Back issues of course handouts:
Week 1: Walk the Talk: what is this all about?
Week 2: Good News: God’s story (through our stories)
Week 3: What is the Good News?
Week 4: Social Consciousness of the Old Testament
Week 5: Social Conscience of the New Testament
Week 6: First World Ideals
Week 7: Consumerism and the Media
Week 8: The Hero
Week 9: The Alternative Voice of the Media
Week 10: World Conflict
Week 11: Environmental Stewardship
Last class, it seemed – for a moment anyways – that it would be difficult to wrap up the class. There were so many environmentalism success stories to talk about. For myself, I find it incredible that there are so many people and organizations already working innovative on ways to reduce and reuse our levels consumption. The next level, which has been the common thread throughout our course, is to carefully examine our lifestyles, as they dictate our habits of consumption.
Here’s my confession: I’m always interested in hearing about innovative uses of technology to solve problems, but I find it difficult not to be driven by convenience. It is a constant exercise to watch my consumerism. I liken this exercise to “being transformed by the renewing of my mind” (Romans 12:2). I think feasible and sustainable solutions to reducing our ecological impact need to include reducing our “need” for convenience. I think our society understands this implicitly through its reaction to the loss of jobs – for example jobs moving away from skilled trades towards IT and even desk-based sweatshops (code monkeys and pencil pushers, respectively). We’ve begun to forget about the arts (I don’t mean just the fine-arts) and the concept of craftsmanship. Supply and demand dictates that convenience-as-god will continue to move our society and economies towards this dystopian view. I digress; on the bright side, we are definitely more aware of our practices and are more actively engaged in being stewards of the earth (for example in our municipal recycling programs).
It’s long overdue for the church to take leadership on these issues. We’ve lost so much credibility, simply because we never bothered to even be concerned about caring outside our own limited definition of caring. But we are the church. So it starts with us. Let’s choose to live as disciples living out: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” bringing redemption – Shalom – to all aspects of our lives.