J4P – Imaging another world one step at a time (part 1)

Daniel Farrell – Guest Blogger for the Community Book Review of Jesus for President.

There is a lot to cover in these sections.  Shane and Chris rapid fire through a few topics that mean a lot to me.  I’ll try to rapid fire a little overview and some Richmond focused resources.

Good pattern for God’s Good Creation

Using less resources has many personal advantages but there is something bigger being talked about here.  The authors advocate and live(and share about others who also live) radical alternatives to the normal american use of natural resources.  While I have some concerns about the sustainability of large scale use of vegetable oil as a fuel, at this point and on a small scale it is a great thing that they do.

Some quick things you can do to use less resources are getting CFL lightbulbs for your house, use reusable grocery bags, bike any place you can and switch to green or wind energy.  Also connect with groups like the Back Porch Energy Initiative who are focusing a lot on this.

Practicing Resurrection

A phrase the authors use a lot is practicing resurrection.  There is a lot of room in urban environments to breath life into things that look dead.  They have done creative things like turning old refrigerators into compost bins.

Beyond that type of stuff in this section they also address our food. They encourage everyone as “one of the most revolutionary practices you can participate in” to grow your own food.  So much is wrong with how the world food system works that we can’t really go into it here.  But there is a way out.  Besides our gardens, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farms are a great way to get local sustainably grown food and support the local farmers.  SproutRichmond is a great group that will help connect you with a local CSA.  We are also blessed to have Ellwood Thompsons Local Market here with it’s commitment to getting locally grown food.  For gardening resources I can recommend connecting with Tricycle Gardens for some of their workshops.

Setting the Captives Free

Next on the agenda is our prison systems.  The authors point out a couple of very disturbing things in this section.  First is the connection between slavery and our prison systems.  Slavery was outlawed in America with the 13th amendment but it also said that it was only illegal if the person has not been convicted of a crime.  This allows our prison system to provide cheap labor to corporations.  Combine that with the fact that around 1/3 of black men in America is in prison and you have a new slavery.  The other connection was between the welfare system and our prisons.  Philadelphia was used as an example, when they asked a city official how they were preparing for welfare cuts he responded by saying they built 4 new prisons.  How these combined ideas don’t lead us all to be outraged is beyond me.

I don’t actually know of any good prison ministries in Richmond.  If you know of any please leave them in the comments.

Daniel Farrell is a follower of Jesus, a husband to Alicia and owner/operator of Farrell IT. He lives, works and plays in Richmond, VA. You can follow along the Pilgrimage that Daniel finds himself on here

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