On March 26, 2007, Malone's Worldview Forum will feature the topic: “Wal-Mart, Global Corporations and Consumerism” The Proponents will be Don Soderquist, Former Chief Operating Officer for Wal-Mart and Jon deGraaf, Filmaker, Author and Advocate of Taking Back Your Time
A Film Forum will be held on March 28 at 7:30 p.m. and we will show An Inconvenient Truth - now a two-time Oscar winner! We will discuss the global warning issue but really focus on how we can be caretakers of the environment despite our views in the global warming debate. Tanya Hershberger will be one of the facilitators.
Shane Claiborne will be visiting campus for just a short time on April 2. He will be speaking at chapel, 10:05 a.m., and then will be around for an hour or so after to have conversations with students. FYI, Shane will be speaking on April 1 in the evening at First Christian Church in North Canton, so you could also catch his talk there. I don't know details about that one.
Thanks Marcia & Linda Leon for forwarding info...
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Welcome!
Some of you are just finding the site for the first time. There are many different ways you can participate....
If you'd like to have get a bi-weekly digest of posts, email me (arudd @ malone dot edu) and let me know.
If you'd like to submit content of posts or links -- email me and I'll be happy to post them on your behalf.
Posts will (hopefully) contain concrete ways that we can and do respond to (and often with) globalizing forces. Occasionally, posts will be more inspirational, theological and thoughtful. Summaries of helpful websites, books or other resources are also welcome.
I'd also welcome co-contributors. If you'd like to post directly to the site -- please let me know and I'll email you a membership invitation.
Any suggestions for format, design or content are welcome
If you'd like to have get a bi-weekly digest of posts, email me (arudd @ malone dot edu) and let me know.
If you'd like to submit content of posts or links -- email me and I'll be happy to post them on your behalf.
Posts will (hopefully) contain concrete ways that we can and do respond to (and often with) globalizing forces. Occasionally, posts will be more inspirational, theological and thoughtful. Summaries of helpful websites, books or other resources are also welcome.
I'd also welcome co-contributors. If you'd like to post directly to the site -- please let me know and I'll email you a membership invitation.
Any suggestions for format, design or content are welcome
Friday, February 16, 2007
Coacoa Equity Issue
I wanted to fill you in on something I've been thinking and reading about that applies directly to our conversations in small group and Sunday school.
We all know about the necessity for Fair Trade coffee and have even committed (at some level) to serving it at church functions. However, I've recently become aware of (through the Simply in Season website - a cookbook connected with the MCC) the child slavery used to produce about 40% of the world's cocoa. Young boys in West Africa are often sold or tricked into slavery and then are forced to harvest the cocoa beans which eventually ends up in the inexpensive chocolate that you and I enjoy. This is a clear case of the wealthy enjoying the "good life" at the great expense of the poor and helpless of the world.
If you'd like to read more about this please go to this site. This and other websites state that about 40% of our non-fair trade chocolate has "slave chocolate" in it. Apparently gaining some extra pounds in no longer our only guilt in eating those yummy chocolates. Of course there is something we can do and this is where I would like a response from you.
The "Equal Exchange" brand of fair trade coffee and tea also sells chocolate bars, hot cocoa and baking chocolate. While perusing through their website I discovered that they have a wholesale program through which churches and fellowships can purchase their goods in larger quantities for significantly less cost as well as a decrease in shipping (even possibly no shipping). Actually, buying Equal Exchange coffee this way is even cheaper than I can buy the same brand at Acme. I had a thought that perhaps we could start a "co-op" of sorts through the church. This way we could keep a regular supply of fair trade coffee at the church as well as take orders for those who would want to make purchases of coffee, tea, and/or chocolate for their home.
I spoke with a woman from the Equal Exchange office yesterday and she said that it takes about two weeks for an order to arrive. I'm thinking that an order could be made every couple of months to allow us to order a greater quantity and therefore, keep our costs lower. Please take a look at the church wholesale page. You'll notice that the chocolate is significantly more expensive than what you can buy it for at the drug store but that's because the cocoa in it is guaranteed to have been produced by those who were actually adult workers rather than CHILD SLAVES!! It seems to me like a fair price to pay for my luxury item so that I can be assured that child slavery did not go into producing it for me. I guess it will teach me to eat less and savor more.
By the way, I read that they will only take chocolate orders until April as it is out of season April - October. Wow, I never realized that chocolate had a season (but maybe this has more to do with the temperature while shipping ???)
I talked to Ginny about bringing this idea to the deacons at their March meeting and then opening it up to the church as a whole. However, she didn't seem to think there would be anything wrong with offering a "test run" of sorts through our Canton small group. After taking a look at the Equal Exchange website could you let me know if you would be interested at all? I would take care of taking orders and paying for it.... of course you would reimburse me for your order. If you wouldn't want an entire case of something, I would try to coordinate with others to share a case. Anyway, perhaps those are details to work out later. Just let me know what you think.
from Pamm's email
We all know about the necessity for Fair Trade coffee and have even committed (at some level) to serving it at church functions. However, I've recently become aware of (through the Simply in Season website - a cookbook connected with the MCC) the child slavery used to produce about 40% of the world's cocoa. Young boys in West Africa are often sold or tricked into slavery and then are forced to harvest the cocoa beans which eventually ends up in the inexpensive chocolate that you and I enjoy. This is a clear case of the wealthy enjoying the "good life" at the great expense of the poor and helpless of the world.
If you'd like to read more about this please go to this site. This and other websites state that about 40% of our non-fair trade chocolate has "slave chocolate" in it. Apparently gaining some extra pounds in no longer our only guilt in eating those yummy chocolates. Of course there is something we can do and this is where I would like a response from you.
The "Equal Exchange" brand of fair trade coffee and tea also sells chocolate bars, hot cocoa and baking chocolate. While perusing through their website I discovered that they have a wholesale program through which churches and fellowships can purchase their goods in larger quantities for significantly less cost as well as a decrease in shipping (even possibly no shipping). Actually, buying Equal Exchange coffee this way is even cheaper than I can buy the same brand at Acme. I had a thought that perhaps we could start a "co-op" of sorts through the church. This way we could keep a regular supply of fair trade coffee at the church as well as take orders for those who would want to make purchases of coffee, tea, and/or chocolate for their home.
I spoke with a woman from the Equal Exchange office yesterday and she said that it takes about two weeks for an order to arrive. I'm thinking that an order could be made every couple of months to allow us to order a greater quantity and therefore, keep our costs lower. Please take a look at the church wholesale page. You'll notice that the chocolate is significantly more expensive than what you can buy it for at the drug store but that's because the cocoa in it is guaranteed to have been produced by those who were actually adult workers rather than CHILD SLAVES!! It seems to me like a fair price to pay for my luxury item so that I can be assured that child slavery did not go into producing it for me. I guess it will teach me to eat less and savor more.
By the way, I read that they will only take chocolate orders until April as it is out of season April - October. Wow, I never realized that chocolate had a season (but maybe this has more to do with the temperature while shipping ???)
I talked to Ginny about bringing this idea to the deacons at their March meeting and then opening it up to the church as a whole. However, she didn't seem to think there would be anything wrong with offering a "test run" of sorts through our Canton small group. After taking a look at the Equal Exchange website could you let me know if you would be interested at all? I would take care of taking orders and paying for it.... of course you would reimburse me for your order. If you wouldn't want an entire case of something, I would try to coordinate with others to share a case. Anyway, perhaps those are details to work out later. Just let me know what you think.
from Pamm's email
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Individual Actions
(not the starting point or end point, but part of your journey in the liturgical year)
o Examine your own desires and buying habits and learn to eat seasonally
o Buy from farmers’ markets in season (and eat less for the money!)
o Buy grass-fed meats directly from farmers: Eat Wild Ohio
o Review your retirement savings/investments portfolio to see where and to whom your money is going
o Read and study and listen to learn more
• About globalization issues
• E.g., Worldview Forum at Malone on “Wal-Mart, Consumerism, and Global Corporations,” Monday, March 26, 2007
• About our government’s actions on global policies
o Write Congressmen about governmental trade policies, foreign policy, immigration policy, etc.
From Scott's in-class handout
o Examine your own desires and buying habits and learn to eat seasonally
o Buy from farmers’ markets in season (and eat less for the money!)
o Buy grass-fed meats directly from farmers: Eat Wild Ohio
o Review your retirement savings/investments portfolio to see where and to whom your money is going
o Read and study and listen to learn more
• About globalization issues
• E.g., Worldview Forum at Malone on “Wal-Mart, Consumerism, and Global Corporations,” Monday, March 26, 2007
• About our government’s actions on global policies
o Write Congressmen about governmental trade policies, foreign policy, immigration policy, etc.
From Scott's in-class handout
Things that we could work on immediately
o Continue and increase our care for the needy local families and refugee families (local-global connections)
o Bring our own mugs for coffee and tea (less Styrofoam)?
o Stewardship of our building and grounds as a positive example (e.g., energy use, recycling our waste, etc.)
o Connect with what is already happening in Highland Square and Akron (e.g., First Presbyterian Church has a food pantry that could accept volunteers from youth and adults)
from Scott's in-class handout
o Bring our own mugs for coffee and tea (less Styrofoam)?
o Stewardship of our building and grounds as a positive example (e.g., energy use, recycling our waste, etc.)
o Connect with what is already happening in Highland Square and Akron (e.g., First Presbyterian Church has a food pantry that could accept volunteers from youth and adults)
from Scott's in-class handout
New Ideas for Concrete Community Action
(connected to how God speaks to us in the liturgy?)
• New ideas for concrete community actions (connected to how God speaks to us in the liturgy?)
o Learn more in the adult education class about Burma and Liberia and Central America…
o Start a church food co-op as in days of old
• Join Community Supported Agriculture (weekly boxes of seasonal produce)
• Lots of nearby farms are listed at http://www.localharvest.org
• Buy local beef together at Duma’s (Mogadore or Hartville Market)
• Start a weekly grass-fed meat buying club (http://www.eatwild.com/products/ohioresources.htm)
“Paul and Colleen Yoder, Apple Creek, OH, supply products raised on their farm to various small, family-oriented food co-ops who come directly to their farm for weekly pick ups from the Cleveland, Medina and Akron, OH areas. Contact them for more information: (330) 698-0340 or grassfedmeats@earthlink.net.”
o Tend a community garden and do canning together.
o Annual apple-picking/applesauce making (extra applesauce in the Karsten Kitchen?)
o Buy goods for the Karsten Kitchen based on healthy food (not bottom line price alone)
o Hire those in need to help clean the church building and do landscaping for fair wages?
o Other direct, collective political action?
from Scott's handout
• New ideas for concrete community actions (connected to how God speaks to us in the liturgy?)
o Learn more in the adult education class about Burma and Liberia and Central America…
o Start a church food co-op as in days of old
• Join Community Supported Agriculture (weekly boxes of seasonal produce)
• Lots of nearby farms are listed at http://www.localharvest.org
• Buy local beef together at Duma’s (Mogadore or Hartville Market)
• Start a weekly grass-fed meat buying club (http://www.eatwild.com/products/ohioresources.htm)
“Paul and Colleen Yoder, Apple Creek, OH, supply products raised on their farm to various small, family-oriented food co-ops who come directly to their farm for weekly pick ups from the Cleveland, Medina and Akron, OH areas. Contact them for more information: (330) 698-0340 or grassfedmeats@earthlink.net.”
o Tend a community garden and do canning together.
o Annual apple-picking/applesauce making (extra applesauce in the Karsten Kitchen?)
o Buy goods for the Karsten Kitchen based on healthy food (not bottom line price alone)
o Hire those in need to help clean the church building and do landscaping for fair wages?
o Other direct, collective political action?
from Scott's handout
Ideas to Bridge Liturgy and Life
• Ideas to bridge liturgy and life
o Write a belief/faith statement stating how each liturgical season relates us to the rest of the world
o Commit to specific, common actions for each season: “During Lent, we will fast from ____________ together, because we feel God leading us in this direction.” “During Easter, we will _______.”
o Review the Contemporary Testimony of the CRC; it makes connections to social-political life.
o Write a belief/faith statement stating how each liturgical season relates us to the rest of the world
o Commit to specific, common actions for each season: “During Lent, we will fast from ____________ together, because we feel God leading us in this direction.” “During Easter, we will _______.”
o Review the Contemporary Testimony of the CRC; it makes connections to social-political life.
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