The Shalom Center - Freeing Our Time

Bankers, the Bible, & the Bail-out

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:38:18 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Hard-headed Bankers or Masters of Disaster?
Sacred Economics -- Is it Silly?
Hard-headed Economics -- Is it Breaking our Heads?

If you listen to the hard-headed people who presumably keep us prosperous, Biblical and Quranic economics are, of course, quaint and unrealistic. They're based on romantic ideas about benefiting the poor, the landless, the outcast. Good for motivating open-hearted charity; bad for making hard-headed decisions necessary to run a successful economy.

Right. Which is why the hard-headed folks have created a crazy economic yo-yo skidding on the edge of massive disaster, in which the worst-hit will of course not be the Wall Street / Washington power-houses but the rest of us.

Toward a Jubilee Economy & Ecology in the Modern World

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:38:58 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This essay is a chapter in Rabbi Waskow's book Godwrestling -- Round 2 (Jewish Lights, 1996). The book is available as a free gift from The Shalom Center, personally inscribed by Rabbi Waskow as you choose, if you use the Donate Now button on the right to make a tax-deductible contribution of $180 or more.

[At the end of this essay you will find citations on teachings from the Hebrew Bible & related materials toward a Jubilee Economics and Ecologics.]::

One lesson that we have discerned from studying the story of the Flood [see a previous chapter from Godwrestling -- Round 2] is that it is profoundly necessary for us to affirm and celebrate the cycles of life if we wish to preserve the cycles of life. Are those cycles now in danger? And if so, how can we affirm them?

Free Time/Free People Statement

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 18:16:53 -0500

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

FREE TIME/ FREE PEOPLE

visit the FreeOurTime Section

Americans today work longer, harder, and more according to someone else�s schedule than they did thirty years ago. We are all witnesses to the rise of an economy that instead of serving human needs, dehumanizes many of us.

Our religious traditions teach that human beings need time for self-reflective spiritual growth, for loving family, and for communal sharing. And the earth itself needs time to rest. Today�s high-stress economy and culture — damaging to workers and toxic to the earth — preclude this sort of spiritual deepening.

We call upon our own spiritual communities to undertake a campaign for FREE TIME/ FREE PEOPLE — affirming our religious obligation to change the present patterns of overwork.

We call upon American political, economic, and cultural leaders —

— to reduce the hours of work imposed on individuals without reducing their income;

— to strongly encourage the use of more free time in the service of family, community, and spiritual growth;

— and to make work itself sacred by securing full employment in jobs with decent income, healthcare, dignity, and self-direction.

We call upon religious communities to reach out to the labor movement, environmentalists, women's organizations, forward-looking business leaders, neighborhood and community-based organizations, and family-oriented groups to secure these changes in American life.

We ourselves will work to advance these goals of FREE TIME/ FREE PEOPLE, and will make available information on how individuals, religious congregations, other groups, and our society as a whole can take steps to free time for family, free time for community, and free time for personal renewal.

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IT'S ABOUT TIME

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 17:07:16 -0400

9/28/2004

Increasing workplace demands are threatening families, communities and health, and America's political leaders need to seriously address this critical issue. That's the message from a coalition that is launching the "Time is a Family Value" campaign, urging candidates in the 2004 Presidential election and all other candidates for public office to put their family values policies where their mouths are. Organizers say polling research shows that the issue of overwork and time-strapped families has rocketed to the top of the agenda for critical swing voters.

Bring Back the Eight Hour Day

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 15:42:43 -0500

BRING BACK THE EIGHT HOUR DAY
by Charlie King

Say you work at a white collar job
You're paid at a fixed monthly rate
But you come in for meetings a half hour early
You're working a full hour late
Then you sit for an hour in traffic
With the rest of the overtime drones
There's a latchkey kid you must chase off to bed
For you eat a cold supper alone

Notes on Free Time Strategy & Tactics

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

FREE TIME/ FREE PEOPLE

NOTES ON STRATEGY AND TACTICS

I: Over-all Strategy

Some aspects of our Strategy are likely to be different from much

Telephone Workers, Overwork, & Free Time

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:53:22 -0500

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Telephone Workers, Overwork, & Free Time

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In the August 31 NYTimes, there is a major article on a possible impending telephone workers strike — the CWA (Communication Workers of America) vs. "Verizon" — what was Bell Atlantic, plus other global-corporate parts.

Last weekend, I got a first-hand taste of what is at stake in this possible strike, and since it connects with some Shalom Ctr work, I want to report on this and ask your thoughts.

The report may seem longish, but I hope you'll find what happened interesting and enlivening.

Can America Learn from Shabbat?: Free Time for a Free People

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 21:23:09 -0400

(This article was published by The Nation, 1/01/01, and republished on 1/14/01 by www.Beliefnet.org)

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Several years ago, I went to a folk song festival in Philadelphia. Many of the singers sang labor songs of the 1930s, civil rights songs of the 1960s, songs of many decades. The audience sang along, nostalgia strong in the air.

Free Time Statement Signers

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:00:20 -0500

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

FREE TIME/FREE PEOPLE

Statement Signers as of 8-6-00

(Organizations listed for identification purposes only)

Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, President, American Sufi Muslim Association

Dr. Gar Alperovitz, President, National Center for Economic & Security Alternative

Rabbi Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert, Women's Studies Program, Temple University

Reverend Nancy Anderson, UCC, Minnehaha United Church of Christ

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, University of Judaism