'Tweaks' and transforming the world

EVERYDAY JUSTICE: THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF OUR DAILY CHOICES
By Julie Clawson
Published by InterVarsity Press, $16

Facing the enormity of the world’s suffering can be paralyzing -- no action one person could take would ever be enough. Julie Clawson understands this well, kicking off her book, Everyday Justice, with the friendly warning: "Don’t panic."

The book’s purpose is to outline some of today’s major justice issues and suggest ways we can "tweak" our lives to align with what God expects of us. "And yes, I said tweak -- not overhaul," Clawson writes. "Asking people to completely overhaul their lives after reading a book is unrealistic. Such a request prompts the feelings of panic I mentioned before. A few of us might be ready for the overhaul, but we are all capable of tweaking."

She combines this personable, realistic tone with the strong conviction that Christians must take their faith beyond church walls and answer God’s call -- which she illustrates with numerous Bible passages -- to care for the poor and oppressed.

She quotes a youth pastor she once knew: "Every decision has a price tag." He might have meant it to warn teens off sex and drinking, Clawson says, but it needs to be taken further, to consider, for example, the price paid by faraway, exploited workers when we purchase cheap clothing or food that has traveled thousands of miles to our grocery stores. "We effectively deny the image of God in those workers by telling them that our shopping habits and consumer needs are more important than their dignity of life," Clawson writes. "The cost they are paying is the price tag of our decisions."

Each chapter outlines the costs underlying various aspects of the average American’s life, from the food and drink we consume, to the cars we drive and the waste we create. But following the bad news are suggestions on ways we can begin to make more ethical choices, in our personal lives and in our communities.

All along, she shares her own efforts, the successes and failings, with an honest understanding of the obstacles, whether it’s limits of money and time, or the difficulties of even knowing which products are ethically produced. But she emphasizes, "This isn’t an all-or-nothing issue." First steps are important, and seeking justice will look different in each person’s life, she says.

Even if it’s not quite enough to quell those moments of "panic," Clawson’s informative book offers a helpful approach, and a feeling of solidarity with others on the journey.

-- Teresa Malcolm, NCR staff

CESAR CHAVEZ: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
By Ilan Stavans
Published by Cinco Puntos Press, $13.95

Fearing that to younger generations, Cesar Chavez is more familiar as "the man on the stamp" or the "statue in the park," Ilan Stavans sought to immortalize the labor activist’s life and spirit in Cesar Chavez: A Photographic Essay. Stavans interposes photographs within text, including many quotes from Chavez himself.

"Taken together, these images offer an intimate, humane glimpse of Chavez the man through the eyes of those who knew him best."

Cesar Chavez in a photo from the Farm Workers Archive, featured in the book Cesar Chavez: A Photographic EssayStavans’ essay opens with a picture of 6-year-old, overall-wearing Chavez on his family’s Arizona ranch, and some of Chavez’s earliest and pained recollections of growing up as a migrant worker after his family lost their land. The most intimate joys and trials of Chavez’s young life are unfolded as readers progress from his nomadic childhood, sporadic education, 8th-grade graduation, and his enlistment in the Navy (what Chavez called “the worst two years of my life”), to his greatest pride: his marriage to his high-school sweetheart and the birth of his eight children.

It is from Chavez’s personal reflections on these moments in his life and Stavans’ description that Chavez’s greatest influences are revealed. Chavez himself explained:

All my life, I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision: To overthrow a farm labor system in this nation which treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings. ... My motivation comes from my personal life -- from watching what my mother and father went through when I was growing up; from what we experienced as migrant farm workers in California. That dream, that vision, grew from my own experience with racism, with hope, with the desire to be treated fairly and to see my people treated as human beings and not as chattel.

In more than 40 compelling photographs, readers see Chavez proudly holding his diploma, laughing with his family, embracing farmers, sitting with the Kennedys, shaking hands with Pope Paul VI, boycotting, getting arrested, fasting, and crying, with Chavez’s compelling words and actions trimming the pages. Stavans makes it abundantly clear that Chavez’s life should not be forgotten.

INTRODUCING CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT
By J. Milburn Thompson
Published by Orbis Books, $22

For those with a hazy recollection of their grade school understanding of Catholic social teachings, J. Milburn Thompson offers a comprehensive alternative in his text Introducing Catholic Social Thought. Thompson presents a complete overview of Catholic social thought beginning with its formation, its relationship with church and state, and then delving into the its most topical teachings: economic justice, war and peace, care for the earth, and consistent life ethic. Pairing theological principles with examples of present-day Catholic social thought in practice, Thompson offers an accessible guidebook to what the Catholic church teaches concerning social responsibility.

"There is no reason for it to remain ‘the church’s best kept secret,’ " Thompson writes. "Catholic social teachings should be proclaimed from pulpits and taught from podiums. It should become part of the vocabulary of Catholics as they work to transform the world."

Thompson follows the development of Catholic social thought, referencing a broad selection of texts, including Hebrew and Christian scriptures, modern theological texts, and a wide range of encyclicals from Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum in 1891 to Benedict XVI’s recent Caritas in Veritate. The durability of these texts is shown as the church’s social doctrine is applied to a broad range of social justice issues. Explaining the just war theory, Thompson evaluates the church’s commitment, or lack thereof, to Catholic social thought within the Cold War, Holy Wars, and First and Second World Wars.

Introducing Catholic Social Thought seeks to prove to readers the sustainability of the Catholic social teachings. Thompson describes Catholic social thought in regards to economic justice, the priority of labor over capital, and the rights of workers, using Cesar Chavez and migrant workers’ movement as his model. When discussing how authentic development should be the Catholic church’s response to global poverty, Thompson analyzes the work of Bono and the ONE campaign, and while explaining Catholic teaching concerning ecological theology and environmental ethics, he depicts the life and martyrdom of Notre Dame de Namur Sr. Dorothy Stang.

Thompson dares his readers: "The real challenge of Catholic social teaching is for each of us to become one of those stories."

-- Casey McCorry, NCR intern