My Moral High Ground

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

On 14th of February this year, I was surprisingly not inundated with cards and flowers (for a change), there was no candlelit dinner, no romantic serenade, this Valentines day I instead found I had a date with a monk (or at least the Christian union did).

I was, at the least, surprised on arrival. I had been expecting some cringey but light hearted talk about Gods love on Valentines day not the fully robed and bearded character who could well have stepped straight out of Robin hood that stood before me . Needless to say I was utterly relieved that I was being spared the cheesy talk, but I was also intrigued as to what this monk would have to say.

It turned out he was a Franciscan Monk who had been converted after years of drug induced turmoil. To be honest I don’t remember a great deal about the rest of his testimony, but I was immensely challenged buy his commitment. On initiation to his specific order of monks he had to make 3 vows.

• Poverty: to physically own nothing.
• Chastity: to remain chaste
• Obedience: to obey the guidelines of their ‘manual’ based on biblical teachings

These were no new years resolutions, these were real lifelong vows, sworn in front of God, and these monks weren’t locked away in their monastery, they were making an active difference in the roughest areas of America and the UK. That is some commitment, I won’t even deny myself a sixth packet of pom bear, let alone all personal belongings. Stunned by this amazing way of life, I asked whether his decision to sacrifice all those things for life, made things more simple. He replied “I have never been so free”.

Imagine not worrying about all the crap we surround ourselves with, living off only what was donated to us, no media distractions, no manipulative advertising to worry about, no money to stress over, and out of choice not necessity. Though I don’t think the monks life is the one for me, I couldn’t help but fall in love with this kind, loving man’s values and was deeply challenged as to how I could free my life a little form worldly distractions. Perhaps stopping on the 5th bag of pom bear would do it.

In one of my previous posts Were ART Thou? I was fairly dismissive of Christian Artists as a whole. What I failed to mention was the brilliant job Christian worship leaders/writers are doing all over the world. Though their music is not necessarily reaching the masses, what they offer to Christians struggling with how to praise God is invaluable. While I would rarely listen to this type of music for recreational purposes, when it comes to worship I could sing emotional ballads for the rest of my days, there is something about the sincerity in the words that totally excuses the mush. This of course is probably not the case for most non-Christians, and they can of course be excused for cringing our sentimentality.

Last year I was recommended the Worship Central podcast presented by popular worship leaders Tim Hughes & Al Gordon, instead of your usual sickeningly Christian tripe, I found amusing banter from two down to earth guys with natural rapport. It was such a refreshing change to hear something that while it was openly Christian didn’t succumb to emotional tactics to engage the audience.

Worship Central is a new school of worship to train and equip worship leaders, musicians and worshippers. Led by Tim Hughes, worshipcentral is based at Holy Trinity Brompton and run in partnership with Soul Survivor.They run worship conferences, worship pastor retreats with a vision to see people encounter God, be equipped as worshippers and see churches empowered to worship in spirit and truth.

To compliment their witty monthly podcast the site offers blogs from both Tim and Al recording various events and projects they’re running. The site is a genuinely good resource for aspiring worshipers and worship leaders, with free guitar chords and acoustic demo’s of new songs. If you haven’t listened to a Christian Podcast before, let this be the first, trust me there is far worse out there.

Subscribe to the Worship Central podcast today.

Britain is in plastic bag warfare, you only have to go to your local Sainsbury’s to see it. If you so much as think about using a polythene bag in one of their stores, you are silently reprimanded with the disapproving sneers of not only the staff but also the smug customers clutching their brand new, designer, “I’m not a plastic bag” totes. Though of course I am in favour of anything that will save our environment, all this righteous campaigning is a joke, any supermarket with a half brain could see the economic advantages of selling a few designers bags (at extortionate prices) instead of giving away millions of plastic ones for free.

This alone, I don’t see as a particularly bad thing, better a company make money being eco-friendly than not be eco-friendly at all, but what should have shocked me (but in truth, didn’t) was the fact that the bags were made in China and were neither organic nor fair trade. A query raised by Robert Mendick in an article from the Evening Standard, was whether shipping the bags all the way from China meant its carbon footprint was offsetting its environmental benefits. The result of this expose was that Sainsbury’s reputation as a promoter of Fair Trade was left damaged, but lets be honest a few price cuts later and people are quick to forget.

Everybody hates being made to feel guilty about what they buy, but should it actually be the shoppers who take responsibility for checking where and how products are made? Until the big chains genuinely start to care about ethical trading and drastically adjust their business strategies, how can their customers be expected to make a difference?

Boycotts never seem to work, and protests are fun but fruitless, take Nescafe for example, people have been trying to boycott them for years to no avail. In all honesty the thought of being an ethical shopper exhausts me, but as a Christian I feel I have a responsibility to look after the earth and its people, and there is no denying that unethical labour is despicable in this day and age.

My biggest offense as a poor student with a minimum wage job (woe is me) is the clothes I buy, while its become easier and cheaper to buy organic/fair trade food, it is near impossible to find fair trade clothing that isn’t ridiculously expensive. With the wonders of Primark offering sweatshop produced clothing at minimal prices it’s so hard to resist buying in to this modern day slave trade.

Thankfully there is hope! Rather than trying to boycott such stores, for all of a week before you realise you just don’t have the willpower, Tearfund’s campaign Lift the Label encourages you to continue shopping at these store but each time you by something you hand in a pre-printed, free to download, letter of complaint which explains how you enjoy their products but don’t agree with their trade ethics. The hope is that companies are far more likely to listen to paying customers than those who merely want to boycott the shop.

For the tiny amount of effort it would take each of us to do, I definitely reckon its worth shot.

Feeling inspired? Check out the ethical directory.