Posted by Rachel on: 02.26.2007 /
Welcome to Justice and Compassion, a conversation about how to create a more just, compassionate and peaceful world. This blog is sponsored by Off The Map and hosted by Benjamin and Rachel and we invite you to add your voice to this conversation.
We live in a world where 2 billion people live on less than $2 day and 1 billion people do not have access to clean water, a world where 30,000 children die every day of starvation and preventable disease and 15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. As Westerners, we so often live our comfortable lives completely insulated from the great problems of our time.
Activist Jim Wallis says, “Conversion in our time is to liberate the poor and to make the blind see. The poor need justice and the rich need restored sight.” We are ready to have our eyes opened, to truly see and then be converted and transformed by what we see. We hope you will join us on this risky and exciting journey.
Here is what we envision for this blog…
We want to get a better grasp on what the world situation is in terms of poverty, hunger, disease, war and suffering and to understand what that looks like on both the global and individual scale.
We want to dialogue about what it means to do something about these problems – actively, wisely and practically.
We want to talk about the interaction of compassion and justice and the relationships between the “first world” and “third world” nations.
We want to ask ourselves as participants in this conversation to step outside of our own comfort zones, to be open minded and to be willing to change our ideas and our actions.
Most importantly, we want this blog to be a conversation. We want to provide a forum for respectful interactions between people with very different viewpoints. We want to learn from and be inspired by one another.
We also want you to help us map out this journey…
What do you envision for this blog? What would you like it to look like and be about?
What are some subjects and ideas you’d like to explore and learn about together?
Do you have areas of knowledge or passion that you would like to share with us?
Do you know of anyone doing justice and compassion work who we should interview for our blog?
Leave a Reply
Comment by: David
1 02/27/07 8:13 AM | Comment Link |Topics that I think have an important bearing on global inequality;
- agricultural subsidies
- third world aid vs trade
- international trade
- tax havens impact on the world economy
- tax in general
May future blogging success be with you …
Comment by: TXatheist
2 02/27/07 11:23 AM | Comment Link |I wish you the best of luck. I went to a save Darfur function at the state capitol in Austin, TX a year or so ago and was amazed at the conditions in Darfur. I donated some money, bought a t-shirt with savedarfur.com on it and wrote a few letters to our government. I wear the t-shirt on the weekends very regularly.
Comment by: ncxian
3 02/27/07 3:19 PM | Comment Link |I like your earth picture! This will be interesting and fun.
I am curious about the New Monasticism movement(?), where people intentionally live in run down communities with the people there, live simply and share their assets and lives. Here are some links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Monasticism. I wonder if you could find someone to interview about that?
Comment by: Rachel
4 02/27/07 9:56 PM | Comment Link |Thanks, David! Our very first commenter - hooray!
Those are great suggestions for topics - definitely things we want to explore. Fair trade is one thing that I am personally very passionate about. On this blog, we will be occasionally spotlighting fair trade, socially responsible businesses that we would like to recommend. And we would love to hear our readers’ recommendations as well.
Thanks, TXatheist. I really respect that you have gotten involved in the Save Darfur movement. It is so important for citizens to make their voices heard and Darfur is an issue that has brought so many diverse voices together. I was impressed by the diversity among the member organizations of the Save Darfur Coalition.
That is a great suggestion, NCxian. I have become very interested in the New Monastic movement myself, especially after reading Shane Claiborne’s book “The Irresistible Revolution.” Those are people who don’t just talk about justice and compassion, about simplicity and sustainability, they truly live it! I’m going to work on finding a lead for a New Monastic interview.
Comment by: joe
5 02/28/07 3:13 PM | Comment Link |Yey Shane Claiborne.
Hes a very nice guy, I had a meal with him last August.
Also recommend Dave Andrews and We Can Be
Dave says some pretty passionate and outrageous things.
I think the main question I’d like addressed in this blog is simply this: how then are we to live?
We need to educate ourselves, get cross, get angry, protest, write letters, cry - but after all that we have to be prepared to change ourselves. How are we going to do it?
Comment by: Rachel
6 02/28/07 4:34 PM | Comment Link |Welcome, Joe! You had lunch with Shane Claiborne? I am soooo jealous! Do you know him very well? Is it possible for you to arrange an introduction? We would love to interview him.
Thanks for the other links. I will check those out.
Comment by: Julie Clawson
7 02/28/07 5:20 PM | Comment Link |Thanks so much for this blog.
I would love to see a lot of practical action steps and resources. For me that’s the hardest thing sometimes is knowing how to be involved.
it is just a huge issue and information can go a long way.
Comment by: Rachel
8 02/28/07 6:29 PM | Comment Link |Welcome, Julie! Yes, we definitely want to focus on practical action. Thanks so much for promoting our new blog over at Emerging Women.
Comment by: joe
9 03/1/07 3:48 AM | Comment Link |Hello Rachel,
Well, I’m not exactly his best friend, but I know how to get hold of him.
I’ll send you both an email and see if hes interested.
Joe
Comment by: Helen
10 03/1/07 6:34 AM | Comment Link |Thanks Joe. We appreciate you asking Shane and will hope he’s interested, but we won’t hold it against you if he says no :-).
To everyone - thanks for checking out our new blog!
Comment by: Helen
11 03/4/07 4:14 PM | Comment Link |NCxian, I couldn’t get the Wikipedia link to the New Monasticism to bring up a page with any links on it but here’s a link about it:
New Monasticism
Comment by: Justice and Compassion
12 04/12/07 6:19 AM | Comment Link |[...] response to our first post Welcome to Justice and Compassion, NCxian shared that she would like to learn more about New Monasticism. With help from Joe Turner [...]