Annotated Peace Resource List

Based on two popular PBS documentaries (Affluenza and Escape from Affluenza), This looks at the damage to our health, families, and environment by the quest for material gain that has been at the core of the American Dream since WWII. Loneliness, rising debt, working long hours and pollution are symptoms of this search for more, which can be cured. The book includes a self-diagnosis test and a number of treatments that offer hope for recovery, along with inoculations against advertising, uses of technology and inspired design to minimize the side-effects of consumption, and more.

Affluenza explores the epidemic of shopping, overwork, stress, and debt that is infecting Americans in record numbers, though rarely addressed in the media. Traces the historical roots and offers concrete advice about how to work toward a cure. The sequel focuses on creative ways people are changing their wasteful ways. Comes with viewer’s guides.

"With insight, compassion, and a knack for telling a genuinely good story, Hugo and Doreen have gathered an engaging collection of suburban experience stories that could happen to anyone. What is especially appealing and potentially transforming is its honesty and vulnerability. When we hold our time and possessions lightly, we will discover the way of true freedom and joy…. " Marlene Kropf, Associate Professor in Spiritual Formation and Worship at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana

Books, games, resources on celebrations, Christmas, consumerism. The mission of Alternatives for Simple Living is "to equip people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly." ." Resource guide available at: www.simpleliving.org/Default.aspx?tabid=413

"Enough." What a concept. This four-week guide helps to explore this question in thought and experience. Includes daily reflections, discussion questions and acitivities. Good for small groups. (MCC, Herald Press)

Examines our search for fulfillment and security through material possessions. A variety of people share thoughts and practical ideas for nurturing our communities and spirits by living more responsibly and joyfully. Main 15-min. segment is followed by three 10-min. sections on freedom and possessions, family and children, and taking action. Transcript available at: www.simpleliving.org/Archives/VideoScripts/BreakForthJoy.html .

Dear’s vow was written in collaboration with members of Pax Christi of the Catholic tradition. After addressing violence and nonviolence, he explores previous vows to nonviolence, and reasons for them and implications. He follows with chapters on Gandhi and Jesus, questions for prayerful reflection, and scriptural passages on nonviolence.

One of ESR's best selling books, this curriculum offers more than 80 activities that help teachers and students define peace, explore justice, and learn the value of conflict and its resolution. Students read, write, draw, role-play, sing, and discuss their way through a process that helps them acquire the concrete cooperative and conflict resolution skills.
www.esrnational.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21

A Guide for Living the Family Pledge of Nonviolence.

Based on the Family Pledge of Nonviolence, this includes stories, suggestions, activities and other resources to help families live day-to-day.

(Cooperative Children's Book Center--CCBC, School of Education, University of Wisconsin). Includes sections: On the Job, Kids at Work, The Migrant Experience, and Labor Activists. Includes age ranges and thorough annotations.

Evangelism patterned after the NT involves both evangelistic activity and just living. (Peace & Justice Series #4) .

"Illustrations from the period, dates, key historical figures and geographical development of the country are included. Hakim adds to American History studies by including materiathat illustrates daily life, social attitudes, contemporary concerns and dilemmas, political climate and trivia. Using sidebars Hakim raises questions to stimulate an analysis of how the facts presented relate to various aspects of history. ... A 1999 Parents' Choice Silver Honor Winner." (Eileen Kuhl,Parents' Choice)

Sourcebook for A History of US.

Arthur Simon, founder of Bread for the World, presents both the cost and joy of discipleship by getting right to the heart of the matter of wealth and faithfulness in our culture. Simon’s chapters address the poverty of riches, our rushing to nowhere, how much is enough, living simply so that others may simply live, and filling the heart with something better than cash. Includes thought-provoking quotes, such as from a visiting German Christian referring to US culture and racism shortly after WWII: "I notice your churches have cushions. I notice your preaching has cushions, too." Also, from Ron Sider: "The Christian life comes not by gritting our teeth but by falling in love."

Illustrated for children, the idea that, of the world-villages' 100 people, only 5 would be from the United States and Canada; 20 would earn less that a dollar a day; 17 would not know how to read or write; and just 24 would always have enough to eat. A high school history and geography teacher said, I have also taught first, fifth, and eighth grades and I know that this book would be popular even with six-year-olds, whether or not they fully grasped the concept. In my freshman geography class I cannot get through a page without a barrage of questions and comments."
A researcher in the history of international education said, "It is one of the finest examples, in many decades, of books which provide a sensible, sensitive picture of the whole world, as it exists today."

How do we change personal attitudes or systems that cause injustice? The author Offiers suggestions based on 40 texts from Luke. Each chapter ends with a creative retelling of a text, useful for worship settings.

A pilgrimage toward true experience of God’s love in your heart that combines inward reflection with caring action. "Jim’s practical steps and gestures take a lot of the paralysis out of the merely preached and hard-to-hear gospel."--Richard Rohr. The spiritual wisdom of Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King is woven together with practical applications that ranged from contemplative prayer and fasting, to acts of peacemaking and service, and solidarity with the poor and creation.

Sider spells out s program--based on scriptures--to reduce poverty dramatically. His prescriptions do not fall neatly into the platforms of the political right or left, but draw from data from various views. .

A wholistic perspective that embodies the biblical vision of shalom, this book is dedicated to people who need the Sabbath: "the busiest, who need to work from a cohesive, unfragmented self; the social activists, who need a cycle of worship and action; those who chase after fulfillment; those who have lost their ability to play..."