Community Supported Agriculture
In the past few decades, Christians have gradually and increasingly acknowledged that human relationship to the natural world should be included in theology. However, this theology has still enjoyed only limited development and acceptance (Cobb 82). Humanity needs to further its understanding of itself as an integral constituent of creation, rather than seeing itself as above, below or outside creation. According to the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible, humanity is an inextricable part of nature. In the Genesis creation story, God forms humans (adam) from humus (adamah), making them true earth-creatures (Guengerich 15). Because God created all things, all things in the world are in relationship, both human and non-human. When Christians realize their oneness with creation, they need to develop and practice an ethical response to ecology as well as a theological one. Such an ethic of ecojustice grows directly out of a theology that takes the natural world into full consideration. James Martin-Schramm's 1996 essay "Toward an Ethic of EcoJustice" provides a helpful framework for understanding a Christian ethical response to creation.
Martin-Schramm says ecojustice is closely tied to the concepts of equity and distributive justice (209). He identifies four moral norms of ecojustice that have been discussed by the World Council of Churches in its assemblies since 1975: sustainability, sufficiency, participation and solidarity (Martin-Schramm 209). All four principles have roots in Christian theology.
Sustainability is concerned with the long-term and holistic survival of the planet and its populations, including humans. It means that immediate economic growth is less important than deve...
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...e Press, 1987.
Logsdon, Gene. At Nature's Pace: Farming and the American Dream. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994.
Martin-Schramm, James. "Toward an Ethic of EcoJustice." Paul T. Jersild, et al ed. Moral Issues and Christian Response. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. Eugene, Ore. Online. Internet. http://www.efn.org/~ncap.
Platt, LaVonne Godwin. "Responding to our Rural Crisis." LaVonne Godwin Platt, ed. Hope for the Family Farm: trust God and care for the land. Newton, Kansas: Faith and Life Press, 1987.
Van En, Robyn, Liz Manes and Cathy Roth. Community Supported Agriculture of North America at the University of Massachusetts Extension. "What is Community Supported Agriculture and How Does It Work?" 29 July, 1997. Online. Internet. http://www.umass.edu/umext/csa/about.html.
Labrie, Janet M. "The Depiction of Women's Field Work in Rural Fiction." Agricultural History 67 (Spring 1993): 119-33. JSTOR. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
In the second chapter, The A, B, C, and Ds of Sex (and Asex), Brock University Associate Professor and Asexuality author, Bogaert, examines “some of the fundamental psychological processes of asexuality as they relate to both sexual and asexual people.” Throughout this section, Bogaert explains the “A (attraction and arousal), B (behavior), C (cognition), and Ds (desire)” by going through each letter and explaining what it stands for. He tries to get the younger readers to understand the definitions of asexuality by aiming focus on the constituents of sexuality first. The similarities between sexuality and asexuality are outlined throughout this reading. Surprisingly enough, Bogaert explains the differences and the relationship between romantic and sexual bonds and how they appear in asexual people as well.
Capstone Problem Statement: The loss of economically viable small-scale, diversified farms in rural communities surrounding
As a child I remember hearing stories about a lost family fortune from my father’s side of the family. I never put a lot of stock into those stories, but evidently they were true. My father’s side was comprised of farmers for many generations. The Owens family owned thousands of acres of land in Kentucky, on which they farmed tobacco and raised horses and cattle. My father, Leland, blames his grandfather’s generation for whittling away the family’s money. Even with the loss of prestige of owning such an abundance of land, the family continued to farm. I suppose it is all they knew. They became good, working class farmers and small business owners, working on their modest-sized farms. But they did own the land which separates them from the working poor. The sizes of the farms dwindled over the generations; my father’s father, Harlan, owned about 30 acres in northern Kentucky. Harlan’s brother Ralph has expanded his wealth over time and now owns about 600 acres of land in Kentucky.
---."The Theos-Rights of Animals." Animals and Christianity. Ed. A.Linzey et al. New York: Crossroad, 1990.
In his essay “Religion and Animal Rights," the writer Tom Regan maintains the place that animals are "subjects-of-a-life”, like humans. If we value all beings regardless of the degree of human rationality that are able to act, we must also attribute to animals or as it is called non-human animals as well. All practices involving abuse of animals should be abolished. The animals have an intrinsic value as humans, and stresses that Christian theology has brought unbridled land on the brink of an ecological catastrophe.
Singer, Peter. “All Animals Are Equal” in Environmental Ethics edited by David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott. Oxford University Press, New York. 2002. p. 17-27.
Within the past three decades, the childhood obesity rate has increased three-hundred percent (Crouse par. 3). This also means that ten percent of children worldwide are overweight or obese (“Childhood Obesity” par. 33). According to the Centers for Disease Control being overweight is defined as, “having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water or a combination of these factors.” On the other hand, they define obesity as having excess body fat (“Child Obesity Facts” par.1). A child is determined as overweight or obese when total body weight is more than twenty-five percent in boys and thirty-two percent in girls (Green ??). Childhood obesity is not just something that influences someone’s life as an adolescent, it causes health risks including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, joint problems, diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, liver disease, and gallstones (Torkos 42, Galea 62). A study of five to seventeen year olds showed that seventy percent of obese youth have a high risk of cardiovascular disease (“Child Obesity Facts” par. 2). These are diseases that we once associated with growing old, not growing up (Galea 62). Medical risks are not the only problems that childhood obesity can cause. Society has a strong bias against people or children who are overweight. People characterize them as ugly, lazy, and lacking willpower (Torkos 42). These stereotypes can cause an overweight child to have low self esteem which can lead to a much more serious problem, depression. The childhood obesity epidemic needs to be prevented, and the only way to do that is addressing the main causes. Childhood obesity has become a major problem in recent years due to lack of daily physical activity, inappropri...
The author of Pastoral Leadership, Robert D. Dale, lays out everyday guidance for those in ministry. Formerly being a teacher at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and having written at least 14 books, Dale gives great insight. This book printed by Abingdon press, can be bought for less than $30. With about that many years in experience, it 's well worth the price.
The notion of “neighbor-love” presented by Cynthia Moe-Lobeda entails that humans must reconceptualize our own perception of our identity as well as our position in nature. She contends that as creatures of Earth that are dependent on and biologically connected to every part of nature, we are responsible for extending our love to the environment and other non-human creatures. In addition to revising the concept of neighborly love, she provides a framework for a moral economy that is congruent with the responsibility of expressing neighborly love towards nature. This model of moral economy is comprised of four main components, which are ecologic sustainability, environmental equity, economic equity, and economic democracy. The most persuasive
The pastor of the author’s church has revealed a concern about the direction of the church to the author on a number of times. He revealed that more time is spent devising programs and events than on true discipleship. That concern is on many pastors surrounding the globe. Some college students also voiced their lack of interest in continuing to attend church. The writer questioned some of the college students at his church and discovered that many were discouraged by what they called “reruns.” When pressed, they continued that the Sunday School materials and the sermons were the same. It was either academically based or just “plain boring.” There was “no daily accountability or encouragement” from members or staff. There is a lack of interaction from members and it seems to have become “mandatory instead of desirable to attend church.” These concerns are not just limited to a city in the deep south United States. It is evident that something is missing in many churches. Church attendance for many has become a habit or cultural demand. The writer has also been frustrated by what he sees as a cultural Christianity in the south. What has evaded many churches is true discipleship. The writer’s pastor voiced his displeasure in the fact that his ministry had been relegated to management. He spends more time managing buildings, budgets, staff, goals, and guidelines instead of ministering. The results are evident; growth in membership plateaued a couple years ago, worship has been stagnating and giving has dropped. Dr. Michael Mitchell claims that the essential activity of Christian ministry is to “make a disciple who worships Jesus” (Mitchell 2010, 262). Dr. Mitchell’s assertion that the essential activity of Christian ministry is about...
It is important for me to remember when preparing a sermon, that it is not about the preacher, but through preaching, God the Holy Spirit does the work of giving God’s
Kathryn J. Brasier, Stephan Goetz, Lindsay A, Smith, Molly Ames, Joanna Green, Tim Kelsey, Anu Rangarajan & Walt Whitmer (2007) Small farm clusters abd pathways to rural community sustainability, Community development: Journal of the community development society, 38:3, 8-22.
Thompson, Paul B. and Stout, Bill A. Beyond The Large Farm. Westview Press, Inc.: Colorado 1991
A pastor is someone who abides deeply in the love of God and his someone who is constantly praying for the needs of this congregation. A successful pastor is someone who prays constantly, and he does not rely on his own power is much he relies on the power of God. Prayer for a pastor is something that he uses each and every day, and he is the man who loves not only to do life with people, but he also loves to go for God and receive for his people on their behalf. A pastor’s prayer life is one that does not always have a lot of time devoted to it, but is one that is fruitful and shows his genuine heart force people and his desire for his church Donnelly to grow numerically, but also to grow as a unit. A pastor may not always be able to do everything that is necessary at the church, but he is a master delegator and he loves to empower others to do the tasks that he himself