Articles

• New Ruling Undermines Economic Security for Workers Says the American Friends Service Committee
  10/6/2006
  The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization with a long history of supporting labor rights, deplores the recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which will deny union protection to millions of American workers.

• Profiles in Commitment: Wainwright Bank
  From Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, By Patricia Aburdene [Last in a series of excerpts]
  Wainwright’s DNA is so deeply encoded with the commitment to social justice, you almost forget it’s a bank, with more than $760 million in assets, that offers commercial loans, home mortgages, lines of credit and private banking. It might also slip your mind that Wainwright makes money, a lot of money and at an impressive rate: Net income in 2004 hit $6.4 million, up from $4.7 million in 2003. Earnings per share rose from 55 cents in 2001 to 94 cents in 2004....And guess what? Community investing is the best-performing sector of Wainwright’s lending portfolio. The default rate? About zero percent.

• Chickens Are Chickens
  The theological and ecological significance of farming

• Do It Yourself

  From Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, By Patricia Aburdene

  Some of us are very independent. We enjoy doing our own investment research;. . . .But how on earth do we wade through the SRI universe and cobble together a customized portfolio? Here are a few simple ideas to get you started.

• The Biggest Market You Never
  Heard Of
  Excerpt from Chapter 5 of Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, By Patricia Aburdene
  Conscious Consumers are often categorized as “LOHAS” (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) customers. By 2005, 63 million Americans—or 30 percent of the adult population—were part of the LOHAS market, says the Natural Marketing Institute, a market research firm specializing in the LOHAS customer.

• 25 Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the World
  The amazing organizations that received the Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards have found a better way to do good: They're using the disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems.

• How Corporate Law Inhibits Social Responsibility
  by Robert Hinkley Many social ills created by corporations stem directly from corporate law. It dawned on me that the law, in its current form, actually inhibits executives and corporations from being socially responsible. So in June 2000 I quit my job and decided to devote the next phase of my life to making people aware of this problem. My goal is to build consensus to change the law so it encourages good corporate citizenship, rather than inhibiting it.

• Is A Second Katrina on the Way?
  by Nancy R. Smith In the first Katrina, the invisible poor became visible, at least in New Orleans. We seem to be bringing on a second Katrina in the methods used for the "rebuilding" of New Orleans -- methods that once again victimize the poor.

• Love for the Poor
  National Council of Churches
  Hurricane Katrina will perhaps forever be remembered for having shined an unflattering spotlight on racial and class disparities in the United States. In an effort to help the nation move forward, the National Council of Churches USA is releasing, Love for the Poor: God's Love for the Poor and the Church's Witness to It, a 40-page booklet that seeks to help churches engage more fully in prayer, reflection and shared action on behalf of the poor.

• Labor Value By James Skillen, President, Center for Public Justice How far can work be abstracted from the worker without degrading its meaning? In America and perhaps throughout much of the world, it seems to me, there is a declining sense of how the work that each of us does contributes to a joint human venture, adding to the national and international treasure....  Labor, in other words, has become a job, and jobs, like the goods we purchase at the mall, become a mere means to other ends. The value of a job is measured by what it pays. What does this tell us about the world of labor today?

• Justice for Africa postponed July 8

• Industry, critics, disagree on threat posed by video games United Methodist News Service "This is the fastest growing segment of the media business and also the least responsible," said Jim Steyer, who teaches First Amendment law at Stanford University and is chief executive of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that seeks to educate parents on entertainment media for kids. "The video game industry hides behind phony statistics and makes literally millions of dollars from graphically violent games that are obviously being marketed to kids 10, 11 and 12 years old.

• Competing Successfully in a Global Marketplace By Robert W. Lane Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Deere & Company Three aspects of globalization — first, the working premise that global markets are inevitable ....second, how John Deere is crossing global cultures to build high performance teamwork... and finally, some personal thoughts as to how you as students might better prepare yourselves for working in a global business environment.

• OFF-SHORING JOBS   By Nancy R. Smith What is right -- spiritually, ethically, economically, and politically? Is a concern about the impact on the American worker comparable to protectionism? Or is there much of an impact on the U.S. worker? What does all this say about global Workplace Spirituality? Please read and send your feedback!

• Just how powerful have corporations become? Scale is a telling measure. The biggest ones are so big that in 2001 fifty-three of the world's hundred largest economies were corporations and only forty-seven were nations. For example, the annual sales of Wal-Mart that year exceeded the gross domestic product of Sweden.  And corporations are growing: Five years earlier, only fifty-one of the planet's biggest economies were corporations; since then corporate expansion crowded two more nations out of the Top 100.  To apply another measure, an analysis of corporate earnings reports and government statistics shows that the combined revenues of just the fifty largest American corporations exceed the budgets of all governments in the United States combined—the federal government, the fifty states, and the thousands of local governments—by more than half.  (May/June 2003)

• U.S. Falls to 27^th in Latest Report Card on World Social Progress; Chronic Poverty to Blame Using data provided primarily by national governments to the United Nations and the World Bank, the Report Card on World Social Progress measures the ability of nations to meet the needs of their residents for health, education, human rights, political participation, population growth, improved women’s status, cultural diversity and freedom from “social chaos.”

• Violent Video Games Press Release from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Reponsibility (ICCR). “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and “Halo 2” Highlighted As Off Limits for Young Children; Unwary Adult Shoppers Not Aided by Weak, Poorly Promoted Rating System and Confusing Ads. The five groups -- the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the National Council of Women's Organizations, Mothers Against Violence in America, Center for Advancement of Public Policy, Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ and NYC Council Member Eric Gioia.

• Meaning, Work, and Social Responsibilityby Wayne Visser Surprisingly little has been written about the search for meaning in a workplace or business context, and nothing, in my knowledge, has made the explicit link to corporate social responsibility (CSR)....If meaning cannot be found in the workplace, our ability to lead a fulfilling life is seriously impaired.The importance of understanding how work can contribute to meaning in life seems more critical now than ever before.

• Five Corporate Sustainability Challenges That Remain Unmet by Wayne VisserBusiness is doing far more than ever before to tackle the sustainability challenge.... [but] all of this activity has failed to turn the tide on some of the most crucial dimensions of sustainable development: ecological decline, poverty, greed, trust, and hope. Without significant progress on these five issues, the corporate sustainability crusade is doomed. [This article presents] evidence of these gaps that still exist and proposes the shifts that are needed to address them.

• This is the Fight of Our Lives by Bill Moyers, Keynote speech, Inequality Matters Forum, New York University, June 3, 2004. The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries.

• Selling Hope in Hard Cover by William Greider. To understand the degraded conditions of work in America, one must recognize that the employment system is fundamentally organized on a “master-servant relationship,” the power relationship inherited from feudalism when the lord of the manor ruled the lives of any serfs on his property. Now the lord is called a CEO, but the domination of people is not that different in workplaces.

• The Disposables By Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia. Over the past few years, as employers have struggled to control costs, they've reduced overhead by removing from the payroll people who might be described as "disposables." They have discarded people in a similar fashion to the way we throw away soft drink containers or food wrappers.

• Do You Need Someone to Tell You Why You Want to Be Rich? By Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach^T. Well, we know this. 25 years ago there were three taboo subjects at any civilized dinner gathering:sex, religion and money. Now I think there is only one: money. "Anyone who tells you what they make," says my young friend Matthew, "is lying." And anyone who wants it, must rationalize it . "[so] that you may love others and do kind things."

• Welcome to the era of need-creation! By Joan Marques. How many of the things you purchase everyday do you really need?....Of course it may depend on how you perceive the word “need.” ....a necessity to stay alive according to the basic standards of the society you live in, ...[or] everything that will help you establish a certain image of yourself.

• The Toxic Economy By Rick Jarow, PhD. The word, "economy" has become such a ubiquitous and media saturated notion, that it has grown to rival the Olympian realm, towering above humanity, housing the gods with their powerful boons and curses. Like a monolithic engine that runs on by itself, the "economy" presses forward - and everyone else gets dragged along with it.

• Security, Abundance and Justice -- Keeping the Channels Open By Nancy R. Smith. Security, abundance, and economic justice flow from your spirituality. Justice depends on your conviction that you belong in the universe. But you've been taught that you must take care of yourself first!

Links to Other Articles

• Momentum builds for minimum-wage hike
  By David R. Francis. The Christian Science Monitor, October 16, 2006
  The broadly based effort to get Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, currently $5.15 an hour and unchanged since 1997 despite inflation, are... centered on [both religious and]secular views.... Tworking 40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year at a minimum-wage job provides an annual income of $10,712, which is about $6,000 below the official poverty level for a family of three.... a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), a liberal New York think tank, finds that states with minimum wages above the federal level have had faster small-business and retail job growth.

• Real Value of the Minimum Wage, 1938 - 2006
  Federal Minimum Wage Chart
  
   

• Report: Pfizer, others use misleading marketing
  BY CHRISTOPHER ELSER, BLOOMBERG NEWS -- June 26, 2006 --
  Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc and other drugmakers mislead consumers and doctors with sponsored studies and advertising that may artificially buoy demand for their products....The study of 20 companies found 17 had reported violations of good social responsibility practices in their marketing, according to Consumers International, a federation of consumer groups.

• CEOs Embrace Corporate Social Responsibility With New Urgency, but Do They Risk Angering Shareholders? Not If They Can Prove Bottom-line Benefit, says New Survey
  July 5, 2006 -- This corporate pendulum swing may be seen as an inevitable reaction to the public's cynicism about recent scandals, but the shareholders of aspiring socially responsible companies may also push back unless CEOs can definitively answer the following question: Is all of this benefiting--or hurting--the bottom line?

• Not a Lost Cause
  By Loui Itoh -- July 7, 2006 -- In an August 2005 survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 72 percent of respondents said “issues like poverty and homelessness” are important issues facing the United States, compared to 18 percent who said yes to “issues like abortion and gay marriage.” Similarly, a poll last month by the Center for American Progress found that 89 percent of respondents agreed to the premise that “government should uphold the basic decency and dignity of all and take greater steps to help the poor and disadvantaged in America.”

• Blocking the Net By Ron Chepesiuk, Sep 2005 The Chinese have help from the West to achieve their repressive objectives. Several large multinationals, including Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo!, have been willing to allow China to censor ideas and stifle free expression in exchange for profit....Microsoft has become a willing participant in sustaining one of the world’s most repressive regimes....In 2002, Yahoo! China signed a pledge not to allow the placement of "pernicious information that may jeopardize state security," while in 2004 Google launched a new search engine in China that omitted sites the Chinese government didn’t like, such as the BBC and Voice of America....U.S.-based companies are also supplying commercial software to help countries "filter" — that is, censor information.   

• Katrina Exposes American Poverty By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP NATIONAL WRITER "Those people who were abandoned in New Orleans," he said, "they were abandoned long before that hurricane hit. We all were." . . .Hurricane Katrina has spotlighted the deep poverty that this country has failed to solve, a world of people who live without Social Security numbers and without running water, people who are too poor to shop at Wal-Mart and whose children go hungry.

• Is Katrina whispering in our ears? By RICK CASEY, Houston Chronicle, September 3, 2005 Yet the evacuation plan was based on private autos. There was no mechanism to evacuate those without cars, much less those in nursing homes and hospitals. Have they no cars? Let them rent limos. It is no accident that the poor weren't included in evacuation plans, if anything that can seriously be called a plan exists.There is a growing prejudice against the poor, one that results in not-so-benign neglect. It encompasses a belief that if you are poor in the Land of Opportunity, it's your own fault.

• It's time to work your faith by Bill  Tammeus "I think we should spend some ... time thinking through not only our own experience of trying to be faithful to our beliefs and, at the same time, loyal employees, but also the religious and spiritual implications of the economic system in which we find ourselves employed."

• Engaging global values By Noel Presto. August 8, 2005. On Line Opinion (Australia) The conversation that is now beginning about re-jigging global institutions is welcome, but it must be supported by a cultural, spiritual and ethical global revolution in human consciousness. As the recent London terrorist bombings remind us, ideas and visions matter. Nurturance of the human spirit and will to maintain a commitment to eco-justice is essential. In a real sense the Live 8 concerts were part of a consciousness-raising movement.

• The Earth Charter Initiative and The Earth Charter: Values and Principles for a Sustainable Future The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all peoples a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the wellbeing of the human family and the larger living world. It is an expression of hope and a call to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history. The Earth Charter’s inclusive ethical vision recognizes that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human development, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. It provides a new framework for thinking about and addressing these issues. The result is a fresh, broad conception of what constitutes a sustainable community and sustainable development.

• Response to G8 CommuniqueMake Poverty History Today the G8 have chosen not to do all that campaigners insist is necessary to free people trapped in the prison of poverty. Important steps have been taken - steps that will bring hope to millions. But more action is urgently needed if they are to play their role in bringing about real change for the world's poorest people and consigning extreme poverty to the history books.

  Africa's New Best Friends The corporations which helped to immiserate Africa are being given control of its developmentBy George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 5th July 2005 The G8 leaders have seized this opportunity with both hands. Multinational corporations, they argue, are not the cause of Africa’s problems, but the solution. From now on, they will be responsible for the relief of poverty....Few would deny that one of the things Africa needs is investment. But investment by many of our multinationals has not enriched its people but impoverished them. The history of corporate involvement in Africa is a history of forced labour, evictions, murder, wars, the under-costing of resources, tax evasion and collusion with dictators....Without a critique of power, our campaign, so marvellously and so disastrously inclusive, will merely enhance this effort.

• Politics of CAFTA MoJoBlog. By Bradford Plumer, July 6 ...the two big groups that stand to make a killing from CAFTA are the pharmaceutical industry and the telecommunications industry.

• Part of the Problem: Trade, Transnational Corporations, and Hunger By Peter O'Driscoll.  March 2005. Center FocusAdvocates of free trade have long pushed for the liberalization and acceleration of the global food trade. Bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) treat agricultural goods like any other consumer good. But as the number of hungry people in the world grows, critics are raising questions about who benefits from liberalizing the food trade. Transnational corporations (TNCs) like Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Monsanto have profited tremendously from the food trade, while rural farmers and the global poor suffer the consequences.  Related article:

• Power Hungry: Six Reasons to Regulate Global Food Corporations This January 2005 report from ActionAid shows how trade liberalization concentrates power over the global food market into fewer hands. Five companies now control 90 % of the world’s grain trade and one company, Monsanto, manages 91 % of the global genetically modified seed market. Market concentration drives down prices for staple goods like wheat, coffee and tea, hurting farmers and small producers in poor countries.

• Who profits from rock-bottom pricing? By G. Jeffrey MacDonald. The Christian Science Monitor. May 16, 2005. They pay low wages and force local shops to close. But discount chains help the poor make ends meet. Do they belong in your portfolio?

• Shaking Up Trade Theory By Aaron Bernstein. Business Week. Dec 6, 2004. In Global Policy Forum. "Now we've got trade patterns that challenge the common view of trade theory, which might not be so true anymore,'' says Gary C. Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics (IIE), a Washington (D.C.) think tank. A leading advocate of free-trade pacts, he still thinks white-collar job shifts are good for the U.S.... [Other] experts...resist the notion that the new offshoring could lower U.S. wages or slow growth of gross domestic product. After all, these economists have spent their professional lives ridiculing such conclusions as so much protectionist nonsense. Nevertheless, they aren't yet able to reconcile what's happening on the ground with the ideas they have so passionately defended. "This is a whole unexplored question that is very controversial, and nobody has a clue about what the numbers are,'' says Robert C. Feenstra, a prominent trade economist at the University of California at Davis. 

• The 10 Worst Corporations of 2004 By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, AlterNet. Jan 26, 2005.The year's most egregious price gougers, polluters, union-busters, dictator-coddlers, fraudsters, poisoners, deceivers and general miscreants: Abbott Laboratories, American International Group Inc. (AIG), Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, GlaxoSmithKline, Hardee's, Merck, McWane Inc., Riggs Bank, and Wal-Mart. 

• What Is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?Questions and answers by Ethics in Action.

• WEF closes on a wishful note Jan 31, 2005. Money Control.After over 100 debates, discussions and workshops later, the World Economic Forum, WEF, finally came to a close on Sunday morning leaving on the agenda six top issues such as poverty, climate change, education, equitable globalisation, Middle East peace talks and global governance.

• Businesses must press social issues: CEOs By Trinh Thanh Thuy. Viet Name News Jan 31, 2005.Businesses have begun to realise that if they make social responsibility their business it will not be only good for others, but could also bring about increased profits. This message has become abundantly clear as the world’s economic elite gathered and voted to make poverty eradication their main concern at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland.

• The Greatest Moral Issue Editorial Inquirer News Service. Philipine Daily Inquirer. Feb 8, 2005 On the eve of a meeting of the leaders of the world's richest nations, former South African president Nelson Mandela demanded freedom for the millions of "slaves" of poverty all over the world. He said, "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural." Mandela said poverty is man-made and can be eradicated by the actions of human beings. "And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice," he said....The recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos stressed the need to address the problem of worldwide poverty before it explodes and causes greater misery and instability. The rich nations-the United States first among them-have to make hard decisions-decisions that will call for the expenditure of huge sums in aid and may work against their economic interests-to reduce the problem of poverty.

• The De Soto Delusion By John Gravois. Jan 28, 2005. Slate MagazinePeruvian Economist Hernando de Soto's ideas for helping the poor have made him a global celebrity....From the field, the verdicts are rolling in: In some corners of the world, the land-titling programs inspired by de Soto's work are proving merely ineffective. In other places, they are showing themselves to be downright harmful to the poor people they set out to help.

• The Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004 Dec 31, 2004. Center for Corporate Policy

• A Seal of Good Giving Worries are growing about how charities are run. Fortunately, donors have new ways to check them out. By Jeremiah Hall | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor. Charity rating and ranking services are mushrooming as a number of recent scandals plague the philanthropic sector. These have hurt donor confidence and are one reason the number of rating services is on the rise. Less than a handful existed a decade ago, experts say. Today, there are more than 50. See also: BBB Wise Giving Alliance The Alliance reports on nationally soliciting charitable organizations that are the subject of donor inquiries. These reports include an evaluation of the subject charity in relation to the voluntary BBB charity standards.

• An Opposing View on Corporate Social Responsibility The Economist’s Matthew Bishop believes corporate social responsibility programs are bad for both businesses and under-developed communities. by Manda Salls. March 22, 2004. HBS Working Knowledge.

• Stand Up For Moral Value Of Economic Justice by Michael Zweig. Nov 20, 2004. ZNETOne of the great moral leaders, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., led his movement to demand economic justice as well as civil rights. He died in Memphis lending his support to a strike of garbage collectors....To revive the prospects for working people, who make up the great majority of this country, we need to address interests and ethics together. We must challenge the claim that the scope of moral judgment is personal behavior alone and hold the corporate elite and Republican and Democratic parties to standards of social responsibility and economic justice.

• Ideal of Simple Living And High ThinkingMahatma Gandhi said that economic development becomes relevant only when it is based on principles of environmental conservation and harmony, and equity with social justice. Equity has an ethical content in the real world: It would involve sacrifice on the part of the privileged in favour of the less privileged....the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and satisfying them seems to be a snare that lures us away from the pursuit of the ideal of plain living and high thinking. Our happiness really lies in contentment.

• The Global Justice Index: A Work in Progress By Sam Keen. Spirituality and Health. Sam Keen attempts a worldwide "Dow" — an indicator of political, economic, and environmental justice for all.... The mystical, psychoanalytic, and spiritual traditions insist that hope is born precisely at the moment when it seems least likely…. The unifying principle we seek is not to be found in an overarching global organization, a world government, a world religion, or some new spiritual consensus, but in the humus that is the foundation of all human community — the ancient, unfulfilled vision of justice for all. We can tolerate any amount of diversity in religion, styles of government, and economic systems so long as we cooperate in making progress toward global justice.

• Greyston Bakery: Let 'Em Eat Cake CBS 60 Minutes. Jan. 11, 2004How did a bakery in Yonkers, N.Y. -- a small, slightly disheveled city next door to the Bronx -- end up not only making cakes for the rich and famous, but also supporting the poor and disenfranchised.

• Spirit isn't moving religion's left wing By Mark I. Pinsky. The Orlando Sentinel. Jan. 06, 2004   Unless they are directly affected, people in the pews seem unwilling to grapple with economic disparity and job losses, which defy simple solutions. Despite the loss of 3 million jobs since 2001 and falling retirement and investment portfolios, they are more likely to object to teaching Darwin in the classroom than to struggling in an economy increasingly based on survival of the fittest.

• True heroes will help beggars through another day By Barbara Sumner Burstyn. The New Zealand Herald. Jan 12, 2004COMMENT: Letters to the editor are often a source of inspiration. Like the recent letter to the Herald headlined "Meet a true hero", in which Rob Roche, of Parnell, told us about his trip to the United States. Many commentators portray the struggle for economic justice in America as class warfare. Activist David Krieger described recently how more than 40 million Americans are without health insurance, and with little or no access to basic medical care. 

• Not in our Back Yard By Manuel Valenzuela.Ten years ago, deep in the Lacondon jungle in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas a movement arose like an early morning fog lifting up from the moist, rich ground.  The Zapatista Revolution began, January 1, 1994, the same day NAFTA was implemented in Canada, the USA and Mexico....  A revolution is taking place, and a new ideology is rising from the Andes to the Amazon, from the Mexican deserts to the Argentinian pampas.  This movement will transform the region to a more just, equal and productive zone for all. 

• Faiths split on Bennett's gambling By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY.  May 6Religions differ in their views on gambling, but a 1998 survey found those who say their faith is "very important" in guiding their daily lives were nearly three times more likely than less-religious people to disapprove of casino gambling. The Bible, unlike the Koran, does not explicitly ban gambling. And not all Western religions see it as a personal sin, as do Southern Baptists and many evangelicals. Jewish tradition treats it as a private hobby unless it becomes addictive and harms the player or others. But the major faiths are largely united in charges about state-sponsored gambling, such as lotteries....:

• A Board's Top Job: Watching the CEO The real measure of corporate-governance programs' success is how well the board discharges its responsibilities supervising the CEO.

• The Clash of Globalizations Christianity and Islam, two religions with global spiritual agendas, battle on earthly terrain. Interview by Paul O'Donnell with Ira Rifkin about the competing global agendas of Christianity and Islam, as they are being played out the conflict in Iraq. Ira Rifkin's new book "Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization" from Skylight Paths Publishing surveys the responses of Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, as well as Baha'is and Earth-based faiths, to the West's economic and cultural transformation of the world.

• Selected Liberal Socially Responsible Mutual Funds Note: These sites are not sponsored or maintained by Beliefnet....This list is not an endorsement of any investment product.

• The Profit of God: Finding the Christian path in business By Jeff Van Duzer and Tim Dearborn Jan 2003. Historically, Christian thinking about business has swung between the two extremes of warm embrace and cynical rejection. "Embrace" theology has wrapped Christian doctrine, capitalism, profits, and business practices in one big group hug: Capitalism forms part of God's kingdom, and the Lord rewards Christian ethics with an enhanced bottom line. "Rejection" theology, on the other hand, identifies capitalism as a system built on greed and warns against the evils of accumulating wealth. The value of business, if any, is instrumental....

• Grossly Unfair: Evaluating the Bush Proposal By Ron Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action. Although an amended version of President Bush’s tax cut has just been passed and signed into law, this critique is still applicable, especially coming from one who has been a strong supporter of the President’s “faith-based” initiatives. This editorial was first published in the May/June 2001 Prism Magazine, the journal of ESA.

• Measuring Globalization "Unsatisfactory" is the word that best describes the contemporary debate over globalization. There seems to be a consensus that globalization—whether economic, political, cultural, or environmental—is defined by increasing levels of interdependence over vast distances. But few people have undertaken the task of actually trying to measure those levels of interdependence. For instance, how do we determine the extent to which a country has become embedded within the global economy? How do we demonstrate that globalization is racing ahead, rather than just limping along? And how do we know just how worldwide the World Wide Web has become?

• What's At Stake!Tell Everyone You Know: "Don't Buy Gap This Holiday Season!" The Gap denies responsibility for the sweatshop conditions in the factories around the world producing its clothes. But as the largest brand-name clothing retailer in the United States, the Gap sets the prices for goods and labor worldwide, creating a global sweatshop system. The Gap is responsible for the conditions of workers making its products. This holiday season, join hundreds of thousands of concerned people across the country in helping Gap workers fight back. Tell the Gap that you are taking Gap products off your holiday list this year.

• The Marketing of Breast Cancer by Mary Ann Swissler. According to the group Toxic Links Coalition, the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen Foundation and its annual fundraiser, the 5K Race for the Cure .... merely focuses women on finding a medical cure for breast cancer, and away from environmental conditions causing it, the problems of the uninsured, and political influence of corporations over the average patient....."There's no talk about prevention, except, in terms of lifestyle, your diet for instance. No talk about ways to grow food more safely. No talk about how to curb industrial carcinogens. No talk about contaminated water or global warming."

• The decline of the American Century by K Gajendra Singh. Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. Sep 11, 2002If the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki without fear of retaliation was the acme of the American Century, then the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, symbols of economic and military might, could be termed the beginning of the end of the American Century.

• Schools Deliver 'Consumers' for Snack and Soda Companies by Jodi Mathews. 09-18-02. Vending machines in public schools are a relatively new phenomenon, but in the last decade, as schools recognized the potential pay-off of the additional revenue, many lined up to sign on the dotted line. The pay-off for students has been an increase in obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, broken bones, kidney stones, nervousness, insomnia, attention-deficit disorder and caffeine addiction, according to a Harvard School of Public Health study. Nevertheless, soft drink promoters contend that their products are not to blame for such unhealthy outcomes.

• Is Greed Ever Good?  No, Say Ethicists; and It’s Not Even Good for Capitalism, Some ArgueBy Michael S. James. ABCnews.com. 8-22-02. So how did greed go from "good" to "infectious?" It's happened before in American business, and likely will happen again. Robert Brent Toplin, who has written on the history of business greed ..., says for more than a century...American capitalism has run in cycles.

• Compatibility or Conflict? Christian faith in the marketplace by Alistair MackenzieOnce we lived in a land that we thought was God's own country, with business and government both free from corruption. And many of us thought that it was free from racism too. We were proud of our welfare system - designed to support those who struggled and to make sure everyone got a fair go. And even God seemed to be acknowledged, at least in theory. Life seemed to be comfortably predictable and shaped by values which reflected at least a 'sort of' Christian consensus.

• Stock up on sin A portfolio that panders to humankind's moral weaknesses might redeem investors' fortunes. Money & Business. 7/29/02. by Noam Neusner.Unseemly, perhaps, but the fact is that in a year of exploding corporate scandal and retribution, it has been good to be bad. Not legally bad–just a little sinful. Profit, so fleeting on much of Wall Street, has come easily to firms catering to humanity's weakness for fatty foods, strong drink, wastrel ways, and carnal passions....How then to construct a portfolio on the premise that if moral perfection is unattainable, there must be ways, legally, to profit from that deficiency? Find firms that sell to the darkest recesses of the heart from which emanate the seven deadly sins. Here are hot picks from the seven categories of damnable vice.

• From Conquistadors to Corporations Wanna do something about globalization? You might start by learning a little history. By Richard Parker. If we are to talk about "globablization" today, we must first talk about death. What happened in New York and Washington, D.C., last Sept. 11 has squarely put before us the true scale of the moral and human issues this process called "globalization" entails. ...The period today that we vainly imagine is so new and revolutionary is only the latest chapter in a fourth or fifth stage of globalization, a wave that began in Western Europe 500 years ago.

• Branded for Life 21st Century global marketers are more seductive than ever before. And they want your kids. By Tom Sine. In the last seven years, a borderless youth culture has emerged. The uniform is Levi’s. The drink is Coke. And they are all hard-wired to the same pop media. Outside the United States this phenomena is seen not only as a product of globalization, but as a new form of American colonization. The world is beginning to look like an American strip mall, complete with KFC, Pizza Hut, and the Golden Arches.

• Money: God's principal rival By Peter Selby. ....it isn't simply that debt is measured in money; it is that money is debt.... money is a claim on the resources of others and the labor of others. It is actually a debt....Money has now become not just an instrument, it has become also....an economic goal in itself....It has become a source of security and a form of salvation.

• Entitled neighbors: A biblical perspective on living wage By Walter Brueggemann. It is clear that the slaves in the book of Exodus did not just "happen" to be slaves as "the less fortunate." According to the drama of Genesis 47, they got into slavery because the great food monopoly of Pharaoh charged them for life support until they lost their marginal "means of production." They ended in slavery because they had no capital except their bodies that were eventually placed in hock to the power of the food monopoly with its concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

• How much stuff is enough? By David Suzuki. Environmental News Network. Tuesday, July 30, 2002. There was a time when we yearned to have more time to read, do things with our friends, indulge in hobbies, spend more time with our children and grandchildren, go camping, and travel. Instead, our work week hasn't shrunk; we are working longer hours than we did two decades ago. The tradeoff has been that we are being paid more money so that we can buy more stuff. I believe it was a deliberate plan....

• Each American Wastes 300 Pounds of Food Per Year Ray Furr. 06-26-02. Jell-O mud-wrestling, egg-throwing contests and bowling with frozen turkeys may be recreation to some people but to a former missionary who has seen hunger firsthand, these games are not fun—they are wasteful.

• With Liberty, and Justice, for All by David Batstone, March 20, 2002. We have a double standard - fair trade and profit for us, the spoils for you. It permeates big business assumptions about value. A word of advice for the corporates: leave something on the table so that everyone can improve their standard of living.

• The Social Responsibility Amendment (SRA) by Michael Lerner. Most American politicians fear to challenge corporate power not only because they need the financial support during elections, but for a deeper and more reasonable reason as well: they fear that corporations can always threaten to move their base of operations, leaving joblessness and economic devastation in their wake.

• Worldliness and Injustice By Dr. Stephen Charles Mott. The biblical term [for the world] .... refers to the order of society. It is one of the ways in which the Bible warns us that evil has a character that is social and political. It involves more than isolated actions of individuals. Evil is social as well as personal.

• Social Accountability International Social Accountability International (SAI)’s mission is to promote human rights for workers around the world. We are best known for SA8000 – our comprehensive and flexible system for managing ethical workplace conditions throughout global supply chains.

• Revolving Door Working Group (RDWG) It's time to shine a bright light on The Revolving Door, another key mechanism by which corporate interests influence federal decision-making, especially with regard to regulatory policy and procurement choices. . . . The Revolving Door Working Group (RDWG) investigates, exposes and seeks remedies for conflict-of-interest problems such as loopholes in revolving door laws, inadequate disclosure, and other issues associated with the improper influence of the regulated community over the regulatory process.

• Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy (CRESP) CRESP is an independent, not-for-profit agency with a limited affiliation with Cornell University; fostering study, dialogue and action for a just and sustainable society through projects, programs, information sharing and organizing

• Interfaith Worker Justice Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) is a network of people of faith that calls upon our religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the U.S. on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

• Global Policy Forum Global Policy Forum’s mission is to monitor policy making at the United Nations, promote accountability of global decisions, educate and mobilize for global citizen participation, and advocate on vital issues of international peace and justice....by monitoring the policy process, informing the public, analyzing the issues, and urging citizen action. GPF focuses on the United Nations – the most inclusive international institution, offering the best hope for a humane and sustainable future.

• EurActiv.com - EU Policy News and LinksDossiers EurActiv.com is the independent media portal fully dedicated to EU affairs. EurActiv has an original business model, based on five elements (corporate sponsoring, EurActor membership, advertising, EU projects, and content syndication). It is well funded and the content usage is free.

• People-Centered Development Forum Seeking a just, inclusive, and sustainable world that works for all....The human species faces an apparent paradox. We have embraced economic growth as our primary indicator of human progress. Yet as economic output and consumption grow the number of people forced into lives of dehumanizing deprivation increases and the quality of life of all but the wealthiest among us declines....The PCDForum envisions human societies in which three values serve as organizing principles of public policy: Justice.... Inclusiveness.... Sustainability....

• Jubilee USA Network Continuing the work of the Jubilee 2000 campaign. Drop the Debt. G7 Leaders Will Meet on February 4 to Consider 100% Debt Cancellation: The Time is Now -- Take Action on Debt Today!

• American Institute of Philanthropy The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) is a  nationally prominent charity watchdog service whose purpose is to help donors make informed giving decisions.

• Responsible Shopper What does your shopping support? Discover the good, the bad and the ugly behind the products you buy everyday -- from clothing to shoes to toothpaste.

• The Center of Concern The Center of Concern envisions a world in which every woman, man and child can survive, thrive, and contribute back to our communities, enhancing life for all who share the planet. Through research, analysis, networking, public education and advocacy, the Center works to advance more just, sustainable and authentically human development for all, especially for the marginalized and those in poverty.... Our goal is to provide individuals and organizations with basic tools to address these universal questions: What are the root causes of human suffering in the world today? How can we change the system to increase social justice and offer hope? We provide reliable information and analysis on development issues, practical alternatives to current development policies and practical suggestions for personal action, and faith reflections on this work for justice.

• Guild Law Center for Economic and Social Justice The National Lawyers Guild/Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice (a.k.a. Guild Law Center) is a national, non-profit, public interest law center that provides advocacy, representation, legal education and technical support to empower community and workers'rights groups and individuals seeking systemic change toward economic and social justice. The GLC was founded by the National Lawyers Guild in 1991 to support the principle that economic justice and civil rights are inseparable. We support grassroots and workers' justice movements through three projects: economic bill of rights/right to a living wage; workers' rights and corporate accountability/plant closings; and environmental justice.

• UUA Social Justice Statements, 1961-2004 Welcome to the latest collection of Unitarian Universalist Social Witness Positions. Unitarian and Universalist Social Witness began when the faiths began—hundreds of years ago. It is both impossible and undesirable to separate Unitarian and Universalist history from the social and political movements of the years. When the Unitarians and the Universalists merged in 1961, the resulting Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations inherited a proud legacy of social justice activism.

• Natural Capitalism, Inc. Natural Capitalism enables organizations to increase profitability and efficiency while becoming more environmentally and socially responsible.  The concept integrates the “triple bottom line,” (a term that refers to the business goals of profitability, environmental awareness, and social responsibility) into a single bottom line, fostering greater levels of operational efficiency within organizations.

• Responsible Wealth Responsible Wealth is a national network of businesspeople, investors and affluent Americans who are concerned about deepening economic inequality and are working for widespread prosperity. Our three primary areas of work are tax fairness, corporate responsibility and living wages.

• Business Leaders and Investors for a Living Wage The federal minimum wage, presently $5.15 an hour, would need to be raised to $8.20 an hour simply to meet the federal poverty level. In many higher-cost regions, a true living wage is substantially higher (up to $18 per hour)....Many business people, investors, and other Americans [understand] that paying employees a living wage is good business - creating stronger communities and better customers. However, their voices have not previously come together and thus they have been left out of the debate. Responsible Wealth aims to change this through the Living Wage Covenant.  We invite you to join with other employers and investors in support of fair wages.

• Shareholder Rebellion We object to companies that we own using our resources to lobby for short-sighted and imprudent government tax policies.

• PICA - Peace through Interamerican Community Action PICA - Peace through Interamerican Community Action - is a Bangor, Maine-based grassroots organization. PICA's Bangor (Maine) Clean Clothes Campaign, the first U.S. community-based campaign against sweatshops in the global clothing industry, is the first U.S. community to go on record in support of a simple principle: All clothes available on local store shelves should be made according to established international standards of ethical production.

• The Globalization Research Network (GRN) A consortium of four research institutions, whose primary purpose is to enlarge capacity by working together and coordinating activities of the four centers to study the phenomenon of economic, social and cultural globalization. As a working definition, globalization is the effect of emerging global economies and cultures on local traditions. This definition is broad, and includes effects on economic, cultural and physical aspects of people's lives. Any economic, cultural or physical phenomenon that cannot be understood exclusively in a local context, but which requires a global perspective to be understood, is considered to be an effect of globalization. Each research institution is responsible for developing inquiry in a designated area of the world: University of South Florida Globalization Research Center - the Caribbean and Latin America George Washington Center for the Study of Globalization - Europe and West Asia University of Hawaii Manoa Globalization Research Center - Asia and the Pacific University of California, Los Angeles - Africa

• Investing With Conscience Links to selected religious and general socially conscious mutual funds and indexes.

• 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice A coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots, women's, solidarity, faith-based, policy, social - and economic- justice, youth, labor and development organizations dedicated to the profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). focus on action-oriented economic literacy training, public mobilization, and policy advocacy.

• Center for Economic and Social Justice A portal to a new economic vision of the future, which [is called] the "Just Third Way." The Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), established in 1984, promotes a free enterprise approach to global economic justice through expanded capital ownership. CESJ is a non-profit, non-partisan, ecumenical, all-volunteer organization with an educational and research mission.

• AlterNet AlterNet.org is a project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism.

• A Globe of Witnesses (AGW) A Globe of Witnesses is a new online initiative to reclaim the Anglican vocation of doing "public theology" through progressive analysis and commentary from around the world. We welcome unsolicited submissions, including faith-based social justice event postings (send them to agw@thewitness.org ), from groups and persons of faith both within and outside of the global Anglican/Episcopal Church community.

• Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy Instigating democratic conversations and actions that contest the authority of corporations to govern....We are thirteen activists who have spent the last several years researching corporate, labor and legal histories, rethinking our past organizing strategies and talking with people about democracy movements. We work in the tradition of people's struggles to replace illegitimate and tyrannical institutions with democratic ones that disperse, rather than concentrate, wealth and power.

• Call to Renewal: People of Faith Overcoming Poverty Call to Renewal is a national network of churches, faith-based organizations, and individuals working to overcome poverty in America. Through local, regional and national partnerships with groups from across the theological and political spectrum, we convene the broadest table of Christians focused on anti-poverty efforts. Together we work to influence local, state and national public policies and priorities, while growing and developing a movement of Christians committed to overcoming poverty. Call to Renewal is comprised of Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Historic black churches (AME and PNBC), Historic Peace Churches (Mennonites and Quakers), Pentecostals and local and national faith-based organizations.

• Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation A network committed to social justice with ecological vision and based on engaged spirituality. We seek alternatives to the destructive patterns of living so prevalent in the world today. At the same time we also look for skilful means to transform the structural violence that supports such a pattern.

• UNPO - Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation UNPO is an international organisation created by nations and peoples around the world, who are not represented as such in the world´s principal international organisations, such as the United Nations.

• Findhorn Foundation The Findhorn Foundation, located in northeast Scotland, is a major international centre of spiritual education and personal transformation offering many ways for people to visit, live or work here. It is associated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organisation and is represented at regular briefing sessions at UN Headquarters.

• Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) A global nonprofit organization that helps companies achieve commercial success in ways that respect ethical values, people, communities and the environment.

• Business Spirit Journal Online Bringing Consciousness to Business, the Business Spirit Journal offers information, inspiration and resources for anyone wanting to broaden the definition of "bottom line" to include our spirit. After all, for most people, half of our waking hours are spent at work. Our audience ranges from CEOs of multinational corporations to entrepreneurs, consultants and small business people to workers at all levelsin other words, anyone who works.

• Christians Supporting Community Organizing A group of Anabaptist, Baptist, Evangelical, Holiness, Pentecostal, Reformed and Wesleyan Christians who invite others in their biblical traditions to join in congregation-based community organizing on behalf of justice in the world, negotiating with decision makers to reach solutions to critical issues impacting our communities.