{"id":293,"date":"2010-02-20T16:11:30","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T00:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groansfromwithin.com\/?p=293"},"modified":"2011-07-06T20:14:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T03:14:29","slug":"is-ethical-buying-the-new-legalism-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thepangeablog\/2010\/02\/20\/is-ethical-buying-the-new-legalism-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Ethical Buying the New Legalism? part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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A couple of weeks ago I purchased a book called, \u201cThe Better World Shopping Guide<\/a>\u201d and the corresponding \u201cBetter World Shopper iPhone App<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 It is an invaluable resource for anyone who cares about ethical buying.\u00a0 Tools like this remind us that what we purchase at the grocery store, fast food restaurant, car dealership, coffee shop, pharmacy, department store, clothing store, etc can have an impact on planet, communities, families, and individuals.\u00a0 Business is not simply competitive, but can become a form of social Darwinism that oppresses people.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been on quite the personal journey in the area of ethical buying (fair trade) over the past few years.\u00a0 The first time that I ever realized that my purchases are connected to people across the globe, and that they can have ill effects on the environment, was when I read the life changing book \u201cColossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire<\/a>\u201d by Walsh and Keesmaat.\u00a0 I then got online and determined that everything that I would purchase from then on would be ethical; I would not be part of the system of injustice!\u00a0 I was ready to subvert the imperial machine! But, the more I searched the more difficult it became to make this a practical lifestyle.\u00a0 Perhaps that is the problem, but maybe not everyone is ready to become a vegan who never goes to restaurants and makes his or her own clothes out of organic fabric. (I truly do admire the radical monastic\u2019s that live this way, but this isn\u2019t that simple for everyone).\u00a0 Eventually, the fire died down and I began living with an awareness of the global issues involved in purchasing, but suffered from postmodern glocal paralysis\u2026 too many problems to make a difference, so I am stuck!<\/p>\n

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Later, the fire was reignited to begin making ethical choices regarding food when I watched a video called: \u201cEating Mercifully<\/a>\u201d (featuring Greg Boyd) which exposes the cruel ways in which many farms produce the food we eat.\u00a0 Upon this, my wife and I made the decision to do all our grocery shopping at Whole Foods<\/a>.\u00a0 This was great until we moved to a city that doesn\u2019t have one.\u00a0 Fortunately, our local grocery chain has a whole line of organic products\u2026 unfortunately, not meat products.\u00a0 So, what is one to do?\u00a0 Well, my wife and I decided that we didn\u2019t want to be paralyzed into inaction, so we made the following personal policy.\u00a0 Whenever there is an ethical alternative available, whether food or clothing or other purchase, we will buy that product instead of the \u201cmainstream\u201d brand; and we will support companies that seem to be moving in an ethical direction.<\/em><\/strong> This has been liberating because we are able to make a difference by purchasing the ethical options and communicating to stores that these are the types of products that we want more of, but it hasn\u2019t meant having to cut ourselves off from the \u2018real world.\u2019\u00a0 And with this new resource, \u201cBetter World Shopping Guide<\/a>,\u201d we can make better-informed decisions about which mainstream brands to support, and which ones to \u2018boycott.\u2019 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Now here is the struggle that I want to pose to you today.\u00a0 There are many times I am at the store with my iPhone app and it becomes easy to make judgments about others who make purchases blindly.\u00a0 Also, when there is not an alternative, it becomes easy to live in guilt for having to purchase this or that product.\u00a0 There have been times when I clearly have slipped into legalism, when the Christian life is all about freedom.\u00a0 Do you think that ethical buying is the new legalism?\u00a0 If so, why?\u00a0 If not, what are your suggestions for avoiding such?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Share\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a book called, \u201cThe Better World Shopping Guide\u201d and the corresponding \u201cBetter World Shopper iPhone App.\u201d\u00a0 It is an invaluable resource for anyone who cares about ethical buying.\u00a0 Tools like this remind us that what we purchase at the grocery store, fast food restaurant, car dealership, coffee shop, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,46,60,73,89],"tags":[154,221,287,288,300,337,19166,471,564,19185,685,771],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-greg-boyd","category-missional","category-politics","category-social-justice","tag-better-world-shopping-guide","tag-coffee","tag-ethical-buying","tag-ethical-purchas","tag-fair-trade","tag-glocal","tag-greg-boyd","tag-legalism","tag-organic","tag-social-justice","tag-social-responsibility","tag-whole-foods"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Ethical Buying the New Legalism? 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