Obligation to Overspend...

A topic on the minds of many at this time of year is, “How am I going to pay off the credit card bill this time?” If you’ve put yourself into a hole by overspending at Christmas, you’re not alone. You’ve got social expectations to meet, and if your pocketbook doesn’t live up to your sense of generosity, you’ll find yourself in a hole. You’re also going to need a plan to climb out, especially if you’ve never been good at money management. {more...}

[via Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff- Site News]

Fulfilling the Need

Relationships: Recession-Proof Business?

[via Radical Womanhood]

Generosity...and Markets

There are two basic questions every society has to wrestle with: “How many of which things shall we produce today?” and “On what basis shall things be distributed?” Theologians almost invariably dwell on the second question to the exclusion of the first. The mindset is that material goods simply exist. The only obstacle to abundance is greed and lack of generosity. If we were just more giving, then inequities would just melt away.

But material goods do not simply exist....

The basic question is not generosity but how rather how do we create a mutually advantageous cooperative venture that both justly produces and distributes abundance. Generosity and markets are essential to such a venture. {full post}

[via Kruse Kronicle]

Gaining Meaning

This may not be a year to observe Lent -- if you can help it. Lent is about self-denial, about giving things up. Many Americans, indeed, many worldwide, are being forced to observe this Lenten practice. {continue...}

[via Ponders on a Faith Journey]

Holiday Abuse

In the course of my on-going research on domestic violence I keep an eye on the news. Right now there are articles literally every day about how the economic downturn is sparking a rise in the rates of domestic violence. DV rates are usually up this time of year and with the additional stress of people losing jobs and the overall economic recession, marital abuse rates are even higher than usual.

It occurred to me, however, that for women walking in this situation it would be very easy to see the reality backward. I would have seen it that way — I did see it that way when I was in it....

No matter how much the holidays may bring additional stress or how much additional stress the economic recession may cause, these are not an excuse for marital abuse. All these circumstances do is provide an opportunity to reveal a person’s choices to be an abuser. The abuser is an abuser because that is their choice - the circumstances just give them another chance to show it. {full post}

[via Because It Matters ~ Abuse & Christianity]

Being Warm in the Cold

(also on Twitter: salvationarmysk)

Salvation Army Community Centre: It's cold outside

How we handle the extreme cold at the Centre

[via Weblog: News from the Salvation Army Community Centre, HT: Jordon Cooper]

Related:

Since we are now thigh deep in the giving season, I feel it is pertinent to share my complete and total disgust with the fact that shoppers trampled a man to death on Black Friday. If you're not familiar with the story, and don't mind having your faith in humanity tested, read more here. A few onlookers even stopped shopping long enough to make jokes about how overweight the person was that they had just killed in their haste to save five bucks on a panini maker....

In order to maintain my giving spirit in the face of such a dreadful story, I've decided to give you five good reasons to do your shopping at your local Deseret Industries, Salvation Army or other community thrift store: {full post}

[via East Coast Frost]

Christmas Is Still Coming, Right?

How the Grinch Prorogued Parliament

[via CalgaryGrit]

Consumerism and middle ground

[via The Link Between]

Tangled History

Economy in a freefall. Political rhetoric. An apathetic electorate dismayed by the slide of their country into irrelevence. Theological liberalism. Doctrinal indifference.

America, 2008? {continue...}

[via blog.worship.com, HT: The Daily Scroll]

Turning Things Upside Down

Sarah Palin has cast herself in the role of the populist, the maverick who will go to Washington and turn things upside down. She's the outsider, the breath of fresh air, uncorrupted by years in Washington. She combines this message with a religious air that reaches into a conservative Christian base for support. She opposes Roe v. Wade and gay marriage. She backed a bill that celebrated Christian Heritage week in Alaska and endorsed the teaching of creationism (or ID -- that's not been clear), and carries herself with a sense of righteousness that is rooted in Christian populism. Robert McElvaine compares her Christian populism with that of another outsider, William Jennings Bryan. In some ways they share belief systems, but the recipient of their ardent attacks are very different. Palin attacks the elite (media, Hollywood, educational establishment) while Bryan attacked the "Interests," Wall Street financiers and corporate leaders. a group that has not received (at least until now) attention from the Right. It's an interesting piece published today in Sightings.{read on...}

[HT: Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

What Are Your Options?

[via indexed]

Why it's better not to have a valentine

[via The View From Her]

Generous Gospel

Even though Grassley would not go that far, I find the complaints and lavish lifestyles of the "prosperity preachers" sadly ironic when contrasted to the literally life-and-death plight of people around the world. I like his idea of not giving them a claim on the gospel because there is nothing in the true gospel of Jesus that can justify such gluttonous lifestyles.

[via For God's Sake, Shut Up!]

Related: Where’d the Money Go? [via ThinkChristian.NET]

Not a Race...

A lot of people don’t know that Martin Luther King’s last campaign, and his most unsuccessful effort, was to make poverty as much a matter of conscience as race. His "Poor People’s Campaign" was not universally supported even by his followers, who thought it diluted his central cause.

I remain disappointed by the approaches taken by leaders in my generation to tackle these challenges. I think leaders in the 1960s spoke to marginalized people in a hopeful voice. There was a sense that if we could only remove the barriers of racism and classism that enslaved people, the sky was the limit. Today, as I listen to leaders who speak for those in marginalized communities, I have the sense that their fallback position remains passive support programs. To me, true justice is not only the equity of wealth but the self-confidence that my dreams and your dreams are possible, and that we have it within ourselves to make this happen. {the whole thing}

[HT: Kevin G Powell]

Reduce Guilt, Reduce the Excess

Guilt is the biggest source of overspending.

[via Fabulously Broke in the City]

On the Grand Scale

Christmas is almost upon us, with all the expectations that brings. (Actually, in my book, Christmas Eve is Christmas too.) Those expectations can be good—spending time with family, celebrating a pivotal moment in Christian history, showing people that we love them, and giving.

Giving in its uncoerced form is certainly a virtue. At Christmas, however, certain expectations build up about giving and spending...

So if, as you look around this Christmas (or other holiday you celebrate) you find yourself thinking “I probably could have bought more or better,” remind yourself that your decision has made life better (or at least not worse) for those around you.

Your kids will be much happier on the grand scale if your family doesn’t have to worry about grocery shopping or living comfortably throughout the year compared to any disappointment they may feel in not receiving expensive gifts.

[via Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life]

No Crystal Teddy Bears

George Bailey's Maoism also illustrates why the politics of envy is anti-family. What kind of father keeps his children in a drafty, dilapidated old house just because he's too morally smug to accept Potter's perfectly reasonable offer of a higher salary? A bad father. The kind who poses a danger not only to his own children, but also a grave public danger to all the world’s children.

And if all of that is true for George Bailey, it goes double for Ebenezer Scrooge. So no crystal teddy bears for Jimmy Stewart or Michael Caine. {the rest}

[via slactivist]

Accounting For Faith

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) dropped a bomb on a small segment of the church world in the United States on Nov. 6. But it has the potential of creating shock waves that may have long-term effects for many congregations in church-state relations, financial accountability and understanding of clergy income and taxes.

The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley requested the records of six megachurch ministries that happen to be television-based and generally identified with the "word of faith" prosperity gospel movement. The six pastors and their respective ministries and some spouses were requested to provide a variety of documents to the committee by Dec. 6. The ministers are Paula and Randy White, Creflo and Taffi Dollar, Joyce and David Meyer, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Benedictus (Benny) Hinn and Bishop Eddie Long. Since two of these ministries are located in Atlanta, the media of this city have been saturated with both reports and commentary on the issues involved.

As of the date of his deadline for response, each of the ministries has replied in some form with Creflo Dollar and Bishop Eddie Long announcing they will not comply unless subpoenas are issued. {continue...}

[via Ethics Daily.com, HT: For God's Sake, Shut Up!]

Need to keep track? Check out Televangelist Scorecard via The Wittenburg Door

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The Motherhood Manifesto

[via grrrl meets world]

American Jonah

[via For God's Sake Shut Up!]