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Editorial:
Minority Report
Anna Rankin
Comment:
Racism in Ulster: Up-front and Ugly
Ken Newell
From
the Director: Naming Our Sin
David W Porter
Faith
in Ulster: Facing Up to Diversity
Stephen Skuce
Faith
and Practice
Walter Lewis
Interview
with Rose Ozo: Where the Heart Is
Anna Rankin
Craigavon:
Religious Liberty in the Shadow of Drumcree
Small Steps
Tim Foley
Embracing the Stranger
Richard Kerr
Review:
On Eagle's Wing
Ethel White
Review:
Conflict, Controversy and Co-operation
John W Morrow
Review:
The Subversive Manifesto
John Kyle
Review:
L is for Lifestyle
Claire Martin
Review:
It Will Not Be Taken Away From Her
Cary Gibson
Review:
Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance
Paul Rankin
Review:
Two Little Boys
John Gillespie
Review:
Son
David Smith
REVIEW:
L is for Lifestyle
by Ruth Valerio
reviewed by Claire Martin
ARE YOU CONCERNED with promoting social and economic justice in the world? Do you want to see people all over the world living better lives? Do you donate money to organisations that help to bring this about? Do you ever stop to think that one trip to the supermarket might undo some of that good work?
This was the first revelation I had when reading L is for Lifestyle– and I hadn’t even made it to the end of the introduction! The book, of course, is not saying that giving to charity is not worthwhile or that supermarket shopping is wrong, far from it. What it does is to encourage taking a more holistic approach to the way we live our lives and examine some of the areas where we should perhaps make adjustments in order to “Act justly and love mercy”.
Each chapter deals with a different topic and 25 chapters neatly take the reader through the alphabet from A (is for Activists) to Z (is for Zeitgeist). (I know there are 26 letters in the alphabet, but for some reason Q is not covered – my [Q for] question is why not?)
The topics dealt with are very relevant to our lives today – Food, Globalisation, Investments, Money, Recycling, Unwanted Peoples, Paper, Water, to name a few – and are discussed using balanced and factual information as well as being considered in a biblical light.
Fitting nicely with the topic of this issue of lion&lamb, the chapter on “X is for Xenophobia” deals with racism. It shows that racism, and the consequences of it, spread a lot wider than you might initially think.
“So many of the issues that we have been considering, such as HIV or water, predominantly affect people who are not white. Many of us reading this who are white may feel pretty confident that we aren’t racist. But one of the challenges of this book is to consider where we may yet be contributing to global racism and how we can begin to change that.” (143)
The book certainly covers a lot of ground and can really only scratch the surface of each issue. As the author herself says,
“Throughout this book we have been trying to make some sense…of the ‘glorious mess’ that is our world. Glorious mess wonderfully encapsulates what we see as we consider the many different topics that make up this book”. (155)
But this is not primarily a theoretical book. A is for Activists, as the first chapter says, and so is this book. There is no need to read from cover to cover, although it is very easy and enjoyable to do so, instead you can dip in and out of topics that interest you. At the end of each section, “Good Contacts” are listed, giving the reader plenty of opportunities to explore the topic further – I probably spent as much time looking up the many recommended website links as I did reading the book. A list of “Action Points” encourages the reader to follow through from what they have read and take action. After all, Ruth Valerio wants this book to be “a call to change our lives in order to respond to the many challenges facing our world.” (157)
CLAIRE MARTIN is Programme Co-ordinator with ECONI.
L IS FOR LIFESTYLE,
Christian living that doesn’t cost the earth.
Ruth Valerio
Published by IVP, 2004.
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