NOTES: This index is in reverse chronological order, i.e. the newest posts are at the top by year.
These blogs are in process of being moved from their original home to SLW! site. Graphics are coming.
2016 // 2015 // 2014 // 2013 // 2012 // 2011
2011
Simple Living Works! #1--What's Happened to Simple Living? Simple Living Works! #2--Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas Simple Living Works! #3--Christmas, Giving 2012
Simple Living Works! #4--New Year's Resolution Simple Living Works! #5--Money Simple Living Works! #6--Earth Care Simple Living Works! #7--Fair Trade Simple Living Works! #8--PostConsumer? Enough! Campolo & Claiborne Videos Now Available Campolo & Claiborne BONUS Videos Now Available Simple Living Works! VIDEO: "The Five Life Standards" Encouraging Video New Dream Community Action Kit: Guide to Sharing Austerity -- No Way! Life Standard #1 -- Do Justice Life Standard #2 -- Learn from the World Community Life Standard #3 -- Nurture People, Not Things Life Standard #4 -- Cherish the Natural Order Life Standard #5 -- Non-Conform Freely Moving and Clutter The Power of Personal Choices Influencing Others Tips for Fall Celebrations New Video -- The Celebration Revolution of Alexander Scrooge How Many HITS for You Today? The Future -- Dismal or Reborn? Consumo Must Go! "Lost" Walter Wink study now online UNPLUG the Christmas Machine How We Celebrate Says a Lot About How We Live The Gospel of Santa Claus or The Song of St. Nicholas? Carols with Justice
2011
Simple Living Works! #1--What's Happened to Simple Living?
GERALD IVERSEN SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1What's Happening to Simple Living?
In February, 2011, after 38 years of service, Alternatives for Simple Living ceased to exist. Eventually Alternatives’ archives will be maintained by the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). The ELCA Hunger Program was one of the main supporters of Alternatives.
One of Alternatives’ colleague organizations, the Simple Living Network also closed at the end of 2010. Its extensive discussion groups, including “Your Money or Your Life,” are being maintained by the New Road Map Foundation. Join the conversation at SimpleLivingForum.net
Who We Are
I served as Executive Director for Alternatives for Simple Living from September 1995 through December 2007. The ELCA Hunger Program and the immediate past co-directors of Alternatives have welcomed me to publish this new eNews. It is a growing cooperative effort, aided by Jubilee Economics Ministries.
This new resource will direct you to free resources about simple living on the Internet, including those produced in the past by Alternatives.
Simple Living Works! is based on the simple proposition that voluntary simplicity is a faithful, satisfying and effective lifestyle. It is based on the five Life Standards of the classic “Living More with Less.”
At a time when millions of Americans (and billions of humans) are living simply INvoluntarily, we hope that this eNews will serve to show that simple living is NOT deprivation. It is such a joy to get the burden of stuff off our backs!
What We're Not
We are NOT selling anything ourselves. We are NOT asking for money. This is a completely voluntary organization. Yes, you are welcome to contact us by email or phone, though we are not soliciting feedback. This is not a counseling service for individuals nor a speaker’s bureau, though we can refer you inspiring speakers and coach groups over the internet.
Simple Living Works! #2--Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas
GERALD IVERSEN TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1Seven Simple Living Tips for Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas
- Ideas for a simpler Thanksgiving.
- The signature resource for Alternatives for Simple Living for over 25 years was the Advent/Christmas annual booklet “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?" Twenty-five editions are available online to use for your home, group and congregation. Select articles to meet your needs.
- One of the most popular short resources for many years has been 10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Christmas. Read and download.
- A variety of free Advent/Christmas Calendars.
- An assortment of free educational Advent/Christmas packets.
- The Center for a New American Dream has produced several holiday resources. Read Beyond Consumerism: Simplify the Holidays.
- A secular, more overt anti-consumerist campaign Buy Nothing Day + Buy Nothing Christmas. Buy Nothing Day (more commonly known as Black Friday to retailers) is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, this year on November 25th.
Simple Living Works! #3--Christmas, Giving
GERALD IVERSEN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1Year-End Giving
Thinking about year-ending giving? Go to CharityNavigator.org before donating to a new organization. It rates over 100,000 non-profits (not political ones) and gives the salary of its top executives. I tend to consider those who have four stars (of four) and whose CEO makes a modest salary.
Helpful Resources
The Unholy Family of Christmas offers reflection during the holiday season at Jubilee Economics Ministries. These pieces can help us shift from the holiday patterns that make us crazy. They offer a counterpoint to a holiday that too quickly gets out of balance with events, presents, parties, and other things that are good within balance. These pieces invite us to see a cosmic-sized story that is scandalous and transforming—what we need today. It is the story inside which we find the way to go, whether we are Occupiers or the 1%. A new piece will be posted weekly up through Christmas. Light a candle, center, read, and please leave your reflections as comments at the end of each piece.
May the anniversary of Jesus' birth call us to greater consciousness and action. And, may each of the seasons being celebrated at this time of year make our world new.
- Here's a free Any Year Calendar that gives a thought-provoking idea or action for every day of the year. Bookmark it in your computer to return each day.
- For personal and group inspiration to fend off the consumerist beast, visit and download some Carols with Justice. These carols use familiar tunes to powerful new words.
- For inspiring pieces about Christmas throughout history, visit Simple Living Christmas Anthologies.
- For inspiring AUDIO selections about Christmas, visit collections from 2006 and 2007.
2012
Simple Living Works! #4--New Year's Resolution
GERALD IVERSEN SUNDAY, JANUARY 1New Year's Resolution
I recently saw a humorous home plaque: “People who live within their means suffer from a lack of imagination.” Actually, it’s just the opposite. People who don’t live within their means may suffer from a lack of imagination. It’s fun, challenging and rewarding to live more simply!
Simpler Living may not change the world. It may not change America. But it surely changes us!
Here are some ideas for your New Year’s Resolutions.
The Simpler Living Money Formula
- At least 10% —Share
- At least 15% —Save
- No more than 75% —Spend
In that order. It works! No debt! (except a modest mortgage). No waste!
Share, Save, Spend = Money + Meaning. The choices we make with our money can change our world. Visit ShareSaveSpend.com
MORE TIPS
- Easter is April 8 this year. Lent begins February 22. Check out a selection of free, daily Lenten calendars. Although Alternatives is no longer producing resources, most of the Lenten calendars support the three-year liturgical cycles. So 2012 (year B) is the same as 2000 and 1994. Some years are not cycle-oriented and can be used any year—2003, 2004, 1997.
- For a collection of free resources for Lent & Easter, visit Who's Risen from the Dead, Anyway?
- Share the gift of simplicity with your loved ones with a copy of Northwest Earth Institute’s newly revised Voluntary Simplicity book. Or, provide your friends and family with the information and inspiration to pursue sustainable food choices with a copy of NWEI’s newest book, Hungry for Change. Share NWEI’s mission and message year-round with a gift membership or a gift membership package, which comes with the NWEI book of your choice (shipping is free!). To order call 503-227-2807 and reference the holiday gift membership package. Or visit NWEI.
- Here's info about simpler first quarter celebrations.
- Here's a free, Any Year Calendar that gives a though-provoking idea or action for every day of the year. Bookmark it in your computer to return each day.
Simple Living Works! #5--Money
GERALD IVERSEN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1Thrivent Financial says, "Do One Thing Differently"
Think about your finances. Your lifestyle. Your wants versus your needs. What one thing can you change today with your financial life and see the impact tomorrow? Sometimes all you need is a push in the right direction and you're on your way!
Visit Thrivent and you'll find:
- Daily Tips
- Financial Education workshop
- Fun Quiz
- The "Do One Thing" calculator
Seven Tips to Think Differently About Money
- CLARK HOWARD shares great tips for saving money. Besides his weekly TV show, he has a weekday radio program. We watch him on HLN (Headline News), part of CNN, available on cable or satellite or internet— ClarkHoward.com. Unfortunately, his program is reempted when HLN (How Long NonSense?) runs gavel-to-gavel high-profile court cases. He bases his advice primarily on price and savings, less on ethical considerations. Also, he is quite pro-military. He’s much less annoying than Suze Orman.
- TheDollarStretcher.com focuses on frugal living and getting the most for our time and money. Often we overlap with simple living proponents.” Gary Foreman, “Living Better...for Less,” 941.761.7805
- MOVE YOUR MONEY! If you’re stuck in Bank of America, Wells Fargo / Wachovia, Citigroup or JP Morgan/Chase, the online tool Banxodus helps you find a good-guy bank in your area. Big Wall Street banks continue to destroy our economy, break the law, and spends millions lobbying Congress to keep the same broken system intact. Visit BoldProgressives.org.
- CARING FOR CREATION, March 15-18, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, Lake Junaluska, NC (25 miles west of Asheville) Life in our world today is challenged by how we care for the gift of Earth given to us by God. The Christian faith challenges us to be caretakers of Earth. Caring for Creation helps members of faith communities learn how we can better care for the Earth. The Caring for Creation experience provides the Biblical and theological support for developing opportunities for faith communities to be caretakers of our home Earth. It also offers plenary sessions provided by outstanding leadership to challenge us to move forward in our efforts to care for Earth. Registration info. Call 800-222-4930 to register for event programming and lodging.
- Here's help to simplify January-April celebrations.
- Easter is April 8 this year. Lent begins February 22. Here's a selection of free, daily Lenten calendars (English and Spanish). Although Alternatives is no longer producing resources, the Lenten calendars are by liturgical three-year cycles. So 2012 (B) is the same as 2000 and 1994. Some years are not cycle-oriented and can be used any year—2003, 2004, 1997.
- For a collection of free resources for Lent & Easter, visit Who's Risen from the Dead, Anyway?
Simple Living Works! #6--Earth Care
GERALD IVERSEN THURSDAY, MARCH 1Seven Spring Tips Encouraging Earth Care
Thinking toward Earth Day in April, I hope the following free media will inspire you as much as they do me!
- Eco-Justice Ministry helps churches go green. You might like to subscribe to their weekly eNews.
- SierraClubRadio.com is the Sierra Club's excellent weekly podcast. (30 minutes)
- Living on Earth, the radio show from Public Radio International. Check out their podcast or find the show on your local public radio station.
- Earth Focus is a 30-minute environmental news magazine that puts a human face on environmental issues by featuring under-publicized stories about how environmental changes are affecting everyday people.
- Enviro Close-Up is a 30-minute TV interview series that can also be found on Blip.TV.
- 350.org is an international movement to stop the climate crisis. The best way to take part is by organizing in your community. Read “Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet” by Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org.
- Watch MeetTheFarmerTV.com. Learn how you can support local food systems and benefit personally as well as enhancing your community and our environment. We will examine the special relationships that develop between the growers and the chefs and the consumers. By searching through the steps and the interactions of all the factors involved in bringing Food from the Farm to the Plate, we hope to show the deeper values and hidden benefits of supporting your local food systems.
EarthScore: Your Personal Environmental Audit & Guide
This book will make you aware of your connections to the Earth. Physically, we interact with the Earth in hundreds of different ways, most often indirectly through things we buy like food, consumer goods, and electricity—but also directly in acts such as driving and gardening. EarthScore takes you through a fun and educational exercise and tallies Impact Points, which assess one's impact on the environment; counts Action Points, measuring positive contributions, and provides a score and rating on your own EarthScore chart. Used by many organizations and colleges.
Only $5 (including shipping). 48 pages, 8.5 × 11 with pullout EarthScore chart, paperback.
To order a copy just e-mail your name and address to jdhowell@ix.netcom.com or write Jack Howell at Morning Sun Press, 1240 Quandt Road, Lafayette, CA 94549. Phone/fax (925) 932-1383. Visit Morning Sun Press for information on the book and solar cooking.
- Learn about simpler celebrations for the holidays and festivals in January-April.
- Easter is April 8 this year. Lent begins February 22. Alternatives produced a selection of free, daily Lenten calendars you can use. (Although Alternatives is no longer producing resources, the Lenten calendars are by liturgical three-year cycles. So 2012 (B) is the same as 2000 and 1994. Some years are not cycle-oriented and can be used any year—2003, 2004, 1997.)
- For a collection of free resources for Lent & Easter, see Who's Risen from the Dead, Anyway?
Simple Living Works! #7-- Fair Trade
GERALD IVERSEN THURSDAY, MARCH 15Looking ahead to May—Fair Trade Day
In this issue learn about some important though lesser-known sources of Fair Trade products. Also, here’s a big help for planning a simpler wedding, as well as May-August celebrations.
Fair Trade Day
World Fair Trade Day will be May 12, and events in North America will take place May 6-20. Visit Fair Trade Resource Network for all the information.
Sharing the Dream
One of our favorite Fair Trade non-profits is Sharing the Dream in Guatemala. This largely volunteer organization works primarily with indigenous Mayan artisans. Many of them are widows from the recent 30-year civil war who are trying to feed their children and send them to school.
Someone has called life a circle…
Simply Responsible Living has, we think, been misnamed. Life (as is the creator God) is infinitely complex, yet based on simply basic principles.
See our news and online bookstore at Friends Of The Third World.
MORE TIPS and Resources
Planning a Wedding?
First, read Wedding Alternatives. It includes:
- Outward Signs of Inner Values: What Matters for Your Wedding?
- Create Your Own Ceremony: Beyond "Here Comes the Bride"
- Planning an Alternative Wedding: Food, Flowers and Festivities
- Wedding Timeline/Checklist
- Wedding Budget Worksheet
Celebrating Responsibly
Here's help simplifying May-August celebrations.
Faith and Money Study Guide
Hot off the Press! This 8-week guide is great for church groups, Bible studies, and prayer groups. Start your own Faith and Money Study Circle! This guide is designed to be a first step in gathering with others to discuss and reflect on the connection of faith and money. The curriculum contains readings and questions often presented at Faith and Money Network programs, and is applicable for those just beginning to address issues of faith and money and those who have been working with these issues for years. It includes tools like “Writing Your Money Autobiography.” To order The Faith and Money Study Guide for $15 each, plus s/h, email info@FaithAndMoneyNetwork.org or call 202.469.8512. Visit Faith And Money Network (formerly Ministry of Money).
Simple Living Works! #8 -- PostConsumer?
GERALD IVERSEN SUNDAY, APRIL 22I’ve worked with Carol Holst in the Simplicity Forum when she specialized in simplicity education for children. Visit her latest and subscribe to her free monthly eNews Get Satisfied! at PostConsumers.com or getsatisfied@postconsumers.com.
Postconsumers is an educational company helping to move society beyond addictive consumerism. We are consuming mindfully with an eye toward the satisfaction of enough. In other words, we advocate mindful consumption based on every person’s core values, rather than an endless quest for stuff driven by society. It’s up to each person to decide what’s right for him or her at any particular time. Whether postconsumers choose to be satisfied with a little or a lot, they are all wealthy in their contentment.
There’s nothing like celebrating the centrality of family, community, nature and meaning in all our lives, while reducing the pressures of materialism. It casts a whole new light on current economic upheavals and stress levels, to say the least. To say the most, it contributes not only to healthier people, but also to a healthier planet. It just doesn’t get any more mainstream than that.
Postconsumers offers several ways to Get Satisfied with life at last. Our broad-spectrum book, published by Easton Studio Press, is Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough. Recommendations in O, The Oprah Magazine state that it “presents inspiring case studies. . . If they can do it, so can you.” Now we also offer an exciting “how to” interactive web course, produced in cooperation with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Get Satisfied: How to Find the Satisfaction of Enough is guaranteed to change your life or your money back. Then want to chuckle all the way to satisfaction? Visit our Get Satisfied Cartoon Gallery and Get Satisfied Game Show.
Here's an excerpt from review of the Get Satisfied Interactive Handbook in the April 2010 newsletter of Dr. April Lane Benson, a leading NYC psychologist who treats shopaholics:
To be a postconsumer is to evolve beyond the inevitable disappointments of consumerism, with its hyped-up treadmill of buy after buy, to the satisfaction of enough. Postconsumers.com seeks to foster this evolution in individual consumers through its Get Satisfied Interactive Handbook, a light-hearted albeit serious-minded online primer for the journey.
Powerful Online Shopping Guides
Responsible Shopper: Guide to Promoting a Responsible Economy with Company Profiles, Green Living Tips, and Campaigns (boycotts) from Green America (formerly Co-op America), sponsor of the Green Festivals around the country.
GoodGuide.com gives you the best information available, wherever and whenever you need it most. We’ll help you find better products that represent your values, avoid products that are harmful to your health, the environment, or society – and enable you to take actions to help improve the world.
MORE Tips and Resources
“Did Christ Jesus suffer, die and conquer death so you could continue a lifestyle that’s killing you?” Read Bob Sitze – Simple enough: Don't mock Easter.
Feeling compromised around April 15th? Read How to Not Pay Taxes by David M. Gross.
Enough!
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, MAY 7This week free Simple Living videos begin appearing on YouTube, first the award-winning Break Forth Into Joy! Beyond a Consumer Lifestyle—the 15 minute MAIN presentation, plus three BONUS features: Possessions and Freedom, Family and Children, and Taking Action. Also, Study Guide and script.
Simplify Rites of Passage
10 Tips for Simpler, More Meaningful Celebrations helps simplify Rites of Passage, like weddings, birthdays and graduations.
Campolo & Claiborne Videos Now Available
GERALD IVERSEN SUNDAY, MAY 13Simply Enough VIDEO
This week Simple Living’s most recent free video appears on JEM's new YouTube channel dedicated to voluntary simple living—Simply Enough: Straight Talk from Tony Campolo & Shane Claiborne on Simple, Just Living—six ten-minute segments on Lifestyle, Food, Celebrations, Stuff, Money and Justice (playlist with all six episodes viewable above). Ideal for group or individual use, especially for young adults, including Study/Action Guide. The eight BONUS features are scheduled for next week.
Campolo and Claiborne have created an intensely personal dialogue about the foundations of the Christian life and voluntary simplicity. This pointed, yet hopeful video has current relevance to the yearnings of today's Christian.
Campolo & Claiborne BONUS Videos Now Available
GERALD IVERSEN SUNDAY, MAY 20This week Simple Living’s most recent free video appears on JEM's new YouTube channel dedicated to voluntary simple living—Simply Enough: Straight Talk from Tony Campolo & Shane Claiborne on Simple, Just Living—eight BONUS segments (playlist with all 14 episodes viewable above). Ideal for group or individual use, especially for young adults, including Study/Action Guide. The video Simple Living: Struggles and Solutions is scheduled for release next week.
Campolo and Claiborne have created an intensely personal dialogue about the foundations of the Christian life and voluntary simplicity. This pointed, yet hopeful video has current relevance to the yearnings of today's Christian.
Simple Living Works! VIDEO: "The Five Life Standards"
SUNDAY, MAY 27This week Simple LivingSimple Living Works! from Gerald Iversen (all episodes viewable above). Ideal for group or individual use. With humor and examples, Iversen presents the five Life Standards of voluntary simplicity, as well as the mission of Simple Living Works!
Simple living videos for Christmas are scheduled for upload this fall the retro classic The Celebration Revolution of Alexander Scrooge, the music video Carols with Justice, as well as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Encouraging Video
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JUNE 4Simple Living’s most recent free videos on JEM’s new YouTube channel have generated a lot of response — views and comments. Dedicated to faith-based voluntary simplicity, Simple Living Works! provides many free resources for personal growth, as well as church groups.
New Dream Community Action Kit: Guide to Sharing
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JUNE 11It's one of the first things we learn as kids: How to share.
But this practice usually fades as we become adults.
Our houses become filled with our own “stuff.” Garages, attics, basements, and closets transform into cluttered warehouses. When we need something, whether it’s a chainsaw or a roasting rack, our first thought is to go out and buy it. But why get it new when our neighbor down the street has one we can borrow?
Guide to Sharing
Center for a New American Dream presents a community guide all about sharing: everything from starting a tool library to organizing a solar cooperative, from holding a clothing swap to launching a time bank.
The Guide to Sharing is part of the New Dream Community Action Kit: a series of free online guides to help people organize collective action and civic engagement to build more sustainable, healthier, and happier communities. Topics for future guides include strengthening local economies, DIY & reskilling, greening your community, fighting commercialism, and growing local food systems.With how-to tips, fun videos, and useful resources, the Guide to Sharing provides the inspiration and practical tools you need to get started on these projects in your community – right away!The guide is produced in collaboration with Shareable.net and explores four Action Ideas:
- Organize a Community Swap
- Lend Locally
- Share Time, Labor, and Skills
- Set up a Co-op
Austerity -- No Way!
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JUNE 25With all the talk these days about austerity, our politicians try to scare us into thinking that that’s the new normal. No Way! says Jubilee Economics. Find out more on The Common Good Podcast for July. Subscribe to The Common Good Podcast and get new episodes as they roll out.
NGO to Know: Corporate Accountability International
Corporate Accountability International (formerly INFACT) is a non-profit organization — StopCorporateAbuse.org — with campaign headquarters in Boston, Oakland, Seattle, and Bogotá, Colombia. Currently, their most prominent campaign is Think Outside the Bottle.
Since 1977 CAI has waged a number of high-profile campaigns to protect public health, the environment and democracy from abuse by transnational corporations.
From 1977 to 1986 the Infant Formula Campaign and Nestlé Boycott brought about significant reforms in the life-threatening marketing of infant formula in developing countries. From 1984 to 1993 the Nuclear Weaponmakers Campaign and General Electric (GE) Boycott helped push industry leader GE out of the nuclear weapons business and exposed the human and environmental costs of the corporation's nuclear weapons production and promotion. In 1994 Corporate Accountability International launched the Challenging Big Tobacco Campaign.
In 2004 CAI launched the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign to promote, protect and ensure public funding for public water systems and challenge corporations who undermine public confidence in tap water. In 2009 Corporate Accountability International launched the Value [The] Meal Campaign challenging corporate abuse of food by the fast food industry.
Prominent members of the campaign advisory board include Frances Moore Lappé author of Diet for a Small Planet. Read more about Corporate Accountability International at Wikipedia.
Life Standard #1 -- Do Justice
GERALD IVERSEN TUESDAY, JULY 3In the weeks of July and August, I'm highlighting the Five Life Standards here, working from material I've compiled in the Simple Living archives.
The Five Life Standards, the essence of voluntary simplicity, are detailed in Doris Janzen Longacre's book, Living More with Less (now available in a 30th Anniversary edition):
- Do Justice
- Learn from the World Community
- Nurture People, Not Things
- Cherish the Natural Order
- Nonconform Freely
Simple Living and the Five Life Standards on The Common Good Podcast
In the episode 27 of The Common Good Podcast, Lee Van Ham and I find common ground in the micro-economics of voluntary simple living and the macro of Jubilee Economics. It goes way beyond “class warfare” in America to global fairness. . . seeing the interconnection of our small choices and purchases to the larger systems of governments and corporations. Everything’s connected.
Then in part two in episode 28, I go beyond the concepts to the practical. Listen or subscribe for free at The Common Good Podcast.
Life Standard #1: Do Justice
"Do Justice" may remind us of the courts. . . to get our due. Biblical Justice is quite different. It reflects God's great love for the poor and our call to respond to their needs.
In How Much Is Enough? Alan Durning categorizes the world population into three groups. One fifth - 20% - are the disenfranchised people. They have no reliable source of food or water, no medical care, only one set of clothes and they walk wherever they go. Three fifths - 60% of the world population - are the sustainers. They have basic, reliable sources of food, some medical care, several sets of clothes and they take public transportation. The remaining fifth or 20% are the overconsumers. This group has access to lavish, cheap food, has reliable medical care, has many sets of clothes and they use private transportation. This last group, the over consumers, is made up, to one degree or another, of virtually everybody in North America, Western Europe and Japan.
Guess what percentage of the world's resources are used by the disenfranchised and the sustainers, 80% of the world's population and by the over consumers, 20% of the world's population. That's right, just flip the figures. The overconsumers use 80% of the world's resources and the other 80% of the world's people use only 20% of the resources.
Notice that the first principle is not "thinking about Justice," or even "believe in Justice." It's Do Justice. In addition to our prayers, our contributions, and our pressuring of governments, we help the poor around the world by taking seriously the phrase, Live Simply That Others May Simply Live. By consuming less we make more available for others.
As we work to take control of our own lives, our own consumption, our own waste, we work toward changing the inequitable distribution of wealth. As we share ideas of simpler living with others we hasten the day when Justice is done.
Life Standard #2 -- Learn from the World Community
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JULY 9In the weeks of July and August, I'm highlighting the Five Life Standards here, working from material I've compiled in the Simple Living archives.
The Five Life Standards, the essence of voluntary simplicity, are detailed in Doris Janzen Longacre's book, Living More with Less (now available in a 30th Anniversary edition):
- Do Justice
- Learn from the World Community
- Nurture People, Not Things
- Celebrate Responsibly
- Nonconform Freely
Simple Living and the Five Life Standards on The Common Good Podcast
In the episode 27 of The Common Good Podcast, Lee Van Ham and I find common ground in the micro-economics of voluntary simple living and the macro of Jubilee Economics. It goes way beyond “class warfare” in America to global fairness. . . seeing the interconnection of our small choices and purchases to the larger systems of governments and corporations. Everything’s connected.
Then in part two in episode 28, I go beyond the concepts to the practical. Listen or subscribe for free at The Common Good Podcast.
Life Standard #2: Learn from the World Community
Our attitude has largely been that we want to help those poor people with THEIR problem OVER THERE. We need to realize that their problem is caused by OUR problem OVER HERE, our problem of over consumption. All things are connected.
One beautiful way to Learn from the World Community is through music. Several years ago a black bishop from Africa told an unforgettable story. He said, "White folks. . . yes, they're the people who can sing and NOT move at the same time." African music can help liberate many white North American Christians from their rigidity.
Thousands of Christians are leaving North American and Western European churches. They' not going to another church. They're falling away from the faith. But in Africa, Christianity is gaining three times as many converts. We have something profound to learn from our African brothers and sisters.
We can also learn about food. . . from creating simple, tasty meals to understanding the whole process from seed to table. The United States is undergoing something called "vertical integration." This is the process in which the most powerful resource - food - becomes monopolized. The people who sell the food also own or control the distribution system, and the processing plants and the production, the farms. When we shop at Farmers Markets, support community based agriculture, refuse to buy out-of-season fruits and vegetables, we begin to control and take responsibility for our food. We can learn food justice from the world community.
We can learn more about community by doing menu planning and meal preparation and clean-up together. And we can vow that we will eat at least one meal a day together. So much of the time we have allowed the school, the community, the TV, even the church to take away our common meal. Research indicates that a typical U. S. father has only three minutes a day of direct conversation with his child. And that married couples in the USA have only five minutes a day of meaningful verbal exchange.
Learning from the World Community about food is important for another reason. We Americans now eat a great deal of expensive, highly processed food with many of its nutrients processed out. Why? Yes, it's convenient. It's a cycle. We work more hours so we can afford more expensive food that's fast so that we can work more to buy more expensive, hollow food....
Alternatives promotes cookbooks that use recipes from Third World countries, such as More-with-Less Cookbook and Extending the Table.
Even people from our highly technological medical establishment are now seeing the potential of learning from shamans, healers and witch doctors. We are learning natural and alternative cures, from the rain forests, Native Americans, herbalists, acupuncturists.
Life Standard #3 -- Nurture People, Not Things
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JULY 16In the weeks of July and August, I'm highlighting the Five Life Standards here, working from material I've compiled in the Simple Living archives.
The Five Life Standards, the essence of voluntary simplicity, are detailed in Doris Janzen Longacre's book, Living More with Less (now available in a 30th Anniversary edition):
- Do Justice
- Learn from the World Community
- Nurture People, Not Things
- Celebrate Responsibly
- Nonconform Freely
Simple Living and the Five Life Standards on The Common Good Podcast
In the episode 27 of The Common Good Podcast, Lee Van Ham and I find common ground in the micro-economics of voluntary simple living and the macro of Jubilee Economics. It goes way beyond “class warfare” in America to global fairness. . . seeing the interconnection of our small choices and purchases to the larger systems of governments and corporations. Everything’s connected.
Then in part two in episode 28, I go beyond the concepts to the practical. Listen or subscribe for free at The Common Good Podcast.
Life Standard #3: Nurture People, Not Things
We put ourselves at risk by going into a mall. We find the thing that is going to give excitement and fulfillment to our life. We whip out our credit card and take our treasure home. It's great [hug the TV]. . . for a while. Then something else comes along that we can't live without. So what happens to our first little lifesaver? We either chuck it or store it. If we keep it, we have to dust it or put batteries in it. We have to maintain it. And we surely wouldn't want anyone to steal it. So we secure it. We protect it. We lock it up. So we go into debt to buy it, then we use our time and energy to maintain and secure it. It raises the question, "Who owns whom?" Yes, it gives a new meaning to the concept of ownership.
I'll tell you what works for me. I play a game with myself that you can play with your children or grandchildren. It's OK to admire things in stores and say, "I Like that." It's not OK to say, "I want that," or even worse, "I need that." Think of the mall as a museum. Everything there is on display for your pleasure, but somebody else owns it. Say to yourself as you stroll through the galleries, "Thank you store person for putting this here for me to see. I'm so glad you're responsible for all this stuff and I'M NOT."
Nurture People, not things. Let's use our time, money and energy to nurture relationships. . . with our self, with others and with God.
We have been hearing a lot lately about intimacy, about getting to know someone well, about opening oneself up. Most of us have experienced that when we choose to be intimate with our spouse, that things get in the way. To be intimate we may choose to take something off. . . to take everything off. Stuff can get in the way of intimacy in other situations as well. We can learn to discard stuff and put relationships first.
Life Standard #4 -- Cherish the Natural Order
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JULY 23In the weeks of July and August, I'm highlighting the Five Life Standards here, working from material I've compiled in the Simple Living archives.
The Five Life Standards, the essence of voluntary simplicity, are detailed in Doris Janzen Longacre's book, Living More with Less (now available in a 30th Anniversary edition):
- Do Justice
- Learn from the World Community
- Nurture People, Not Things
- Cherish the Natural Order
- Nonconform Freely
Simple Living and the Five Life Standards on The Common Good Podcast
In the episode 27 of The Common Good Podcast, Lee Van Ham and I find common ground in the micro-economics of voluntary simple living and the macro of Jubilee Economics. It goes way beyond “class warfare” in America to global fairness. . . seeing the interconnection of our small choices and purchases to the larger systems of governments and corporations. Everything’s connected.
Then in part two in episode 28, I go beyond the concepts to the practical. Listen or subscribe for free at The Common Good Podcast.
Life Standard #4: Cherish the Natural Order
This is the environmental component. Most folks have heard the four R's of Caring for Creation — reduce, reuse, recycle and restore.
Reusing means to use something over again. It means not using something just one time. It means refusing consumables like styrofoam cups. And it also means using things that can be repaired. That's not easy because so many thing are designed to break. It's called "planned obsolescence." We can buy tools and appliances and shoes that can be repaired but we need to do our homework to find them. It's inconvenient. The Europeans are on to something. They are beginning to require manufacturers to be responsible for the final disposition of their product. That should make them a lot more concerned about how the product is built and how it can be repaired and recycled.
Recycling means making something new out of something that's already been used. Most of us realize that we have to do something. So, we recycle glass, paper and metal. After glugging down a soda we drop the can in the bin and carry the bin to the curb on recycle day and feel proud to be an American, proud that we have done our best for Mother Nature. That's an important start. But that's really the easiest and least necessary part of the whole cycle. Don't use recycling as an excuse to keep things the way they are. It's not OK to keep on over-consuming just because we recycle.
Even more important is Pre-cycling — evaluating a product before you buy it to make sure it is environmentally sound.
And recycling does little good if we don't Close the loop. . . buy products made of recycled materials, such as paper. It does little good to recycle if we don't then buy the products we need made from recycled materials. Yes, it may for the time being cost a bit more to buy and use recycled paper. But living simply, living faithfully is not living "on the cheap." Sometimes it costs more to do what's right.
Restoring. . . remember what your grandmother used to say, "You got it out. You put it back!" The most common example is trees. But this also relates to sustainable agriculture, i.e. putting natural, not synthetic nutrients back in the soil. This can help make up for past mistakes but never should be used as a reason to make future ones. And some resources cannot be restored, like oil and topsoil.
The first R is the most important. . . and hardest for Americans. . . Reduce. That's what Simple Living is about.
Life Standard #5 -- Non-Conform Freely
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, JULY 30In the weeks of July and August, I'm highlighting the Five Life Standards here, working from material I've compiled in the Simple Living archives.
The Five Life Standards, the essence of voluntary simplicity, are detailed in Doris Janzen Longacre's book, Living More with Less (now available in a 30th Anniversary edition):
- Do Justice
- Learn from the World Community
- Nurture People, Not Things
- Cherish the Natural Order
- Nonconform Freely
Simple Living and the Five Life Standards on The Common Good Podcast
In the episode 27 of The Common Good Podcast, Lee Van Ham and I find common ground in the micro-economics of voluntary simple living and the macro of Jubilee Economics. It goes way beyond “class warfare” in America to global fairness. . . seeing the interconnection of our small choices and purchases to the larger systems of governments and corporations. Everything’s connected.
Then in part two in episode 28, I go beyond the concepts to the practical. Listen or subscribe for free at The Common Good Podcast.
Life Standard #5: Nonconform Freely
Nonconform Freely... We are not talking anarchy here. We are resisting the pressures created primarily by advertising.
The forces against us living more simply are extremely powerful and devious. Some of them are quiet, unwritten. . . like how we dress in church, how our house will look at Christmas time. But many of them are loud, in-your-face forces that work to get as deeply into your pocketbook as possible everyday.
We all have basic physical needs. . . for food, for shelter, for community. It's helpful to have information about where we can meet those needs. That's one reason for advertising. What's objectionable is advertising that creates false needs, really wants or desires. . .when advertisers play with our heads, trying to get us to think that we will be better people by the beverage we drink, that we will be sexier if we buy a certain kind of car, that we will be more popular or successful if we wear certain kinds of clothes or perfume.
When I'm watching TV, I ZAP the commercials. . . mute the sound. Be put-off by aggressive car and soda pop commercials. Are they the price of admission? That's exactly what the advertisers want you to think. But the air waves belong to the people. We owe advertisers nothing! (Remember Turn Off TV Week (April), and Buy Nothing Day, Friday, November 29. Yes, that's the day after Thanksgiving!)
Sioux City is a nice place to raise a family. This past summer had billboard selling sun tan lotion that showed three young, attractive people. They happened to be naked. It was no big deal. There was no outcry. Just another billboard selling something. At the same time a group in Des Moines was working to promote breast feeding. They were turned down from buying billboard space because their subject was TOO OFFENSIVE!
Some advertisers are trying to capitalize on peoples' desire for simpler lives. Recent commercials use the Simplicity theme. An expensive luxury car is hyped with a picture of the Honda Accura and the word "Simplify." Denny's restaurants use the slogan "Simplify your life. Eat out more." MBNA America, a huge credit card processor, proclaims "Simplify your life in the New Year! . . . Consolidate your holiday bills. . . ." A typical MBNA account charges over 17% interest. Credit card "checks" (a form of the dreaded cash advance) have no grace period. Interest begins accruing immediately. At the same time, their late payment fee went from $10 to $20! The Masters of Double Speak!
In the name of "research," some advertisers — without your permission, even without your knowledge — place cameras in grocery stores to photograph your eyes as you shop. When you are looking at cereal, for example, the cameras record your reaction to various boxes and even count the length of time you focus on each box. This "research" helps advertisers to decide what appeals to you.
We have permission to follow our religious principles, our faith, instead of our culture, instead of advertisers who pressure us to buy things we don't need, probably don't even want, and that break down on schedule. Nonconform Freely.
Moving and Clutter
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, AUGUST 6Since the idea of Enough in Life connects Jubilee Economics to Simple Living, let’s talk about Stuff, whether it be needs, wants or clutter. How do you control stuff so that it doesn’t control you?
When do we come to the realization that stuff has too much power in your life? When we MOVE and when we get the credit card bill after Christmas! Think about a moment of insight and how you reacted. How can you be pro-active in the future?
Remember what our children would say to us when they wanted to do something that they knew was irresponsible.
- "But, all the kids are doing it."
Let's try that in our lives. [say this aloud in a whining voice]
- "But, everybody's driving a new car. . . .
- But, everybody builds a big, expensive house that's ten times bigger than they need, claiming it's for equity when the kids leave home. . .
- But, everybody has a yard that looks like a golf course so that nobody complains that we're lowering their property values. . . ."
Sounds pretty silly and disconcerting, doesn't it?
The Power of Personal Choices
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, AUGUST 13What is Voluntary Simplicity?
Living more simply can be lonely.
Simple Living is a mechanism for implementing Jubilee Economics on a personal level. We make choices about how we're going to live - our micro-economy. Our little choices may or may not have impact on how governments or corporations operate on a large scale -- the macro-economy. So, we live within our means, avoid debt, give generously to the needy. What can we do to influence the macroeconomy? Do our little choices really have any effect?
Our families, our church, our social circle may think we're peculiar. It's important to find another Simple Liver or to start a support group. It may mean dealing with resentment when others don't "get it." When we are making corrections, living more responsibly and others don't seem to have the slightest inclination to change their wasteful ways. Living Simply faces great challenges, powerful forces.
Voluntary Simplicity is not romanticizing poverty, monks, the Amish or people who struggled through the Depression. We only diminish those people's devotion or struggle, and we tend to try to make the journey of discipleship look silly or "for others/unrelated to us," untouchable. Poverty is NOT fun. Two thirds of the world population live in poverty Involuntarily. We have a choice.
Influencing Others
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, AUGUST 20People don't like to be told how to live. So, how can we possibly influence others? Do counter-culturals have to be subversive not to be discounted? Ideas on The Common Good Podcast (below) and at How to Influence Others.
Various Paths to Voluntary Simplicity
There are multiple paths to Voluntary Simplicity.
One is the secular, called "Downshifting."
A young executive is cruising along in high gear, peddling her sports car as fast as she can. She thinks, This is a lot of work! So she downshifts, maybe she takes a different job that has a smaller income but less stress. Maybe she moves into a smaller house in a rural area and grows her own tomatoes. Maybe she gets smart, gets control of her credit card and pays off her debts. Basically she's downshifting to increase her personal happiness.
Christians adopt Voluntary Simplicity for the same reasons.
Personal happiness is good. But there's more. We adopt Voluntary Simplicity also to be in touch with God and to help others. Voluntary Simplicity is a lifestyle of integrity, living as a disciple of Jesus, walking our talk.
Tips for Fall Celebrations
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, AUGUST 27Holidays & Rites of Passage
- Plan ahead. Instead of going on auto-pilot, hold a family meeting to decide what the group really wants to do and who's going to do what. Observe appropriate preparatory periods before Christmas and Easter, possibly with a study/action/prayer guide or calendar.
- Focus on relationships with family, friends and other people, and with God, rather than on "stuff." Spend your time, energy and money nurturing people, not things.
- For symbols of holidays, look to faith, not to commerce. Do Santa and bunnies tell the story you want to tell? Let's tell the real stories of our faith and values.
- Avoid debt and gluttony. Refuse to be pressured by advertising to over spend or over eat. Build community with a meal of mostly locally produced food - planned, prepared and cleaned up by the whole family.
- Avoid stress. Give to yourself. Don't assume that things have to be the same way they've always been. Make changes slowly but persistently. Don't try to change everything and everybody all at once. The resistance may make you feel defeated and lonely.
- If you need to give gifts, give appropriate ones. Get to know the recipient. Give what they want to receive, not what you want to buy. Give children one thing they really want, rather than many gifts. Set a price ceiling. Put gifts out shortly before opening them. Take turns opening them, not all at once, so that each gift can be admired and each giver thanked.
- Give alternative gifts. Give at least 25% of what you spend to the needy... individuals or groups locally, nationally or internationally. Instead of conspicuous consumption, show conspicuous sharing.
- Give of yourself, not just "stuff" - a coupon book for future services (such as baby-sitting or an "enchanted evening") or something baked, sewn, handmade, composed, etc. Consider more time for volunteering rather than entertainment. If you need to give cards, make your own.
- If you need to buy gifts and clothing, buy those from developing countries at alternative gift markets, not from commercial importers, so that the artisans receive a fair price for their work. Avoid mass produced knickknacks, novelties and toys. Fancy, expensive clothes are signs of status, not respect for God. In church they show an inappropriate blend of culture and faith. Decline to compliment people for their finery. Avoid a "ritual display of plenty."
- Choose simplicity of decoration over extravagance. Avoid plastic and imported flowers and trimming, fancy papers and bows, and consumables (such as balloons and foam plates).
New Video -- The Celebration Revolution of Alexander Scrooge
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17We've all heard of Ebenezer Scrooge, but how about his great, great grandson, Alexander? I want to introduce him through a free, fun, retro video I found on how he celebrates holidays -- The Celebration Revolution of Alexander Scrooge. It's only 15 minutes. It makes Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" quite contemporary -- three spirits and all! It explains in a fanciful sort of way how people can change.
View it for personal inspiration or use it with your family or a discussion group at church. It comes with a complete, free Leader's Guide (Introduction, Preparing to Show the Video, Reacting to the Presentation) and Script.
Most of us can identify in one way or another with Alexander Scrooge, our hero. (Or is he the victim?) The ways Alex and we celebrate those many special events common to us all are pretty well ritualized. Gifts are wrapped up with more than fancy ribbons. There are all kinds of expectations wrapped around our celebrations as well. ("But I've got to give her something more than that. After all, last year, she gave me.... " Or how about, "Can you imagine what he'd think of me if I gave him....")
How we celebrate reflects who we are. How we celebrate identifies the values we hold dear. For example, I may say I don't like this gluttonous lifestyle I'm living, but unless I make the decision to live differently – and do it – then nothing has really changed for me. And remember, there is an alternative. The message of this video is, "We can change, if we really want to!"
Who will you introduce Alexander Scrooge to? Tell us in your comment on this blog and the video, here or on YouTube.
How Many HITS for You Today?
GERALD IVERSEN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25In the advertising industry, there is a technical, scientific term for each time we are exposed to a commercial message. And that term is a HIT. So, guess how many hits does the average American experience on an average day?
Before you guess, I want to put this in context. I have heard that some grocery stores, when you push your cart down the aisle, have ads on the floor in front of you. Some places now have TV monitors on your cart selling you products as you go down the aisles. As you walk down the mall, all these colors, all these slogans, all these things are calling out to you, "Buy me. Collect me. You deserve me." So, you have the big ads – the billboards and TV commercials – and you have the little ads – commercial logos, swishes, jingles.
In this context, how many hits do you guess the average American experiences on the average day? What would you guess? 2,000? You're almost barely lukewarm. 10,000? You're getting warmer. 15,000? Yes, you're very close. 16,000 hits a day! And you think, Not Me! That's because we have become so desensitized to all these messages. We are swimming in commercial soup.
The Future -- Dismal or Reborn?
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, OCTOBER 1Will Jubilee Economics make any real difference?
Now that 97% of the climatologists agree that the environment of the Earth will begin to implode beginning in 2050, humans face a short-term dismal existence but a long-term re-birth. Both jubilee economics and simpler living have the potential to ease the dismal and to help bring about the re-birth.
JEM’s mission and vision stress the realistic parameters of One Earth and the need to embrace The Common Good. We grimmace when we see the nationalistic bumpersticker “God bless the USA!” Another less common but more inclusive one reads “God bless the Whole World. No Exceptions!”
In episode 29 of The Common Good Podcast, I say more about this. Lee and I discuss countering advertising through alternative holiday celebrations, and the long-term future of the planet.
There I give an example of how my spouse, Rita, and I are using a foundation to help safeguard our granddaughter’s generation and to advance what we hold dear into the future.
If you want more information on my views, 350.org - a global movement to solve the climate crisis - provides the scientific background for both our dismal and hopeful future. Also, Lee’s One Earth Project site and blog explains the problems with our current Multi-Earth growth-oriented economic model and presents other options. And Simple Living Works! site and free VIDEOS give many practical resources for personal and group awareness and change in these pivotal times.
Consumo Must Go!
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, OCTOBER 8
Overlord of Overconsumption
Sexy... Contented... Powerful... Wealthy...
The Enemy...
and Worshipped by US!Worshippers of Consumo, we have alternatives!
Consumo is being challenged this fall during the high holy season of Consumas, commonly mistaken for Christmas. Consumas – pronounced Con-SOOM-us – is “The REALLY Big Con.”
Consumo is worshipped by almost everybody in North America. Consumo – or Big C – appears in many guises, even as Santa Claus. Big C is the national god of North America, the god of US. The worshippers of Consumo exhibit an attitude based on fads and sex appeal, the lifestyle of the privileged. The followers of Consumo strive to live... and strive and strive and strive.
The alternative is simple living. The worshippers of Big C say they agree with simple living. But they think it's boring and they live according to Big C. Simple living is based on the joy of relationships, not the burden of stuff. It is supported by virtually all the major religions of the world. It is promoted by a small group of organizations and individuals who truly believe that the way of Big C is destroying the world. Big C is promoted by an incredibly wealthy and powerful advertising and entertainment industry. Simple Living Works! offers free tools to help people deal with “Consumo” or “Affluenza” or whatever we choose to call the North American addiction to overconsumption.
"Lost" Walter Wink study now online
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, OCTOBER 15Well known theologian, writer, teacher and devoted peace-maker, Walter Wink died in 2012. One of his writings is now available for the first time in 25 years. It was written exclusively for an annual packet of resources for use in congregations or households produced by a national non-profit called Alternatives.
The article Advent: Beginning All Over Again (A Guide for Adult Bible Study of the Advent Texts) is pertinent for anyone seeking different perspectives on observance of Advent and Christmas. You are welcome to copy and share it under the Creative Commons attribution, not-for-profit license.
Following an inductive or Socratic style, Walter Wink here develops provocative topics, such as "The Second Advent as Context for the First" and "A Scandalizing God."
Here's a shorter, more recent, personal piece by Walter Wink - A Christmas Cow - also written for Alternatives. To become more familiar with Walter Wink as an innovative educator, an author who's renowned work unveiled the powers that shape us, and how he lived what he wrote about, see the biographical information that accompanied the 2006 article and his current biography with pictures.
UNPLUG the Christmas Machine
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, OCTOBER 29The most popular and effective workshop for simplifying Christmas continues to be Unplug the Christmas Machine. The Leader's Guide is now available FREE, just in time for a November workshop at your church!
Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love & Joy Back into the Season, by Jo Robinson & Jean Coppock Staeheli is THE CLASSIC for simplifying Christmas for secular-minded folks or people of faith. With thoughtful suggestions, creative exercises and answers to often-asked questions, this book helps people create celebrations that give them joy and satisfaction.
Leader’s Guide to the Unplug the Christmas Machine Workshop guides leaders to create a four-hour workshop that helps participants clarify their beliefs and make realistic plans for more joyful, meaningful celebrations. A Participant's Manual is included and can be photocopied.
How We Celebrate Says a Lot About How We Live
GERALD IVERSEN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8Observations on Thanksgiving
If celebrations give voice to the ideals by which we are trying to live, how should we observe Thanksgiving? It may be easier to think first of how we ought not observe it.
Thanksgiving is not be a day for thanking God for affluence while others go hungry. The notion that it is God who gives affluence to some and poverty to many not only ignores the role humans have played in arranging patterns of affluence and poverty but flies in the face of the God of love and justice. Nor should it be a time to claim God's special blessing on any nation. As a minority religious group, the Pilgrims knew only too well the problems that occur when the interests of God and nation are identified by a dominant religious group.
Thanksgiving is also not be an occasion to romanticize the cooperation between "the Indians" and the settlers, unless to recall in sorrow the subsequent centuries' genocide of native Americans. Finally, Thanksgiving should not be a day of rest before the two largest shopping days of the year, when giving thanks is swept out the back door so Christmas commercialism can come in the front.
As a day that gives voice to our highest ideals, Thanksgiving can be a time to remember with gratitude and humility that we alone are not responsible for whatever bounty is in our lives. It can be a time to confess that part of our bounty has come at the expense of others, including native Americans, slaves, farm workers, and hosts of others we do not even know. It can also be a time to share what we have with others, and include in our celebrations those who would otherwise be alone.
Finally, Thanksgiving can be a time to commit ourselves to creating a world where hungry children are fed, the homeless are provided with shelter, and those who suffer discrimination because of race, sex, religion, or age are respected.
2012
The Gospel of Santa Claus or The Song of St. Nicholas?
GERALD IVERSEN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15
Through the years in North America, the Santa Claus Myth has been almost completely reduced to an advertising gimmick. The Myth has so deteriorated that it is no longer a "cute" tradition; it can be harmful to children. It is easier to teach the Gospel of Santa Claus than it is to teach the Gospel of Christ.
Santa Claus plays right into the hands of human weakness and desire: the tendency toward greed. Children are no exception to this weakness. The Santa Claus indoctrination in its present form is a powerful attitude influencer that works contrary to the meaning of Christ's coming. The comparison below is a serious effort at highlighting the differences in the two Advent-Christmas Gospels:
Gospel of Santa Claus
The good news of Santa Claus is for the affluent.
Santa's mission is mainly to the healthy and successful.
The Heralds of Santa Claus proclaim self-satisfaction.
Pleasure is a dominant theme of Santa Claus.
There is no room for self-denial and the cross.
To stimulate business, "Let him who has a coat, get another."
Blessed are the wealthy...
Blessed are the powerful...
Blessed are the comfortable...
Blessed are the satisfied...
Love your own...
Love your friends...
Befriend the full,
the well-dressed,
the healthy,
the well-housed,
the respectable,
friends.
He comes that they may have things even more abundantly.A Better Way
St. Nicholas, from whom St. Nick/Santa Claus got his name, is a model of generosity.
Here are some program materials for people who want to deal with the Santa Claus/St. Nick problem, such as Good-bye Santa! Hello, Saint Nick! The Song of St. Nicholas.
(To the tune of "Jolly Old St. Nicholas")
1. Once upon a long ago
Very far away,
In the town of Bethlehem
Lying in some hay,
Jesus came for you and me
Bringing heaven's love
As a gift for us to have
From the Lord above.
2. In the town of Myra once
Also long ago,
Lived good Bishop Nicholas
Hair as white as snow.
Nicholas loved Jesus who
Loved and helped us all.
"I will do the same," said he
"Helping great and small."
3. Thankful Bishop Nicholas
Friendly, good and wise;
When he could helped the poor
Always by surprise.
Rich men came to Nicholas
Bringing wealth to share
So it could be sent to those
Living in despair.
4. We should be like Nicholas
Thankful, good and kind,
Loving those who need our help
All the ones we find.
Jesus and Saint Nicholas
Taught us how to give:
Share but never seek rewards,
That is how to live!
—Mike ShererJubilee focuses on simple celebrations during times of preparation, like Advent.
Advent Conspiracy also focuses on service instead of stuff.
Carols with Justice
GERALD IVERSEN MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26Jesus' birth has taken on much cultural significance as a celebration of good will, warm feelings and excessive consumerism. These new stanzas to traditional carols help to connect his birth with our lives. They appeal for social justice, care of Creation, and discipleship through simpler living.
Here the 15 carols are arranged as a sing-along. You see the words, you hear the words and music. You and your friends can sing-along!
These are classic sacred carols like "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World," rather than popular or "contemporary" songs. After the first traditional stanza for each carol, we have added freshly written stanzas in contemporary English.
Carols with Justice
The carols can be used with the pageant What Does Jesus Want for Christmas?
Page updated 7 Nov. 2016