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Home Page: www.eco-justice.org     *     E-mail: ministry@eco-justice.org

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Voluntary Simplicity Index

Eco-Justice Ministries thanks you for your leadership in the growing movement that is challenging the destructive values and systems of our consumer culture, and proclaiming the hopeful options of voluntary simplicity. We see the cause at which you are working so diligently as an essential component of our quest for eco-justice – "the well-being of all humanity on a thriving Earth."

Several of our e-mail newsletters have addressed core themes and principles about simplicity, sustainability and sufficiency. The basic ideas that are addressed in those commentaries are probably familiar to you; the new images and strategies that are named may be helpful in your work. The list below provides a brief summary of some of those columns, with links to the full text.

• Facing Limits (4/5/01)
  The ecological and economic reality of limits is also a pastoral issue.

• Who Am I? (3/30/01 and 1/22/03)
  Christian faith and consumer culture have conflicting ideas of self-identity.

• How Do You Spell Success? (5/11/01)
  The way we measure success shapes our goals -- based on that week's political news.

• Green Building -- Missing the Point (8/23/01)
  Is it still "green" if it is huge?

• Packing Light (4/19/02)
  Backpacking and recreational vehicles as metaphors for life.

• Overcommitment Is a Sin (6/21/02)
  The pastoral reality of overwhelmed schedules.

• Do You Want Fries With That? (7/12/02)
  Are retailers really giving consumers what they want with new products?

• Extortion As Good Business (8/30/02)
  A stack of phone books leads to a critique of the economic system.

• What Would Jesus Drive? (11/15/02)
  Commetns on the faith-based campaign for better fuel economy.

• Progress Toward Shalom (3/14/03)
  The biblical vision of shalom is lifted up as a guiding principle.

• Relative Deprivation (8/1/03)
  The perspective from which we see our own poverty or wealth shapes our behavior.

• Options to Excess (8/29/03)
  The Parade of Homes illustrates a shift from "durable goods" to "fashion."

• It's Obscene! (10/4/02)
  Are some forms of over-consumption just obscene?

• Noisy and Noxious (12/5/03)
  A rant against leaf blowers.

• Giving Thanks in an Affluent Land (11/26/04)
  What do our Thanksgiving prayers really say?

• Too Many Choices (5/21/04)
  Based on a Scientific American article that shows too may choices will decrease happiness.

• Subvert the Dominant Paradigm (6/18/04)
  Explores the differences between political activism and changing worldviews

• Bottled Up Anger (3/11/05)
  A commentary against bottled water.

• It's Not Rocket Science (5/6/05)
  Is the emerging industry of space tourism what we really want?

• The Dieting Sumo Wrestler (5/17/02 and 6/15/05)
  How do you get a Sumo wrestler to go on a diet? And what does that have to say to us?

• Draining the Champagne Glass (8/27/04)
  The "ecological footprint" changes the way we seek economic justice.

• Never Good Enough (8/5/05)
  A connection between domestic violence and consumer culture.