Watched two compelling documentaries recently.ÂÂ
China Blue, a clandestinely shot expose of a blue jean factory in China
…and Black Gold, a look at the plight of Ethiopian coffee growers who receive pennies for their efforts while westerners sip $5 lattes.
 
That got me wondering if the growing success in elevating the fair trade of coffee to a moral issue could work for something like clothing coming from the third world? Obviously there are organizations working towards this but it’s just not as sexy an issue as fair trade coffee… but why not and how could that change?
That got me pondering how many of the myriad products I consume daily in the west are linked back to similar scenarios.
That got me feeling a bit of complicity and that got me wondering what form activism in these matters should take for Christ followers, if any? What should it look like?  Should the church lead the way and set the pace in all endeavours essential to our humanity… art, social justice, human rights, space exploration, activism, environmental issues, politics (gasp!), etc… not just endeavours essential to our christianity?
Are these two different missions… or the same one? Is this a both/and rather than an either/or… and if so what does that balance/tension look like?
nooc
6 comments
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April 19, 2007 at 2:55 pm
ragamuffindisciple
You are deffinatly on to something here. You are right about the church needing to be the fore front of taking up these causes. I was watching a video of Tim Keller on Social Justice and the church on the Resurgence website and he talked about Proverbs 29:7 “the godly care about the poor, the wicked don’t care at all”. He also talked about Proverbs 14:31, “those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but helping the poor honors Him”.
Coffee is sexy but only because someone brought it to the front of our minds and it time for someone passionate enough to bring sweet shop clothes and other oppressions that people go through economically to the attention of the masses also. I have a new saying I tell people that I can up with after watching Blood Diamonds, “Ordinary people can do extraordinary things”. We all need to be that person.
April 19, 2007 at 3:34 pm
parke
See if my previous comment gets through. It has some links to others with similar thinking.
April 19, 2007 at 4:55 pm
internationalmentoringnetwork
thoughtful post. greg.
just needed to tell you that i love your banner.
April 19, 2007 at 9:51 pm
deana
love the header! i’ll check the movies out!
April 23, 2007 at 11:24 am
jaydee
“Fair trade” is like “organic”: just another word for “expensive”.
May 7, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Ruth
ahhh! exactly what i have been chewing on…
especially after last night– brian and i watch Blood diamond.
very disturbing and has me considering ALOT of things….
but for starters…i am having a small humble garage sale to raise fund for sick children in the middle east…..
so much out there.