TRUTH AND GRACE VENTURES

Writing about Intentional Shopping, Martha Anderson highlights the inspiring work of Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS shoes.

Seeing the overwhelming poverty, and bare feet, of children while on a trip to Argentina prompted Blake to start a shoe company based on the principle of conscious, or intentional, consumerism -- the concept of thinking through the implications of what you buy. TOMS motto is: buy a pair -- give a pair. For every pair of shoes purchased, the company gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. The shoes, made in Argentina (fair trade!) are comfortable, stylish, affordable, and -- for people like me who suffer greatly from the “ism” of consumer-ism -- a great way to help a child in need and get a cute pair of shoes in return!  [L]ast year Blake and TOMS distributed 10,000 pair of shoes to children in Argentina. This year's goal? Fifty thousand pair to children in Africa.

Through implementation of this simple idea – buy a pair, give a pair – Mycoskie is raising the moral awareness, and enlisting the charitable assistance of, wealthy Americans; providing fair-trade employment to Argentinean workers; and badly needed footwear to poor children in Argentina and Africa.  Amazing.

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 08:10 PM | Permalink

Keith Plummer offers an interesting perspective on the American evangelical “impulse to stamp a Scripture verse on every imaginable object.”

In large part we have an anemic doctrine of creation. Our conviction that God is the maker of heaven and earth should be evidenced in more ways than ongoing debates with evolutionists. Certainly, there’s a need for such apologetic activity but the doctrine of creation, like all biblical doctrines, is not given primarily for the purpose of our defending it but for our living it.

How do we live the doctrine of creation? By affirming along with God that his creation, though cursed on account of humanity’s rebellion, is still good and is given to us to richly enjoy with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4; 6:17). As Michael Wittmer says in his book, Heaven is a Place on Earth:

Because we know that this creation is the good gift of God, we are not only permitted but encouraged to enjoy it as is. Unlike those who think that worldly objects are somehow enhanced by stamping Scripture verses on them, Christians who understand the goodness of this world celebrate the freedom to enjoy God’s creation as is. We no longer need to sanitize secular items with our sanctified slogans to make them suitable for Christian consumption....In fact, our feeble attempts at baptizing creation tend to cheapen both it and the gospel (p. 66-67).

If believers really grasped this, many Christian businesses would go belly up and perhaps Christian “bookstores” would become bookstores again.

(HT:  JollyBlogger)

Posted by Ramsey Wilson at 08:56 AM | Permalink