I wanted to thank you for putting this together [the Lent 2012 Consumer Detox] – and how very appropriate this is for the times we live in. It seems to be the focus of many people, including those outside the church, to de-clutter their lives. I receive emails from Daily Good and two have really stood out so far: one included a link to this blog http://zenhabits.net/ who is currently dealing with removal of clutter (very practical), and http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?sid=130 which gives some amazing statistics relating to the fact that working longer hours contributes to carbon emissions and unsustainable living.

This year I made 2 new year resolutions:

•  to buy only food, and to make, bake or create everything else.
• to clear out the junk and unused clutter from my home, piece by piece, every day – and yes, we have lived here, with our 5 children (now grown up) for 20 years so this will take me a year!

So far, I have kept them both, and am feeling quite liberated by them. Clearing space frees the mind for other things. Not going shopping is wonderful – I have even discovered that Ocado deliver free to my area on a Wednesday lunch time, so I am saving petrol, time and greenhouse gas emissions! Wonderful!

Thank you so much for your inspiring writing. God bless you on your journey.

Jefferson Bethke

The night Jefferson Bethke, 22, posted his “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video on YouTube, he made a bet with his mates about how many views the video would get by morning.

The highest bet was 6,000.

By the time Bethke woke up the next day, the video had more than 100,000 views. Eight days after the video was posted, it had been watched more than 14 million times. The number continues to skyrocket.

The video, Bethke said, was an attempt “to write a poem against legalism, self righteousness, self-justification and hypocrisy”. It contains catchy lines like: “The problem with religion is it never gets to the core / It’s just behaviour modification, like a long list of chores” and “I’m just saying quit putting on a fake look / Cause there’s a problem if people only know you’re a Christian by your Facebook”.

The video has been discussed by both religious scholars and armchair theologians. Some point out that pitching Jesus against all religion is too sweeping: Jesus, after all, was a religious Jew. Bethke himself says “You have to get back to my definition of religion. Jesus was coming to abolish self righteousness, justification and hypocrisy.”

In fact, the New Testament’s definition of Jesus’ kind of religion is pretty punchy: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27, NLT).

Defending and helping the defenceless, the marginalised? Refusing to swallow the lies of the surrounding culture? That’s the kind of religion Jesus taught and modelled.

Revolutionary religion like that means selling possessions, living simply, sharing with those in need. It means opening your heart and life to others. It means refusing the lie that says “Live for number one”.  It means going beyond the pain barrier, learning to love, committing yourself to working for justice and sticking at it over the long haul.

For me, it meant giving up my own home and sharing it with others, and not having a penny to my name because I share my cash with others, too.

For Jesus, it meant dying for what was right. He calls us to follow Him.

I believe there may be a sequel waiting to be made: “I Love Jesus And I Love The Religion He Loves” – to lay down my life for the marginalized and see through the lies of the mainstream.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and stories about the world of clothing and fashion. For instance:

• What is your favourite ethical clothing brand / purchase and why?
• Is charity shopping the way forward? Any tips for this?
• If we dress ‘simply’ do we end up enjoying our bodies and our clothes less? Could there be a way to enjoy them more?
• Is it ever acceptable to wear something that might have been made in a sweat shop?
• ‘Do not worry about what you wear’ – how do you do this?
• When was the last time you heard gold jewellery denounced in church (see 1 Tim 2:9-10)? Have we missed something, or have times changed?

You can comment on this piece, of course, but you can also submit a new blog post (email editor@breathenetwork.org) or something for the Breathe monthly email (to subscribe: in@breathenetwork.org). Watch out, too, for new Breathe contributors James, Micah, Annie and Matt, as well Phil, Jeremy and I.

Enjoy!

Television watching is a sedentary activity which is known to be harmful to health and is distinct from getting too little exercise. But a new study suggests its damaging effects may even rank alongside those from smoking and obesity. The study includes bad news for advertisers: it found that if you get up during the commerical breaks and run around, you may be able to ameliorate television’s worst effects.

Researchers who studied television viewing habits in Australia calculated that people who watch for an average of six hours a day shorten their life expectancy by almost five years.

Now, I’ve long since given up taking statistics at face value. But there clearly is a link between TV and bad health of various sorts. And we’re watching more of it, too (although I guess being sat at a computer as I am now is just as sedentary). The only thing missing in these particular reports, so far as I’ve read, is the full time cost of TV. To watch an hour of TV may indeed shorten your life – that is, it has a high association with shorter lifespans. But even if it’s as much as 22 minutes per hour, that’s nothing compared to the 60 minutes you’ve already lost in the first place!

In total, watching an hour of TV could make our lives 82 minutes shorter! Now there’s an incentive to turn off the box.

It’s hard, though, I know. Just the other day I was almost hooked by cult TV series The Killing. I watched the first episode on iPlayer, and was suitably thrilled and entranced. But then I thought about the other 19 hours I’d need to finish it off. That’s 1140 minutes of my life. If the research is right, maybe 1558 minutes!

So all in all I’m glad we cancelled our licesne. I say cancelled, actually we briefly reinstated it for the royal wedding and Wimbledon (!) but it’s gone again now. Not that it was easy – the only reasons the TV licensing people seem to accept for not wanting a license anymore are moving or dying! Can’t they imagine that we might simply have had to much of it? Come to think of it, can’t we?

• First up is an excellent three part (so far) series by Martin Charlesworth: Does it matter how rich we are?, The paradox of money, wealth and materialism and simplicity – the first step
• Simplicity by the way is not this (HT: Challies)
• Trevor Saxby also has some good posts responding to Martin Charlesworth, on how we develop a sliding scale of need, reminding us that the poor have faces and that love means distribution
• Zach Nielsen writes on how the gospel makes us generous and content with our money and it’s worth considering our definition of‘worldly’ so we would do well to follow this man’s example and choose not to gain the whole world
• Tim Challies ponders on the things I chose not to choose and how he battled with worry
• All these things are a symptom of current lifestyles like not knowing how to rest, having an affair with technology because we’re addicted to smartphones and technology is changing the face of community
• So some practical things to do to handle our stuff. Mint tells us how to quit the self storage habit or you could seek to multiply the benefits of your choices and Jeremy reminds us that some of the most valuable things we own we haven’t paid for.
• This infographic shows me how lucky I am to have been born in the west. Almost guaranteed to be able to read, live until I’m in my seventies, be free from infectious diseases and have clean water etc… Not everyone on our planet is so fortunate. (HT:Freakonomics)
• If you’re in business you could think how your business works and whether it can help capitalize with the poor
• If you’re wondering where to start consider reading one of these two books

I related this to my Grandma just now, who was born in Salford in 1914, and she replied sagely: ‘It’s better than it was’! She went on, ’It should be commended, especially the new developments at the Quays. When I was growing up it was very different, my brothers worked for the ‘relief’ among the slums’.

Clarkson is just one victim of postcoditus, the obsession we have with living in the right neighbourhood. The news for him, and for the rest of us, is that the world does not exist to offer us things. The truth is the other way around. We exist to offer things to the world, to invest in neighbourhoods, to believe in the positives and attempt to mitigate the negatives. Wherever we are in the world, we can all do that.

The following list is taken from Job’s speech, but do read chapter 31 in full for the wonderful poetic effect:

• Make a covenant with your eyes not to look lustfully at a virgin.
• Don’t walk with falsehood or hurry after deceit
• Don’t let your heart be enticed by a woman/man, or lurk at your neighbor’s door
• Don’t deny justice to anyone who works for you, when they have a grievance against you (did not he who made you in the womb make them? Did not the same one form you both within your mothers?)
• Don’t deny the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary
• Dont’ keep your bread to yourself, but share it with the fatherless. Rear them as a father would, and guide the widow
• If you see anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments, warm them from your own resources
• Don’t raise your hand against the fatherless, knowing that your have influence
• Don’t put your trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security’
• Don’t rejoice in your great wealth, the fortune your hands had gained
• Don’t rejoice at your enemies’ misfortune, or invoke a curse against their life
• Let it be said by your household ‘Who has not been filled with their meat?’. Keep your door always open to the traveller so that no stranger has to spend the night in the street
• Don’t hide your sin, don’t fear the crowd, don’t stay silent in dread of the world outside
• Don’t devour the yeild of the land you’re responsible for without payment or break the spirit of its tenants

Job, remember, at the end of the book is in many ways proved right in what he has said. Many centuries after this work was composed, Jesus came to empower a new people to fulfil God’s commands. So I wonder how we’re doing?

I love this video by Phil Grieve (brother of a frind of mine). It’s prophetic for me, I think, but also for many of us. 4 minutes of powerful poetry – enjoy!

‘Leave behind everything you’ve clung to

Undo those things called rights

Travel light

For lighter vessels wrestle stronger through longer nights…’