Wanna get angry about Christmas?

Christian music artist Shaun Groves points out the real reason to get angry about the 'war on Christmas'. (HT Brian McLaren)

I read Shaun Groves post directly after reading Slate's declaration that the cultural war on Christmas is coming to an end. I think Shaun hits the nail on the head- do we want to make sure all the stores say Merry Christmas rather than Season's Greetings to signify that we're shopping like crazy in Christ's name? I almost think we need a new name for the celebration of Jesus' birth, since the holiday 'Christmas' has been hijacked by the mall. It's not like the word 'Christmas' is Biblical or anything, so changing it shouldn't be too big a deal, right?

A new 'war on Christmas' has been brewing the last few years, though- a war on the consumerism of Christmas. There are many movements out there, and the most prominent is the Advent Conspiracy- even TIME covered it this year.



Another, Christmas Change, is similar:

Christmas Change from Kujilana on Vimeo.

For us, we're still doing the typical Christmas presents, toned down from years past. We're giving a couple 'donation presents' (donating to a cause in the name of the gift recipient) to people who I think will "get it". We're giving some 'used' gifts to give very usable items a new home, and we're even regifting for the same reasons. We hand-made our Christmas cards.

What are you doing to keep the consumerism out of Christmas this year?

"Church service" of a different sort

When I think "church service," I think of the hour on Sunday morning where a bunch of people dress up and gather together to sing, pray, and listen to a sermon before going out to eat for lunch. Church service.

Really, though, what service is being done? Who is being served?

Last weekend, at my church, there were no services, as we think of them, anyway. No sermon, no congregating in a sanctuary, no dressing up.

But service? There was plenty of that.

This weekend was the second annual Weekend of Service, when the church closes its doors and, instead of sitting and singing and doing the typical church-service thing, thousands of church members went out and did service. You know, actually served.

What did they do?

Ran a half-marathon to raise money to battle AIDS

Put together meals for hungry families

Beautified a downtown school's garden

Collected food in local neighborhoods

Sorted clothes to be given to needy families

Painted. Built. Sorted. Organized. Fed. Clothed. Healed. Helped.

What did I do?

Last year, we went with an organization called Rebuilding the Wall and helped demolish parts of a house so it could be rebuilt for a needy family. I discovered that, although Josh does love swinging a sledgehammer, demolition isn't one of my spiritual gifts. This year I wanted to work on something I felt I could use what I'm good at a little more.

We ended up at Third Phase- a women's shelter, food pantry and thrift store. It's the biggest food pantry in our county, and the only emergency shelter. There were lots of volunteers there on Saturday- some to do yardwork, some to sort donations, some to organize the food pantry, some to revamp the thrift store- all sorts of things. We were there to do a very specific task- test electronics that had been donated to the thrift store, to see if they worked and if they could be sold. There were 4 of us testing electronics, and a couple others cleaning the dust and grime off of them. Third Phase has an entire basement room stacked floor-to-ceiling with these donations, so I felt what we were doing was definitely helping out. I chose to start testing microwaves and household electronics, knowing that if I was short on money, these were things that would be necessities. Josh worked on testing computers, mice, keyboards, and TVs.

All through the day, I was being reminded, Do not despise the small things. What we were doing was small, but it mattered. Because we tested, cleaned, and priced the microwaves, a mom working two jobs can still get dinner cooked for her family. Because the computers were evaluated, a father out of work will be able to get his resume put together and printed. A heater I found that DIDN'T work won't be sold and set someone's house on fire. Little things, but they matter. I tend to focus on the big, systemic issues like global poverty, affordable health insurance, clean drinking water... and I forget that the little things that are easier to accomplish do make a difference.

Best news of the week so far? All those small things added up. Everyone who participated in the Weekend of Service brought food for the food pantry, and many projects went to nearby neighborhoods to collect food. All in all, 257,000 pounds of food were collected by the projects for Indianapolis-area food pantries. The hungry will be fed, because lots of people gave a little.
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Part of the crowd, before we left for all the projects:


Gathering at Third Phase:


Newly-organized thrift store:


All my Weekend of Service pictures:

Weekend of Service 09

Why Climate Change Matters

Climate change is a justice issue.

Does that seem far-fetched? Should "social justice" be confined to feeding the poor and housing the homeless? Or is it bigger than that? On this Blog Action Day focusing on climate change, it's something worth considering. Here's a list of a few climate change issues, and why, in my eyes, they're social justice issues too:

• Mountaintop removal: Just a few states away, my neighbors are dealing with poor air quality and contaminated drinking water, not to mention the destruction of their local treasures. When I think about using more electricity in my home, this comes to mind- my actions are affecting the lives of my neighbors. Our neighbors are suffering, and this matters.

• Island nations: I used to live on an island in the middle of an ocean, so I get it when leaders from these nations plead with the bigger nations to notice their plight. If the globe warms up just a little, if the ice starts to melt... these people lose their homes, their country. It's not fair that, thanks to those in large countries who live as they please, the smallest countries will suffer. Our neighbors are losing their homes, and this matters.

• World hunger: As the climate changes, those that live in already-dry areas will find it even harder to grow food. As the world's temperature rises, growing seasons will change, and precipitation will shift. Areas that are barely able to grow anything right now may become completely barren. All the while, those of us with plenty insist on trucking our food from thousands of miles away- contributing even more to the problem. Our neighbors are going hungry, and this matters.

• Water shortages: This is related to the shift in weather and growing seasons- droughts, storms and floods will intensify if nothing is done. Global warming will continue to cause our neighbors in the third world to go without clean drinking water. Our neighbors are thirsty, and this matters.

Climate change isn't something I choose to ignore, because I see climate change issues directly relating to the plight of my neighbor- and loving my neighbor matters.

One Local Thanksgiving

My sister's hosting Thanksgiving this year. Again. If I ever get a chance to host, however, I want to give a 100-Mile Thanksgiving a try. For this year, I've got a list of food to bring to the family get-together, and I'm going to make sure they're as local as possible.

• Pumpkin pie - I grew a huge pumpkin/squash thing last year, and still have puree left over in the freezer. This will be turned into a pumpkin pie. Or two.
• Mashed potatoes- The potato crop turned out pretty well this year, and I'm excited to share it, topped with chives, also from the garden.
• Green beans- I have these canned and ready, though I haven't gotten tapped to bring the green bean casserole just yet.

Really, this could be a 100% local meal if I got a local turkey and some local greens for a salad, and opened a can of applesauce or pears that I've put up for the winter. Eating local is not as hard as it seems!

Do Something

I am starting to think “raising awareness” is a fashionable way to “not do work” when it comes to justice issues.

Donald Miller posted that to his twitter stream a while back. It hit home. I thought on it for a while. Then, this week, Curtis posted about the quote.

I'm all about raising awareness, but when I thought about it, I'm not doing much actual work to make justice issues any less of an issue.

That should change.

Stay tuned.