Compassion in Politics: Christian Social Justice, Non-Profits, and Life Theology

Another great video from Good Magazine:

In honor of Earth Day, we’d like to turn your attention to a handful of the 16,306 species threatened with extinction. This video is dedicated to them and our fallen homies—the 785 species that have been wiped off the face of the planet. This Earth Day, pour one out for the dodo.

Rapping Pandas?!?!? Rhinos doing the worm?!?!?! Monkeys break dancing?!?!? Seriously….

My Take:
My guess is EMI gave them a sweet deal, but I think different underground hip-hop, perhaps more consciousness oriented, would have been better. All in all video social media done pretty well. Check out more Good Magazine videeos on YouTube here.

And it would have been sweet for some of the animals to do some more sophisticated break dancing moves….

(h/t to Ariah Fine)

Just a heads up that Daniel and Amanda were on Oprah.  They are freegans for reasons of faith, as well as lack of materialism and waste.  You can learn more about Freeganism, this Nashville couple, or their Oprah appearance on their blog.  (if Oprah posts a video about the show you can check on her You Tube Channel)

Here is your Official Supertuesday Environmental Scorecard.  It is a nice rundown of the five main candidates and their respective plans for the environment at the just launched Envirowonk. Alternatively, I’m confused, by how the conflate Obama and Hillary. By their comparison, Obama will take the environmental action on a global level, which seems like a prerequisite to sustainable action that avoids just sending those polluting countries to pollute more in other countries.

Concerned about the environment or want to know about your footprint beyond just carbon? Check out the Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. The effect on the “third world,” Toxins, breast milk, to poverty and beyond… 4 billion lbs of toxic chemicals a year. Externalizing costs. We watch TV or goto the mall. 4.5 pounds a day. Recycling will never be enough. Its a system in crisis. Hope = so many points of intervention. Chuck throw away mindset. (total 20:40)

You can also check out 10 Ways to Solve the Current Crisis and download resources to spread the Story of Stuff word. What do you think about the way we externalizing costs?

McLaren suggests at TPM Cafe:

On the one hand, our religions can fan the flames of holy-war narratives –whether expressed in terms of terrorism or counter-terrorism, jihad or crusade. On the other, our religions can inspire us with framing stories of reconciliation and peace. On the one hand, our religions can foment stories of scapegoating and vilification, but on the other, they can inspire us toward compassion and understanding through stories of reconciliation and grace.

Instead of baptizing greed and self-interest, our faith communities can teach us stories which promote the common good, inspiring us to creatively pursue sustainability both environmentally and socially. Instead of sanctifying the consumerism that reduces everything to a financial “resource,” our faith communities can teach us stories that inspire true reverence for the planet and all it contains – opening our eyes to the signature of God in the hawk soaring among the mountains, the school of minnows flashing in the shallows, the cricket singing in the back yard.

Instead of distracting us from this-worldly injustice, our religions can embed in us a sense of stewardship and responsibility, so that we who have been given much gladly accept much responsibility for our neighbors. Instead of preoccupying us with raising our own moral score so we can consider ourselves spiritual winners at the finish line, we can live in a story of hope that turns our hearts towards our neighbor, toward the stranger, and even towards our enemies.

This fundamentally shatters the claims in Dawkins claims and castigations against Christianity. Thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

(h/t to Zach Exley at Revolution in Jesusland)

What are we to do with a “Planet In Peril?” Here are 9 suggestions for personal action from Dr. Matthew Sleeth:

• Set up a recycling program at my workplace, church, or school.
• Cut way back on the Christmas frenzy.
• Give away or sell anything and everything that is cluttering my life. Donate the proceeds to charity.
• Use no pesticides or chemicals on my lawn or garden.
• Instead of a birthday gift or flowers for a funeral, send a donation to charity.
• Start a study group on what the Bible says about caring for creation.
• Ask my utility company to conduct an energy audit on my home and follow up on their advice, and do the same for my church.
• Follow our grandmother’s advice: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

Want to save the planet? Dr. Matthew Sleeth suggests finding information about energy conservation at Energy Star as well as at the Serve God Save the Planet website where he suggests Time Magazines 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment. Finally, you might like my a couple of my 25+ suggestions for saving the environment from Blog Action Day. Finally, you might also check out I Need to Change or 43Things.

Thoughts? What did you think of CNN’s “Planet in Peril”?

thanks to Ari Hahn for the flickr photo

I ran across this insightful quote about protecting the environment:

If we are participants in God’s story, then care for the earth is not a political issue or a contemporary cause. It is instead an essential part of our identity that we either ignore or embrace. We have the choice of whether our lives will bless what God has made, or only take from what God has made.

Thoughts?

Here is a great, well researched 57 point tip list in honor of Blog Action Day (and a way to save a butt load of money, so its win-win). Even if you just find one action step to change your life and make your lifestyle less environmentally destructive, is a step in the right direction.

1) 101 ways small businesses and other organizations can make their offices more environmentally friendly.

2) If you are a booklover or an academic, you might appreciate paperback swap.

3) Embrace your creativity with DIY Projects (Do It Yourself)

4) American Community Garden can teach you to compost and I imagine plant a community garden.

5) You can green your vacation with these great tips.

6) Invest in Socially Responsible Investment

7) Did you know there are Organic Coupons?

The National Green Pages are a one stop destination for many of your Buy Green needs.

9) Of course freesharing and freecycling are great ways to cut waste.

10) Buying and selling on craigslist is great, economical, and environmentally responsible.

11) Sign up to volunteer for an environmental cause at Volunteer Match or Idealist.

12) Carpool with friends and coworkers. Craigslist is also a great way to carpool. Mass transit and biking are another eco-friendly alternative.

13) Find a favorite blog like Treehugger. Subscribe, Read, and Act. Spread the word.

14) You can even have a sustainable wedding to green your marital bliss.

15) The Last Minute blog points to 50 ways, of which one is joining a group

16) Influential marketing blog suggests that you alter your method of food choice and thus eat differently.

17) Living Below Your Means and living organically (fabulous resource!)

1 Lifehack suggests a fundamental and practical re-orientation of our behaviors and lifestyle.

19) Printer paper, cell phone, and computer recycling is great too. Although, if the computer is new enough, perhaps giving it away to a non-profit and taking the tax deduction makes both ethical and environmental sense.

20) And finally, add your favorite tip, resource, or blog to the list. Suggestions? Have a Favorite Tip?

21) Subscribe to my RSS feed on Feedburner, Google, or your favorite RSS service.

22) Share this post on Digg, Stumbleupon, delicious, Magnolia, or your favorite social bookmarking site. Thanks!

23) UPDATE: Travis lists a couple ways to be eco-friendly that include the big bucks you save.

24) Try a DIY Halloween Costume.

25) UPDATE: Bottome line we must reduce consumption according to lighterfootstep.

26) UPDATE: Top environmental blogs according to Read/Write Web (this is in conjunction with #21)

27) UPDATE: Some folks such as Conversation Agent even say that Social media like digg, stumbledupon, and delicious is greening the planet. (does she make a compelling case?)

(thanks to charles cauthen for the flickr photo)

While I was at Take Back America in DC this year, I picked up The Phoenix Affirmations by Eric Elnes. Elnes is a poastor and cofounder of Cross Walk America. The third affirmation Elnes focuses on deals with the environment:

Celebrating the God whose spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all God’s creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human.

As Christians, we seek to act as righteous stewards of the earth and its ecosystems. We celebrate the reflections of the Creator’s glory in both the sacred and the secular, human and non-human, Christian and non-Christian.

We confess that we have stepped away from this Path when we have ignored our role as stewards of the earth, or have interpreted scripture in a way that fails to account for the sacredness or the integrity of its ecosystems.

I really like this quote, which is attributed to Martin Luther, that opens chapter 3 and echos the sentiments of Psalms 96:12:

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars”

So is God green? The folks over at Creation Care have great resources which certainly suggest that God is green and is pro-creation (of the environmental variety). Creation Cares also has easy practical ways to act on your passion for the environment. Do you have a favorite environmental tip?

Given that one way our materialism manifests itself is in our diet, I thought the recent feature I saw on Lifehack Eating Healthy and Organic on $7 Day was a great resource. Especially with places like Wild Oats and Whole Foods that aren’t exactly cheap across their product selection, hopefully this will help folks move beyond just being environmentally concious to environmentally active.

Enjoy!

Thoughts? Ideas about living minimally, environmentally, or organically? For more info about eating and living environmentally please check out this!

thanks to Scorchez for the flickr photo

The folks over at Justice and Compassion made a great post about   “Our Excrement Economy.”

“As part of this insane and suicidal economy, we act as though the resources we consume are infinite and the wastes we deposit are invisible. Just as our bodies consume food and produce excrement, in this economy we consume trees and produce smoke, consume clean air and produce smog, consume clean water and produce sewage and toxic waste, consume rock and produce radiation, consume oil and coal and produce gases that turn our planet into an overheating oven in which storms boil and oceans rise and deserts spread and forests wither. Our prosperity system thus becomes an excrement factory.”

 

– Brian McLaren, from a preview of Everything Must Change

However, one reader Joe pointed out:

I’d say this is an oversimplification which isn’t really helping very much - we are as tied into a ‘cycle of wealth’ as my friends are tied into a disgusting ‘cycle of poverty’, and just pointing out that our whole existance is built on sand isn’t helping any.

My angle our collective globalization conundrum:

I think they’re both right.  When we talk about globalization we tend to talk in universal goods vs. bad.  Unfortunately, this ignores the vast complexity and truth of issue.  For, instance Tom Friedman pronounced the World Is Flat because globalization was leveling the playing field on a global scale.  But that as Richard Florida has pointed out in Flight of the Creative Class is not true because of the concentration of talent (and wealth).

So what do you think???  What is your perspective???

So, is globalization a mixed bag?  For us?  For developing economies?  How can we move to a more productive way of talking and thinking about globalization?  How can we move to a more productive way of curbing the excesses of globalization?  We’re so wedded to globalization and its benefits, how can we reverse our perilous course?  Do we live in an “excrement economy”?