Please add permalinks to your reviews on the books, articles, blog posts you read or movies you view for the month of February. A roundup of all reviews will be posted at the end of the month. Thanks for your participation in the Social Justice Challenge!
Social Justice Challenge :: Water
February 1st, 2010 · 4 Comments
Welcome to the second month of the 2010 Social Justice Challenge! This month’s focus is Water.
Below I’ve listed a few questions that you can answer either on your own blog (and leave a link in this Mister Linky) or in the comments here. We’re all in this world together, so let’s see what we can learn from simply listening to each other!
I’m looking forward to reading all of your responses, and to a great month!
Review Round-up for Religious Freedom Month
February 1st, 2010 · 3 Comments
Here’s a quick look at this month’s reviews. Don’t worry if you haven’t posted your review yet, we’ll do this round-ups every once in awhile. Thanks for a great month everyone! I’m passing things on to Hannah for February. (she’ll do a much better job!)
Amy reviewed The Trouble with Islam by Irshad Manji and The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann.
Margot reviewed In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham with Dean Merrill. So did Ronnica.
Wendy reviewed Sacred Hearts< by Sarah Dunant.
Martha reviewed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. So did Erin, and Hannah.
Jenn reviewed Anil’s Ghost by Michael Odaantje So did Black Sheep.
Heather reviewed The Faith Club by Ranya Idilby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner
Fiona reviewed Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks. So did Stark Raving Bibliophile.
Annie reviewed Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
ibeeg reviewed Silence by Shusaku Endo
Katrina read Sorrow Mountain by Ani Pachen and Adelaide Donnelly.
Edi reviewed Many Windows: Six kids, five faiths, one community by Rukhsana Khan with Elisa Corbone and Uma krishnaswami.
Sheila reviewed The Mercy Seller by Brenda Ruckman Vantrease.
Rasco reviewed Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosay.
Ah Yuan reviewed A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi.
Kim of Bookstore People reviewed Night by Elie Wiesel.
Action Steps for Religious Freedom Month
January 30th, 2010 · 5 Comments
The most important thing we can do to help ensure that people around the world are not persecuted for their beliefs, for changing their beliefs, or for not believing at all is to make sure that people in the position of power know about violations of these rights. This month’s action steps focus on this idea.
Last week I added a new resource to the resources page, called Forum 18. While Forum 18 is a Christian organization, their work is for the religious freedom of all people. I highly recommend bookmarking their site to stay on top of all the latest news regarding severe threats to religious freedom today.
Suggested Action Steps:
Write to your senator or US representative when you hear about a threat to religious persecution or about the issue in general.
Write to the President or US Department of State.
Write to the US embassies in other countries to share your concerns about religious persecution.
Use your blog as a place to inform others about current threats to religious freedom. Write a post about a situation and then share your feelings on why religious freedom matters.
If you are a Christian and wish to get further involved in helping the persecuted church, Voice of the Martyrs has several ways to take active steps, including writing to prisoners,becoming a voice for the VOM network in your local church, and sending action packs to persecuted Christians in Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan. You can view a full list of their opportunities on the Voice of the Martyrs website.
Visit the Amnesty International website and find out how you can get involved from your country. Amnesty International makes it possible to send emails and faxes straight from your computer in many cases and has a wealth of information about severe threats to human rights.
**If anyone knows of any similar organizations to Voice of the Martyrs for other religions please let me know and I’ll add them to this list.
An Apology
January 28th, 2010 · 3 Comments
Did you know January 16th was Religious Freedom Day? Read the letter from President Obama about the purpose of this day.
Additionally, I know I’ve been a poor host this month, and I deeply apologize. Expect an outpouring of posts over the next few days including recommended action steps you can take. Thanks for your patience this month!
Religious Persecution in Myanmar
January 24th, 2010 · Leave a Comment
This article provides a quick overview of the religious persecution in Myanmar today.
Severe Threats to Religious Liberty Today
January 11th, 2010 · 5 Comments
When reading through the answers to the opening meme for the month, I saw an expressed interest in learning where about threats to religious freedom today. While freedom is always of a delicate nature, the Independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom named, in 2009, the following thirteen countries as being Countries of Particular Concern (places where governments engaged in severe and ongoing violations of religious freeom):
- Burma
- North Korea
- China
- Vietnam
- Eritrea
- Nigeria
- Sudan
- Iran
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
You can read more about the commission’s findings at Voice of America.
January Reviews for Religious Freedom
January 10th, 2010 · 5 Comments
Please add permalinks to your reviews on the books, articles, blog posts you read or movies you view for the month of January. A round-up of all reviews will be posted at the end of the month. Thanks for your participation in the Social Justice Challenge!
Why Does Religious Freedom Matter?
January 3rd, 2010 · 16 Comments
Welcome to the Social Justice Challenge 2010 everyone! I’m more excited about this challenge than any other because I sincerely hope it will be life changing for all involved. I have long wanted to focus more of my reading on what matters and I hope that this challenge helps us to not only learn but take action on what we’ve learned.
To start things off on this month focusing on Religious Freedom, I thought it would help if we confronted our feelings about the subject. Below you’ll find a few questions that you should feel free to answer either on your own blog (and leave a link in the Mister Linky) or in comments. We have so much learning that we can do just from each other.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of religious freedom?
What knowledge do you have of present threats to religious freedom in our world today?
Have you chosen a book or resource to read for this month? (If not don’t worry, I’ll be updating the resource list this week)
Why does religious freedom matter to you?
I look forward to reading your responses everyone and I look forward to a great month!
The 2010 Social Justice Challenge
December 1st, 2009 · 52 Comments
Reading opens new worlds to us and can sometimes expose the injustice in our own. We have all been powerfully moved by the injustice we have learned about in books and decided we wanted to host a reading project that would encourage us to learn more about these issues in the world.
It can sometimes be overwhelming and disheartening to read about the powerful obstacles others in the world face. So this reading challenge is different. Not only will we be encouraging you to learn about issues of social injustice in the world through books, essays, blogs, and other media–we will also be challenging you to take an action step and make a difference as a result of what you’ve learned. Let’s put our knowledge into action and make a difference!
We have chosen to focus each month on a different area of social injustice in the world. During that month, we are asking that you read something from the list of resources or watch something suggested by that month’s host. That will complete step one of this challenge: Learn.
Throughout the month we will also be posting ways you can make a difference in this area. Don’t worry, we will provide several different options at many different levels of commitment. The important thing is to take an action step towards doing something to change things! That fulfills step 2–Take Action.
We realize that as the year goes on some months will be busier for you than others. Some themes may be more important to you personally than others. So the challenge is customizable each month to fit your needs by the month.
When you sign up the Social Justice Challenge you are committing to 12 months participation. The amount you participate each month, however, is up to you.
Activist–At this level you are agreeing to participate fully in the activities of the month. You will read at least one full length book as well as choosing something from the other media list. You will also complete an action step. By signing up for the challenge, you agree to do a minimum of 3 months at this level. You do not have to decide which months in advance.
Intern–You agree to either read something from the reading resources (it can be an essay or children’s book) or choose to do something from the other media list. You will complete an action step. You do not have to decide which months in advance.
Volunteer– You agree to read at least one of the recommended blog posts, essays or shorter novels. You will complete an action step. You do not have to decide in advance which months they will be.
Observer — Need a break? Just follow along with the blog for the month. This month has no commitment level. You can only do a maximum of three months at this level.
You can always do more, but you can’t do less. You can also customize the challenge in other ways. Already planning to read more about India this year? Choose your reading resources around the country of India!
Edit for clarification: The amount of participation is on a month-to-month basis. One month you can be an Observer (topic may not interest you or you don’t have the time), another month you can be a Volunteer (read a blog post instead of a full length book), another month an Intern (watch a documentary), or another month you can be an Activist (read a book and watch something off of the media list.) All levels with the exception of observer will have an action step as well.
If you’d like to participate in the challenge (and we want you too!), we ask you to choose at least a minimum of three months in which you’ll participate on the Activist level (you could do all twelve if you wanted, but three is all we are asking). You can’t participate in all twelve months as on observer either, therefore the three months maximum at that level. So you really can mix it up as much as you want as long as you participate in at least three months minimum as an Activist and three months maximum as an observer. Let us know if that makes any sense and if you have any questions.
At the beginning of every month we’ll put up a mister linky where you can link to reviews of what you’ve read and where you share what you’ve learned. This is really important since we don’t all have time to read all of the books and resources we can learn from each other! We’ll also put up a mister linky where you share about the experience of taking your action step and share advice for others who also want to help. The host for the month will recap everyone’s posts and reviews.
The resource lists will be continuously updated throughout the year (they are only bare bones right now!) and we’ll do a weekly recap to let you know what has been added. Please do not hesitate to send us resources, we want the most comprehensive lists possible!
Interested in signing up? Please help us out by grabbing a button using the code located in the footer of this blog, writing a post on your blog and encouraging your readers to sign up as well. No blog? No problem! Just contact us with your intention to join.
You can follow us on Twitter as well as subscribe to the feed of this blog. Both are very important for completing the challenge!
