Globally and Socially-minded Shopping for Xmas

Check these shopping opportunities mentioned in RelevantMagazine:

TOMS Shoes
TOMS Shoes’ mission is simple. Buy a pair of shoes from their store, and they will donate a pair of matching shoes to a child in need. Founder Blake Mycoskie spent time in South America and saw the field workers wearing alpargatos, a durable traditional slip-on shoe. He was inspired to come back to the States and found TOMS, bringing the shoes to Americans with fashion sense and bringing more shoes to those in need worldwide. TOMS come in a wide array of colors and designs. They look good, you feel good, children get shoes, and everybody wins.

One T-shirt by Edun
For the fashion-forward activists with a little extra dough for Christmas, consider the One shirt by Edun. The shirt, $40 online or at Nordstrom, is pretty rad and is worn by gobs of hip celebrities. One of the coolest aspects of the shirts is that they are made in Lesotho, South Africa, from all African cotton. When you buy one of these shirts, you support African commerce with the West. In addition to that, $10 from every shirt sold goes toward AIDS prevention and medicine in Africa.

iGive
iGive works on a simple premise. Shop online through its website at any of its 650 affiliated stores (Barnes & Noble, eBay, Apple, etc.), and those stores will donate a portion of the sale to the charity of your choice. Through this massive site you can do ALL of your shopping at the stores you normally visit anyway, with one key difference: part of the money goes to charity.

Sub City Records
Sub City Records gives a sizeable percentage of record sales to charity. Sub City is known for its philanthropic stance; it also runs the Take Action Tour, which benefits suicide prevention. Buy the entire Thrice catalog as well as the other good music they have for sale, and you’ll help support great causes.

Grounds for Change

Grounds for Change is a fair-trade coffee company based out of the Pacific Northwest that sells coffee from all over the globe. Give the gift of joe knowing that you are supporting farmers from South America, Africa and Asia. In addition to supporting fair-trade farmers the world over, Grounds for Change donates a portion of profits to children’s environmental education programs and uses only renewable “green” energy. Grounds for Change is a member of Co-Op America, an organization of socially responsible businesses. Plus the coffee tastes good.

World Vision Catalog

If you (and your gift receiver) are OK without actual gifts changing hands at Christmas, then check out the gift catalog at WorldVision.org. You can honor that special someone with the gift of a goat. Although a goat might not seem useful to your friend, it can provide milk and dairy products for a whole family in Kenya. You can donate items such as fishing kits, freshwater wells and wheelchairs to families in impoverished nations across the planet.

Philip Jenkins Strikes Again: The Faces of Christianity in the Global South

newfacesofxtyIf you never read Jenkin’s first book, The Next Christendom, you missed a good presentation of the state of World Christianity (see my critique here). In case you have had your head in the sand, the West (including America!) is no longer the locus of world Christianity. Using both historical and statistical analysis, Jenkins establishes a case for the global character of past, present, and future Christianity. Although he does not offer new observations (missiologists have been saying these things for some time), he does offer them to a new audience.

In reflection upon the vast influence of Christianity, Jenkins explores possible reasons for its longevity and global presence. He presents compelling statistics, theological and cultural reflection indicating that the shift of global Christianity has been to the 2/3rds Southeastern world. The continents of Asia and Africa contain not only the greatest amount of Christians, but the fastest growing movements of Christianity.

The global character of Christianity is not just “out there,” but is increasingly present in the growing numbers of immigrant churches in the U.S. However, neither the local nor global statistics of Christianity should compell you to read and reflect on non-Western christian faith. What should compell you is the understanding that the beauty of Christ, the expression of the renewal and redemption of all peoples and cultures, and the glory of God is manifested uniquely by the Spirit throughout the world. We can understand, enjoy and serve our God better, if we understand how others know, enjoy and serve him. Jenkins new book, The New Faces of Christianity gives us just that opportunity.

Manliness

Manliness Popluar shifts in vocabulary can be very telling of cultural and philosophical trends. “Man” has been excised from the vernacular–mankind has become humankind, Time’s “Man of the Year” is now “Person of the Year” and so on. What we need, it would appear, is a gender neutral society, one in which it is gender is played down and personhood played up.

To speak of manliness, to espouse it, regardless of your take on what, in fact, it means to be manly is rather unpopular. Our cultural cues call for eviscerated, emasculated, unemployed men. We are to play down our differences from women, empower thier liberation from the home and thier success in the workplace. Accordingly, Harvard professor of Political Science, Harvey Mansfield (heh) writes: “The true, the effectual, meaning of women’s equality is women’s independence … independence from men and children… in maximum feasible independence.”

No doubt, men and women are thoroughly equal, equal but different. However, equality seems to be often mistaken for sameness. Although the differences, in my opinion, do not amount to that of the contrast between Mars and Venus, men and women are different. They work, communicate and dress differently and not merely due to social convention. These differences are universal and transcultural. Instead of playing down our differences, what would it look like to affirm and celebrate feminine wisdom, poise, and attire…and conversely, masculine strength, fortitude, and bold indifference?

What then is the cause of such high cultural rates of unemploymed manliness? Women or feminist philosophy? Neither. Harvey proffers an alternative: “Unemployed manliness is nothing new in the world, and in particular it has not been caused by feminism. The entire project of modernity, however, could be understood as a project to keep manliness unemployed.”

He explains: The first modern thinker Machiavelli began from the observation that the world suffered from “ambitious idleness.” The reason for this was the domination of the world by Christianity, a religion that puts the honor of gaining salvation in the next world above worldly honors that engage the ambition of manly men.” Is the emasculation of men the product of a Christianity that makes men so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good? Have we placed salvation in the next world above honorable activity in this world? If so, is this indeed Christian?

The World is Getting Younger

BBC has presented a Fascinating Study on Global Population trends which indicates that the world is getting younger. In all, there are about one billion 12 to 18-year-olds, and almost 9 out of 10 live in the developing world. A quarter of young people live on less than US$1 a day. The study includes data on economic, education, and sexual activity among the world’s youth.