodist Church.

For local details, contact David Key, director of the Baptist Studies Program (404-727-6350 or dkey@learnlink.emory.edu). For a campus map, go to:

http://map.emory.edu/

I hope you will place this date on your calendar and encourage your friends to attend.

Robert Parham

P.S. To learn more the "Golden Rule Politics" DVD, go to:

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/static.cfm?mode=goldenrulepolitics

Seasonal Charity and Biblical Justice

This essay by Jim Evans spoke to me and I think hits on points that nag many of us.

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9885

Your thoughts?[Especially wonder what you and Jane think, J.D.]



P.S. Matt, thanks for the beautiful picture gracing the Around the Bend blog site.



Scott

More on Walmart

Here are some videos that are about this topic. I'm just not sure these guys really did a good job responding to the interviewer's responses, though they were pretty biased. I thought the pastor did a better job.

Wake-up Wal-Mart

I have no idea if people have posted about the ethical dilemma of shopping at Wal-Mart before, but ethicsdaily has just brought this issue back to my attention. I have not seen these ads on TV yet, but apparently there are advertisements featuring Atlanta pastors urging Wal-Mart to take up its moral obligation to be a better neighbor given the immense amount of wealth that is has accrued. One of the pastors, Charlie Johnson, was even on of my McAfee professors. Check out that advertisement here.

I have heard about the simple atrocities that Wal-Mart commits many times before--failure to give a living wage, completely inadequate access to health care, conditions that only perpetuate the cycle of poverty, keeping workers at part-time status to avoid benefits...the list goes on and on. Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed provides a great look into the world of gainful employment at Wal-Mart, and has forever made me cringe when I think about the big-box store. But I had never thought about, until this new advertisement, the ethical implications of Wal-Mart's involvement with China. With 70% of Wal-Marts products being produced in China, the stats show that Wal-Mart serves as China's 8th biggest trading partner
--having a hand in direct and indirect human rights violations. (Check out www.wakeupwalmart.com for the sources of these statistics.)

So...now it is Christmas. Two of my Sunday School classes have just collected about $1000 for a refugee family of 11. I sit here wondering how to make this money go as far as it can for this family who has seen so much tragedy and poverty. We plan on taking the family shopping, so that the children can have the joy of picking out their very own things that have not been passed down, borrowed, or purchased from a Goodwill store. It makes sense to take the family to Wal-Mart where the prices really cannot be beat, and great toys and cute clothes are plentiful. And the dilemma is not just with this family...when I have to use the church's budget to purchase things for ministry, trying to make every dollar count Or, when I want to buy basic supplies for my own home, and hate to spend much money on such products. Outrage at Wal-Mart would be so much easier if there was a better alternative to the convenience and prices, wouldn't it?

Isn't it funny that those near the poverty level--those who scrape each nickel and dime together to get through life--are the ones who benefit most from the prices at Wal-Mart? Aren't these are the same people who are tethered to the poverty level because of their Wal-Mart-induced work conditions?

Thoughts?

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Click here for a short and entertaining film about where our stuff comes from. It's a particularly helpful look at consumerism, energy consumption, and waste.

Farm subsidy bill--Carter's reflection; and Scott's frustration.

Check out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/09/AR2007120900911.html?wpisrc=newsletter.

Every time I read much about the farm subsidy bill, I tend toward despair. It is a bill that comes up only every five years and is very far removed from original intent and draws much lobbying money, including much in Georgia. The rich get much of the subsidy, it does little to protect smaller farmers and apparently does major economic and personal damage in less developed countries of the world. The proposed reforms have bipartisan support, but big money and power are likely to carry the day.

People of faith in the US should care about such matters. How can we confront them beyond just writing an occasional letter to a Senator or a Representative from whom we get almost a form response? Are all these issues just too complicated, too controversial, too difficult and/or too inconvenient?

If the answer is that such issues (and each of us could name numerous others) are important but just fall far down on the priority or cost/benefit scale of our Christian action list, what are the items that for each of us are at the top of our list ?

I do not have answers. I am frustrated. Have, for example, people of faith so little leverage against the wishes of big money and big power? Is there anything that we (JEPR folks) can do, and not necessarily about this particular issue, to have our governmental representatives pay more attention to the mandates that faith puts upon us?

In my more cynical and frustrated modes, I suspect that we get the government that we deserve. I also feel that the faith communities often pay woefully little attention to justice for those groups upon which Jesus' focused so much attention, even while we do pretty well at the charity side.

For suggested effective solutions, we ( or at least I) would owe you forever. Absent the silver bullet, do you have comments, thoughts, advice, suggestions?