Gordon Brown

Larisa Friesen Hall 12-19-2012
 PavelSvoboda / Shutterstock.com

Photo: Unidentified young boys work hard as porters instead going to school: PavelSvoboda / Shutterstock.com

Beau Underwood reminded us at this year’s Sojourners’ Christmas chapel that Jesus was not born into a calm, peaceful world in a serene nativity scene. It was a chaotic world in which the Jews were oppressed by Roman rule and Jesus’ very act of being born freaked Herod out, resulting in a mass genocide of baby boys. All was not calm and peaceful as the birth of Jesus challenged the sinful powers and structures of the world from the very start of his life.

This Christmas the world remains a very frightening and chaotic place for many children around the world. Jim Wallis and I met with former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown just a few days ago and Gordon told us about a group of children in Delhi, India who were being held in unspeakable conditions — forced to work for up to 15 hours a day making Christmas decorations. 

Children! Forced slave labor, some of them as young as 8 years old, imprisoned, beaten, and required to make decorations intended celebrate the birth of the savior of the world. Making matters worse, these are only a few of millions of young children trafficked into slave labor around the world all year long. What horrible irony.

Tim Costello 12-17-2009
The rhetoric soared today as rich nation leaders -- UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Australia's PM Kevin Rudd and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton -- urged completion of a deal to slow global warm
Andy Clasper 4-08-2009
The group of 20 leading and emerging nations met at the Excel Centre in London's Docklands last week in a meeting which Gordon Brown heralded as the dawning of a new world order.
Elizabeth Palmberg 3-11-2009
[continued from part one] Recently, Neil Watkins took some time to answer a few questions fr
Elizabeth Palmberg 3-11-2009
Recently, Neil Watkins took some time to answer a few questions from Sojourners assistant editor Elizabeth Palmberg about the upcoming G-20 meeting, the global economic crisis, and hel