"What do you remember about Zacchaeus? How have you been encouraged to respond to his story? Jesus told a parable to Zacchaeus and all who witnessed their encounter. What was that parable? Do you know?" In the first of a series of articles for MM, Deb Storie leverages her doctoral work on Luke 19 to rejuvenate the Zacchaeus episode or us, letting the text challenge rather than bolster standard middle-class Australian perspectives on wealth and justice. Read it here: https://mannagum.org.au/articles/Reading-and-Mis-Reading-Zacchaeus

The fashion industry is responsible for 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 50% of this comes from fast fashion - the diabolically rentless turnover over of new clothing lines. Fast fashion is kept cheap by worker exploitation - less than 2% of workers in FF receive a living wage. You can read all about it in this excellent article: https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/fast-fashions-environmental-impact/?geo=ww&device=desktop

What do you do for Lent if you're already vegetarian and don't drink much alcohol? Jacob and Andi tried a fast aimed at challenging a central maxim of consumerist society: that acquisition leads to life. How did it go? What did they learn? Read it here: https://mannagum.org.au/articles/Giving-up-Consumerism-for-Lent

"When property becomes a means of hoarding wealth, of exerting power over others, or of pursuing a selfish independence from others, then property becomes improper. Currently Australia is founded on ‘improperty’: how do we transform it?" In his final article in his Christian ethic of property series, Jonathan lays out a positive programme and practice for renewing our approach to ownership and the things we own. Read it here: https://mannagum.org.au/articles/Whats-Mine-is-Ours-A-Christian-Ethic-of-Property-for-21st-Century-Australia

The latest edition of Manna Matters has hit the stands, just in time to swing the the Federal Election. Check it out! *|https://mannagum.org.au/#Manna-Matters|*

As I have often argued, this graph from The Australia Institute shows that a major cause of rising house prices has been increased demand from investors. Their research shows restricting negative gearing to newly built housing and scrapping the capital gains tax discount would reduce speculation in the housing market and allow more first home buyers to get into their own home. Reducing tax concessions would also raise billions of dollars of revenue that can be used to build more housing. Negative gearing and the CGT discount cost the budget around $20 billion per year, more than twice the $8.4 billion state and territory governments spent on public and community housing in 2022-23.