I came to believe that God is revealed not only in bread and wine during church services, but whenever we share food with others — particularly strangers. I came to believe that the fruits of creation are for everyone, without exception — not something to be doled out to insiders or the “deserving.”
-AND-
This I believe: that by opening ourselves to strangers, we will taste God.
I haven’t read her book, but Atlanta’s Public Library does have a copy so I’ll probably get around to it sometime. Hope it’s more of this.
Here are some thoughts that were rattling around in my noggin’ after I watched the Radiohead video for “All I Need.” Here is the video and a few thoughts…
We have arranged our world in ways that ensure that others stay where they are, making next to nothing so that we can have cheap shoes, clothes, etc. It is EVIL. If we know that it is happening and do nothing, then we have joined forces with EVIL.
So let’s at least make a freakin’ effort people.
Read a book about it. Buy Fair Trade. Invest in Microfinance abroad.
STOP CONSUMING at the rate that you do.
The West’s overconsumption creates a demand for low-priced products in obscene bulk. The nature of the Global economy is arranged to satisfy our overconsumption. This is the defining reality of our economic existence. The nature and shape of the global economy is a human rights issue. Most people think that it is just the way things are and that we should focus our efforts on things that we can actually change. Wrong.
We can change the nature and shape of the global economy. It’s not a top down thing. It’s a bottom up thing. Here are some defining questions…
What drives and shapes every market? DEMAND.
Who creates demand? LARGE GROUPS OF PEOPLE.
What makes up large groups of people? WE DO.
We can make a change in the global economy.
What if people started to re-shape the DEMAND side of this thing? What if people began to DEMAND fair trade coffee. Fair trade clothing. Fair trade shoes. Fair trade everything.
What if we, the people, put companies that barter in blood-stained products at low prices out of business by refusing to support that kind of DEMAND?
What if we invested in micro-finance in poverty-stricken parts of the world, rather than in the oil companies?
What if, instead of crying to the government that they have not properly regulated imported toys with lead-based paint which could harm our children, we demanded that they properly regulate imported products that harm the children that are forced to make them? [I find it pretty ironic that the lead-tainted toys were only a concern for American children, not the children who probably painted them.]
What if, we re-defined the DEMAND that drives the global marketplace in which American consumers play an overwhelmingly influential role?
And what if, rather than sitting on the bench until the fourth quarter of this movement, followers of Jesus were in the game from the start?
We could actually change the world.
And even if we didn’t give a crap about the poor of the world at whose expense we are able to buy products at the “dollar store”, IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE for America.
And how ironic that the “supposed” solution to a weak economy is to consume more. “The economy is weak, so here’s some money. Go spend it on a big-screen TV, some new clothes and a laptop.” It’s as if we have passed a point of no return. There is no consuming less. If we do, the economy falls apart. We’ve built a machine that cannot function unless we over-consume in all arenas of life. To reduce consumption is to destroy our economy.
Re-shaping the US economy is the same process as re-shaping the Global economy. Re-shape our DEMAND. It will be hard and we will have to make painful changes to our lifestyles as individuals and as nations, but more of the same is not an option.
IF WE DO NOT ABSORB THE COST INVOLVED IN CHANGING THE SHAPE OF OUR CONSUMPTION AND ECONOMY, THE POOR OF THE WORLD WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY IT ON THEIR SHOULDERS. AND FOR THAT TO CONTINUE WOULD BE EVIL.
We must do something. We must consume less and we must be aware of the cost of the things that we do consume to those who produce them.
The shape of our consumption WILL cost someone.
So…Let’s change the world.
If anyone wants to think more deeply about some of this stuff, Brian McLaren’s book Everything Must Change, is a great place to start.
Check out a short essay called “Strangers Bring Us Closer To God” by Sara Miles.
