Beth Wise

Tag: social justice

I Hugged an African Today

Full confession: I work .8 miles from where the infected ebola patient was staying. Yep, Google Maps tells me that I could walk to his apartment in five minutes. The chance that he passed by the ESL school where I work is pretty high, considering that all roads in the neighborhood lead to Wal-Mart. I…
She’s Bought the Field

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13:44 “Are you ready to go?” I asked of the Liberian woman who was waiting patiently in the…
The Splinters of Entitlement

When you guys are ready to adopt and you come to me freaking out about the home study, I will give you three key pieces of advice: 1. Make sure to remove the beer that you use to wash your hair with from under your bathroom sink. (Beer in the bathroom doesn’t bode well for…
The Wise Guy-de to Making Ethical Purchasing Decisions

If you’re a friend on facebook, then you know how ecstatic I am when I find American made goods in unlikely places. I have a visceral reaction. For instance, when we planted our garden, I knew that I wanted to make my own pest control products so that I could control what was going on…
Let’s Talk About Race, Baby

I was talking to my friend Joe the other day about racial privilege. Joe is extremely thoughtful about social issues and often alerts me to things that I wasn’t aware of. While we were talking about all the “isms”, Joseph mentioned that, as a white male, he never thinks about his safety. Never. Thinks. About.…
Syrious

I still remember the phone call that I made to my parents in the Spring of 2006. “Mom? Dad? I think I want to go to Syria over Spring Break.” My church was taking a “fact finding” trip and they needed people to go meet with the missionaries there and then come back and get…
The Danger of Comfort

I’ve been perusing my old xanga site, where I blogged all through college and the beginning of my marriage. How fun it is to have a record of my thoughts going all the way back to high school (where all my friends blogged at diaryland). I was reading some stories that I had written about…
Welderbeth’s Bi-Weekly Distractions

Okay. Maybe not bi-weekly but, you get the drift. Was there some sort of fancy football game yesterday? Is it wrong that I know the Ravens won but I don’t know the name of the other team? Anyway, I’m a bad Aggie, bad West-Texan, and probably bad American because I’m totally not in to football.…
Factory Workers Plead for Help

Have you heard about the letter hidden by a Chinese factory worker that was found by a woman in Wisconsin who bought some stuff from a Kmart in Oregon? You can imagine that if I found a letter like this: I would drop everything, fly immediately to China, and offer to adopt all of the factory…
Responsible Shopping: The Princess Conundrum

Well, I laid it all out on the table last week when I said that I was done with purchasing not-fairly-made things. Big commitment. One I’m kind of excited about. I thought I would kind of give myself an easy start- you know, like buying an American-made Slinky or an American flag. Nope. There were…
Consumerism: A Conversation with God

God: Hey there, sister. How you doin? Beth: Well, this hasn’t been the best day. I should have listened to Alex when he told me not to read the Kindle in the bathtub. They’re skinny but those things pack a serious punch… Am I dead? No, you’re not dead. Just temporarily knocked out for a…