Social Justice
Ministries & Events
Those who think that Spirituality is different from Politics do not understand Spirituality; and those who think that Politics is different from Spirituality do not understand Politics. —Gandhi
As part of our continuing commitment to social justice, St. Andrew’s is a congregational member of Texas Impact, a voice of religious social concern to the Texas Legislature.
Summer 2010 Film and Popcorn Series
True Stories of Social Justice
and the Activists Who Made a Difference
All screenings are on the third Friday of each month at 6:30pm. Films will be followed by discussion. Child-centered, supervised activities will be offered.
August 20: “Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story”
1996 film, directed by Michael Ray Rhodes, written by John Wells with Moira Kelly and Martin Sheen.
The story of Dorothy Day, a New York journalist who launched the activist newspaper "Catholic Worker" and turned her words into action. Controversial for her support of the 'third way' economic system described as 'Distributism', she was often called an anarchist and did not hesitate to use that word to describe herself. Dorothy wanted to make a difference in the lives of those who were suffering from homelessness and hunger during the depression and little could stop her. She along with Peter Mauriin established the Catholic Worker movement, a non-violent, pacifist, movement that continues to this day.
St. Andrew’s Food Pantry
and Shower Ministry
Two Saturdays each month, St. Andrew’s opens our Food Pantry and Shower Ministry to the poor and homeless in our community. Find out how you can support this important local ministry.
Work for Social Justice at Home:
Buy Fair Trade Goods
When you buy fair trade goods, you help farmers and other local producers earn a fairer share of income. In the kitchen at St. Andrew’s, we serve only Equal Exchange Fair Trade Coffee — specifically their Café Salvador. But check their wide selection of gourmet coffees (many are organic) for your favorite.
Equal Exchange works with small farmer cooperatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In addition to offering their partners a fairer price, Equal Exchange helps them get credit, offers them technical support, and provides a trading partner they can trust.
And coffee isn’t all that Equal Exchange offers — check out their selection of teas, chocolates, cocoa, clothing, and other goods. All goods offered by Equal Exchange are traded fairly.
A Few of Our Past Events
to Promote Social Justice:
Building the World We Want to Live In
St. Andrew’s and SafePlace working together to pilot new techniques for building peaceful communities.
Film Series: The Century of the Self
How business and politicians create and manipulate mass-consumer society.
Originally aired on the BBC, Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series tells the story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? At the heart of the story is Sigmund Freud, whose techniques to probe the unconscious mind provided tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses and served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society’s belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is the ultimate goal.
Film Series The Corporation
Is the current crisis of capitalism a temporary problem or do we face more fundamental flaws in our economic system? The documentary film The Corporation investigates the question through a detailed examination of that institution which structures contemporary economic life.
The Corporation includes interviews with 40 corporate insiders and critics -- including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore -- plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change. The film is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.
Chris Hedges, author of Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
In his new book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. He argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, retreats from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. Hedges looks at trends in entertainment, education, and public life to describe an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.
After Hedges earned a degree from Harvard Divinity School, he embarked on a reporting career that began in 1983 in El Salvador. After six years in Latin America, he spent seven years in the Middle East, most of them as the bureau chief for The New York Times. He also covered the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, before joining the Times' investigative team covering terrorism.
Hedges was an early and vocal critic of the plan to invade and occupy Iraq. In May 2003 he gave a commencement speech in which he said, "We are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige and power and security." The Times reprimanded Hedges for "public remarks that could undermine public trust in the paper's impartiality" and demanded that he stop speaking about the Iraq war. Refusing to accept these restrictions, Hedges left the paper to become a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, write books, and teach. He is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002); What Every Person Should Know About War (2003); Losing Moses on the Freeway (2005); American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007); I Don't Believe in Atheists (2008); and Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians (2008, with Laila Al-Arian).
Today’s Economic Crisis:
An Instance of Shock Capitalism
Hear the podcast of this talk by Naomi Klein. Held Oct. 12, 2008, this special Last Sunday event was sponsored by:
- Third Coast Activists Resource Center
- MonkeyWrench Books
- Workers Defense Project/Proyecto Defensa Laboral (PDL)
All proceeds from this event helped to fund PDL’s work for racial and economic justice in the workplace.
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times and international bestseller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Published worldwide in September 2007, The Shock Doctrine is set to be translated into 25 languages. The six-minute companion film, created by Alfonso Cuaron, director of “Children of Men,” was an Official Selection of the 2007 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and was a viral phenomenon, downloaded over a million times.
Her previous book, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, was also an international bestseller, translated into at least 28 languages with more than a million copies in print. A collection of her work, Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate, was published in 2002.
Klein writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian that is syndicated internationally by the New York Times Syndicate. In 2004, her reporting from Iraq for Harper’s Magazine won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. In 2004, she released “The Take,” a feature-length documentary about Argentina’s occupied factories, co-produced with director Avi Lewis. The film was an official selection of the Venice Biennale and won the Best Documentary Jury Prize at the American Film Institute’s Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Spirituality and Activism Conference 2010
Consumed and Commercialized: Our Children's Future?
Spirituality and Activism Conference 2008
Sustainable food, environment, and economics