“Bread, Bath & Beyond:  The Justice Tee?”

First Congregational United Church of Christ

August 21, 2011

The Rev. Sharyl B. Peterson

Scripture Readings:  Isaiah 58 (portions), Matthew 6: 33

During this month of August, we are considering some “everyday justice” issues.  We have talked about what God’s justice looks like, and we’ve considered how complicated it can be for us to make daily choices that bring forth God’s kind of justice – but that it is not impossible, and that in fact every one of us can make some changes. 

            Last week, we talked specifically about how our food choices can bring about greater justice, or can mediate against justice-bringing.  And those of you who were here last week may remember that a key problem we considered that gives rise to so many justice concerns around the growing, marketing, and consumption of food is that we have lost sight of the difference between having “enough” and having way more than enough; i.e., being “overstuffed.”  And our confusion about this difference can lead to a host of environmental problems related to food production, to a host of health problems for those who produce the food, and for those who eat it (like us), and to a host of social concerns like the fact that many of the farmers – and their children – who provide our food to the point that many of us have too much to eat, are themselves starving – or underpaid – or living in terrible conditions – in order to produce the vast variety of foods we demand.

            Well, folks, as we turn today to consider some of the justice issues related to clothing, we run into many of the very same justice issues and concerns.  For example, when it comes to clothes, we are also confused about the difference between having “enough” and having much more than we need; i.e., being “overstuffed.” 

            Quite concretely, if the over-50s among us think back to our growing-up years, I’d bet that a lot of us can remember not even having a closet for our clothes.  I grew up in an ever-moving military family, and we always lived either in tiny base quarters or in small rental houses.  And until my senior year of high school, my sister and I always shared a room, and for most of those years, both of our sets of clothes, in their entirety, shared a three-drawer dresser.  When we finally did move into a house where our room had a closet in it, the closet was about a third the size of just one of the two large closets currently in my bedroom at home.

            Just a few decades ago, most people simply did not have 10 (or more) pairs of shoes, or 15 (or more) different blouses or shirts, or three dozen dresses or pairs of slacks.  I’m guessing that many of you know exactly what I’m talking about. 

Yet today, many of us here (and please remember, as I noted last week, “many” of us is not “all” of us, and we need to remain mindful of that) but many of us here not only have one closet full of clothes, but we often (especially if we are still working outside the home) have two closets, one holding current-season clothing, and the other filled with off-season clothing.  To say nothing of dressers full of underwear, and socks, and accessories, and perhaps casual clothes as well.  When it comes to our clothes, most of us have more clothes than we have places to wear them.

            Clearly, we all do need clothes.  But just as clearly, most of us probably don’t need as many as we have – or want.  And, the aspects of clothing that we are most concerned with too often nothing to do with how they were produced, or where they came from, or the effects their production has had on this planet we all share, or on many of our sisters and brothers who live on it.

            For example, we worry a lot about variety, just as we do with food.  Just as we enjoy the 40,000 options our average supermarket offers us, we also like to have lots and lots of clothes to choose from when we get dressed.  How many of us have stood in front of our closet which is filled with clothes, and fussed that “I don’t have anything to wear today.” 

            We worry a lot about fashion, particularly if we are a younger person (you get to define “younger”).  Are we in style?  Do we look as good – or better – than the person standing next to us?  And the more we worry about this, the more often we buy new clothes – until we need the double-triple closets, and the multiple sets of dressers to store them in. 

            And finally, most of us worry a lot about low costs.  As with our food, we want lots of choices available at affordable prices (to us)  regardless of the costs these produce for this beautiful Creation of God’s, or for God’s other beautiful children.

            As an example of how all this works, Julie Clawson, in her wonderful book Everyday Justice[1], invites us to consider a typical cotton tee-shirt. 

            Once upon a time, tee-shirts were an “unmentionable” – an undergarment – for men only.  But “during WWI, American soldiers noticed European soldiers wearing them, and by WWII, the t-shirt became standard issue in the American military, and not long after that, the tee was introduced into mainstream American fashion[2].”    Today, tees are a garment that everyone wears, military and civilian, male and female, old and young, so much so that tees are considered socially acceptable for practically any occasion.  (In fact, how many of us have one or more in our closet or drawers at home?) 

            They come in a rainbow of colors, in every possible size, and they’re generally inexpensive.  What’s not to like?  And so we buy millions of them a year, or we’re delighted to receive them as freebies at conferences or walk-a-thons we attend.  And yet, even a simple tee-shirt raises all sorts of justice-questions for us to consider.

            From an environmental – or, theologically, from a Creation standpoint – we need to consider first that most tees are made of cotton.  And because so many people want so many tees, most cotton growers today here and across the world are growing strains of high-yield cotton, in order to maximize their profits.  Nothing wrong with that.  Business is a basic social transaction, and it can be a very good thing.  So can making profits.

            But what is a concern – what is a justice issue – or a set of justice-issues – is that growing these strains of high-yield cotton causes a host of environmental (Creation) problems.  For one thing, these high-yield strains require considerably more fertilizers and pesticides to grow than lower-yield crops require.  For another thing, since cotton is not intended for human consumption, there are virtually no regulations regarding the amounts or types of chemicals that can be applied to this crop.  So, globally, although cotton only occupies about 3% of agricultural land, its production utilizes 25% of the world’s insecticides[3]. 

            And that is a problem because widespread use of pesticides and other agri-chemicals is destroying the water and the land itself.  Using more chemicals means more run-off into, and pollution of water-sources, more pesticide residual buildup in the soil, and more soil destruction or death.  In addition, most of you read the news, and you know how various pests and diseases develop immunity over time to chemicals, and how that immunity creates a vicious circle, requiring ever more chemicals to control the pests and diseases. 

            And the chemical impact doesn’t end with the harvesting of the crops.  The production processes of dyeing and laundering garments involve still more chemicals … especially because we insist that our clothing be wrinkle-free … flame retardant … UV blocking.  And that means that the products on which the chemicals are used (like our tees, and our shorts, and our favorite dress, and even our cotton sneakers) are more likely to carry chemical residues, some of which do not come off in the clothing production process, but do eventually come off in our very own washing-machine, or on our very own skin. 

            You know how when you wash a piece of clothing, it sometimes “bleeds.”  The fact is, the more a piece of clothing “bleeds” when washed, the more residual chemicals it contains that enter the water system.  Our water-system.  Our neighbors’ water-system.  Our children’s and grand-children’s water-system.   And the more that ends up on our skins.  And on our babies’ blankets.  And on our toddlers’ jammies.  And on our teens’ jeans.  And on our Moms’ sweaters, or on our Dad’s jackets.

            Not only that, there is a whole second set of social justice issues having to do with the people who grow the cotton, or harvest it, or manufacture our clothing.   In areas where farmers are growing their own cotton, from whom other countries will purchase it, the demand for more and more cotton, which needs more and more chemicals, means they have to pay more and more to grow their crops.  Given that many of these farmers are barely surviving to begin with, they can’t afford to do that, and so in some places, like India, farmers are killing themselves (somewhat ironically, by ingesting pesticides) because they are so in debt to chemical suppliers they’ll never get free, and because they can no longer grow crops on increasingly ruined land. 

            And, because more and more chemicals are used to grow high-yield cottons more and more farm-workers and manufacturers are exposed to those chemicals, and they develop a variety of diseases – or die – from that chemical exposure.  The woman who dyed your cotton socks may well develop bladder cancer.  The man who sewed your wrinkle-resistant shirt, or your stain-resistant slacks may well develop lung cancer from inhaling formaldehyde.  The child who wound the bobbins on the loom that wove the fabric for your scarf or tie may well become deaf because of excessive noise levels in the factories[4].

            And on top of all that, because of the demand from consumers for lower-cost clothing and because of the demand from business-owners or shareholders for greater profits, millions of growers, pickers, and workers in manufacturing plants (mostly in other countries) live in nearly unendurable conditions.  They are paid excessively low (or sometimes no) wages (come see China Blue next week), work in horrendous conditions which are often poorly-lit, unheated, and unsafe, for 12 to 20 hours a day, with few or no breaks for meals or toileting.  And while some global companies do develop lists of environmental and/or working-condition standards for their suppliers, unless those companies pay regular visits (which few of them do) to the farms or factories, both workers – and the environment – continue to be abused and treated unjustly.

            While probably none of us really thought about it when we got dressed this morning, the items we put on our bodies this day have already affected this planet we share … have already affected men, women, and children whose labor helped produce our garments … and they might well affect (and at least faithfully, I hope will affect) us as well.

Now, I feel like I’m a pretty good, fairly faithful person.  And I know that all of you are too.  So I invite – I encourage – us all to reflect consciously on some of the expectations – or demands – we have about clothing availability, on some of our “needs” – or desires – to be fashionistas – and on how what we want for our own well-being may affect our world, and the people with whom we share it.  And once we become aware – once we start consciously thinking about these things – I am betting that we will start to make those small changes I keep talking about, that together can make a huge difference in our world.

          Even more than with food purchases, we can do some “clothes homework” ahead of time.  Say, we’re thinking about buying a new pair of shoes (or a new tee-shirt) … so, what are our options? 

If we go on the Internet (or get a grandchild or friend to do it for us) and put in “socially responsible shoe (or tee) companies,” what do we find?  We find a wealth of information, detailing which manufacturers do respect the environment in their production processes, and/or do respect and humanely treat their workers. 

            For example, this week I did that very thing.  Because I faintly remembered a furor involving Nike shoes some years ago, involving the horrible working conditions in their overseas manufacturing plants, I wondered, had anything changed?  Had consumers’ upsets about Nike’s policies actually made any difference?  So, starting with Nike, I did a bunch of Internet research. 

And I found that the good news is, yes, consumers do make a difference – a huge difference.  Because of consumer outcry – and consumers switching to other shoe-brands – Nike has made substantial reforms in worker conditions, and now inspects their plants regularly to make sure workers are paid just wages, and are treated humanely.  And because of that, many of those old customers who were upset are buying Nike shoes again.  And Nike is not the only company that has figured out that treating people – and the environment – justly can be very good for business. 

As a local example, ever since Bob and I moved to this Valley 10 years ago, we’ve been buying most of our shoes from Brown’s Shoe Fit downtown.  I have to be absolutely honest with you, and admit that our initial choice of Brown’s had nothing to do with what we knew about the environmental or social responsibility of the shoe-brands they carry.  Because we didn’t know anything about either of those things. 

            Instead, we’ve bought at Brown’s because they sell good-looking shoes that are extremely well-made, and very comfortable, and last a very long time.  Even though their shoes are more expensive than those at, say, Penney’s or Target, in my personal economic model, I’d rather pay $90 for a good pair of leather-shoes that will last me for five years than to pay $30 for a pair of cheaply-made shoes that will last for one or two. 

            What I was really tickled to learn this week as I was doing my Internet research is that nearly every brand of shoes that Brown’s carries – like all of these you see up here this morning – they intentionally carry because of the environmental and social responsibility of each of the manufacturers.  And knowing that makes Bob and me even more committed to buying shoes from them.

            As consumers, we all have choices.  First, we can decide whether we really do need as many clothes as we think we do.  Second, we can decide whether those clothes need to be brand-new, or instead might be second-hand (an issue to which we’ll return next week).  And third, when we do decide to buy new, we can choose which businesses and companies we will buy from, and base part of our decision about that on their attention to justice-issues.

            As people of faith, we know that the witness of the Scriptures is pretty clear about what God would prefer that we do, what the Christ we follow would prefer that we do.  “Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living things that moves on the face of (the) Earth” (Gen. 1:28).  “Practice righteousness… loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke” (Isa. 58).  ^“(Do) not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether (our own people) or aliens who reside in … your towns.  You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt” (Deut. 24).  And from Jesus, “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about … whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your … outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body… All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? .. What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving… Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out.”

            As God’s people – as Jesus’ followers – we don’t have to worry about missing out.  And we can help create a world – even a pretty fashionable one – where other living beings don’t have to miss out, either.  That’s good news for them – and for us!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.