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“There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain.”
(Isaiah 11:9)
JUST HOLIDAY SHOPPING
Consumer choices are moral and cultural expressions of what is important to us. Where we shop and what we buy are decisions which can express our awareness that even in these simple ways we must do what is right and just. We must take the time to learn under what conditions our purchases are produced. We can then choose to buy only products which are produced in ways which do justice to our brothers and sisters who are making them and which cause no harm to our world's environment.
We are never more challenged as "Christian Consumers" than during the Christmas season. We are motivated by love, generosity and billions of advertising dollars to celebrate the birth of the poor Christ by purchasing an endless array of glittering and enticing material objects at any one of our many glittering and enticing malls. But there is another way.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development promotes justice, human dignity and self-respect by supporting job creation and the establishment of businesses that provide decent wages, and distribute profits more equitably.
If you want to support socially just causes while shopping for friends and loved ones, go to the Catholic Bishop's website http://www.nccbuscc.org/cchd/edshopping.shtml. Here you various groups from whom you can purchase wonderful gifts with the knowledge that your purchase will "do no harm", but will bring greater justice to those most in need. And you don't have to leave home. Some groups are:
- The Enterprising Kitchen
- Family Farmer Cheese
- Made on the Rez
- Native Harvest
- Rural Coalition SuperMarket Project
- Southwest Creations
- Trillium Artisans
- Woman Craft
Catholic Relief Services also has a website called http://www.crsfairtrade.org/ which provides a catalogue of fairly traded handcrafts and gourmet foods including wonderful chocolate produced by low-income workers in the Third World. There are gifts to please everyone on your list.
What can I do?
- Buy at least one gift from one of the above organizations this Christmas. And next year, buy at least two!
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