The Common Good

Culture Watch

Buy Nothing Day as Advent Activism Against the Demon Mammon

As per usual, on Friday, we had all sorts of Buy Nothing Day festivities (check out the video here). But that's not what I want to talk about.
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Win a Trip to Africa in the Sojourners and World Vision Filmmaker Challenge

Sojourners and World Vision need your help to promote the Mobilization to End Poverty, the event this spring where thousands of Christians will come together to call on President Obama and the new Congress to pass historic anti-poverty legislation.
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A Public Prayer of Thanksgiving

This historic proclamation of "A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer" w
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Video: How to Make Christmas Ornaments from Credit Cards

The word "plastic" means "anything which can be easily shaped or sculpted" (actually, an even older meaning is "sculptor")
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Black Friday and Consumerism, White Privilege and Buy Nothing Day

All of you who have a pulse know that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the single most crazy shopping day in the United States.
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Celebrate 'Buy Nothing Day' with 'Make Something Day'

The day after Thanksgiving, thousands of Americans head for the shopping malls for a ritual known as Black Friday, called such as it's a day when many retailers move from the red (losses) into the black (gains). Black Friday is "celebrated" nationwide by working off Thanksgiving's meal by shopping. Over a decade ago another celebration was started on the same day: Buy Nothing Day.
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'Yes Men' Distribute Fake New York Times Declaring 'Iraq War Ends'!

Eating scrolls, taking a stroll around the city naked, cooking food over dung, marrying a prostitute, and naming your kid "Not My People" are just a few examples of the behavior of biblical prophets.
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Soldiers of Conscience: The War Within Those Trained to Kill

Life is easier in black and white, when things are clearly right or clearly wrong. We tend not to like the gray very much. It was certainly easier for me to hard-headedly disapprove of all war, including those who took part in it. But, working at an orphanage in India, I met Chad, a young man fresh from Iraq with an American flag tattoo, and he muddled up my clarity.
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