vulgar homiletics and lowbrow theology
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This is a timeline I made for my Wednesday night Bible study class.
click for full-size version
I was a bit stunned by Nate Silver’s blog post on the data on Obama’s approval rating in Alabama. According to the survey, Obama’s approval has gone up at the end of August among white voters in Alabama.
You could never tell it from the chatter I hear. Of course, I spend most of my day around white middle-class people. Mostly it’s parenthetical, politically-loaded statements like, “if we still have medicare,” or “if inflation doesn’t get us.” But I can tell that there’s an undercurrent of fear for our country’s future, anxiety about national debt, etc. I would have figured that if anything, overall support for Obama would have gone down, given the tenor of media coverage. I live in Homewood, which in some ways is a model of the dynamic of Whitopia (people here even refer to it occasionally as “Mayberry”). There is plenty of diversity here, but there is also significant class and geographical segregation within the community.
So for you Alabamians and southerners - regardless of your political orientation - I’m curious about why you think this might be. 98% of black men and men voted for Obama back in November, and only 10% of whites. Yet according to the above survey, Obama’s approval rating is at 28% among white voters at the end of August.
Now, I know that approval ratings don’t always carry a lot of long-term significance. I’m just curious why. Thoughts?
Since the Halloween decorations are already appearing, and since as soon as Halloween gets here the Christmas decorations will be up (ick!), I thought I’d get the jump on the retail shopping season by pushing fair trade shopping. We’ve been doing fair trade shopping for the last several Christmases, in addition to trying to spend less on crap that nobody needs.
So, here are some of our favorite shopping places:
Trade for Change: This is the retail site for Global Mamas, which we have used several times. One of my favorite Sunday shirts is from Global Mamas.
Global Exchange: Pretty extensive site with lots of products. We’ve gotten a soccer ball and other miscellaneous gifts from this site.
Atfaluna: This is a school for deaf children in Gaza. They support themselves by making crafts. Get some nice gifts and support a great cause at the same time. We have given several dishes from Atfaluna as gifts.
UPAVIM: UPAVIM is a cooperative of Guatemalan women who are often the main breadwinners in their families.
SERRV International: We’ve gotten lots of stuff from SERRV, mostly through sales at local churches, gift shops, and at Lake Junaluska. Angela has a cool apron that I think we got from a SERRV sale.
No Sweat: We get shoes and T-shirts (like I need anymore T-shirts) from these folks. My favorite is the black “Human” T-shirt.
It’s nice to see that a lot of these websites are much more professional-looking and easy to navigate than they were several years ago. When we first started doing fair trade shopping, many of the sites we visited had downloadable .pdfs of scanned catalogs, or product lists and separate price lists.
Of course, another good alternative to buying crap that nobody needs is giving gifts in honor of people. The Heifer Project gives the gift of sustainable agriculture and encourages recipients to pass on the gift to others when their animals reproduce. You can give a gift in honor of someone to UMCOR, and help an area of the world that is struggling with disaster. Of course, it’s not as flashy, but you can always make a donation to your church or a local organization that does good work in the community in honor of someone.
If you remain unconvinced of the importance of shopping differently, allow me to point you toward this wonderful 20-minute online video, The Story of Stuff. The irony is that this Christmas, there will be lots of people buying plastic crap to put under the Christmas tree for their children, which was likely made by children who live in environments contaminated by the factories in which they work. I think there are better ways to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Merry Christmas!
