- News: Views
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08 Dec
[17-01-11] Keep Loving Your Uni
It’s cliché, I know, but it only feels like yesterday when I stepped out into the sun at the end of my exams and into the recently graduated world.[23-11-10] 40 days until 2011
In 40 days time it will be a new year, two thousand and eleven.[13-07-10] Work Matters
Over the summer we're looking at a series called 'Work Matters'.[09-06-10] Why Does Everyone Need Their Own Lawn Mower?
This question prompted the idea of a database of the items people have available that they don't mind sharing with the rest of church.[04-05-10] Lobbying Andy Reed
On 1st March I joined around 100 members of the Speak Network, a Christian network of students and young adults who campaign and pray about issues of global injustice, to visit parliament to lobby our MPs about government support for the arms companies.[01-02-10] A New Year. A New Decade
At the start of a new year and a new decade Rich Wilson shares something of God's heart for Open Heaven.[04-12-09] Grace for Growth
Growth begins and ends with grace.[02-12-09] God and Dualisms
At the leaders' weekend earlier in the year, we heard quite a lot about how dualistic thinking works in our lives.[01-12-09] A Big Thank You
Over the last few weeks we referred to Nov 22nd 09 as the day we would come together to raise thousands and thousands of pounds.[06-05-09] Stories from Encounter
The Encounter Weekend continues to be one of my highlights in the year.
Chocolate Traffic
Fancy working 80-100 hours a week for little pay? If so the chocolate
trade is for you. 600,000 – 800,000 people are trafficked every year,
according to the UN. The Ivory Coast and Ghana produce up to 70% of the
world’s cocoa and it is estimated that up to 90% of workers on cocoa
plants in the Ivory Coast are either trafficked or forced into labour.
In the whole of West Africa it is estimated that more than 284,000
children work in some of the worst conditions of child labour.
Last week was the beginning of Advent where we begin to remember the birth
of Jesus and everything he stood for, and died for. The core messages
of Jesus are clear to so many of us but when thinking about issues to
do with justice and righteousness I find myself being drawn to what
Jesus said as he began his ministry in Luke 4, when he quoted from
Isaiah 61:
The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Just as this marked out what Jesus' life would stand for, it should also speak to us,
as his disciples, about what part we are playing in bringing these words to
life. If we cast our minds back to a fantastic Easter event earlier on
in the year we might remember some of the things we were taught and the
horrific story of ‘Chaga and the Chocolate Factory’. It challenges us
to do a little to bring about large scale change. One of the things I
have been thinking about recently comes in asking the question, are we
limited by our imaginations? Do we limit God because of how we limit
our own capabilities? With issues of global injustice it can be very
easy to adopt a mentality of simply seeing these things in their enormity. That there’s no change we can make which could bring about large scale
change. However, I think there is a challenge not to reduce our
effect by focusing on the enormity of the issue but to grapple with
what it means to be faithful in the small while expecting God make the
large scale changes that are necessary.
So what can we do? We
can drive the demand for products that have been made using ethical
means. Supporting ethical businesses and rejecting unethical businesses
is a form of voting. You are saying NO to human trafficking and
exploitation, and YES to good working conditions, fair prices, and
equality. Trafficking reduces human beings to commodities. They become
people bought and sold simply to service the ever-growing demands of
global consumers for cheap goods and service. Let’s do our best to keep
faces on figures and people in products.
Posted by: Chris Ford on Monday Dec 8th, 2008
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