A Child Labour Situation

Alright. Here's the big one. The "Crème de la Crème" if you will. Here's the situation. You are hired for a job at a big company, (Sony* or something). And during your first day, you find out that they use child labour to manufacture all of their products. What do you do? Well, I would go home and consult and old tattered piece of paper that I received in Year 10. It's called, "Christian Decision Making Model", and behold!!! Here is what happened.





#1. What is the issue and why is it important?
The issue is that, being a christian, you are severely against the idea of child labour. However, you do have bills to pay. And if you do work there, you are supporting a company that exploits children and doesn't care for them. And yet again, you have bills to pay.

#2. Who will be affected by this decision?
If you work, the children will be affected because you will be supporting a company that uses these children as their pets in a way. If you quit, you will be affected because your wallet will be as well.

#3. What are the possible choices and what are the likely consequences of each one?
Possible Choice #1: Keep working. Who cares about the children anyway? It looks like you don't. So why don't you forget about the children and how the are being mistreated. At least you have some money in your pocket.

Possible Choice #2: Quit. You quit your job and tell other people about your ex-employers exploiting ways. You are out of a job, but I'm sure you are more than capable of finding a new one.

#4. What do my family and friends advise?
I'll go ask Mum, be back in a minute... She said that she would quit because she doesn't believe that exploiting children is a moral thing. Now for a friend, who's on Skype... Nobody. Bugger. So I'll ask my sister. If the income was good enough, she would stay, but she would still not agree with the company's exploits.

#5. What is suggested in the words and teachings of Jesus? Is there something in the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes that relates?
I believe that I already covered this, but for the sake of redundancy, I shall present the following:

The Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal"
The Beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I do believe that that was all that really related to child labour. I've probably missed something.

#6. Do any of the virtues of faith, hope, love, wise judgment, courage, justice and wholeness relate to this situation?
When I think about it, hope, justice, and wise judgment relate to the situation. Hope, because (if you quit) your message will be recognized and maybe the company will be boycotted. Maybe.
Justice, because I hear that there isn't enough of it. And if you do quit, you will help get more of it.
Wise Judgment, because your decision depends on it.

#7. What does the Church teach about the issue? (Catechism)
The church doesn't really seem to have a view on the situation. And if they do, they have hidden it well. Or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

#8. Prayer for guidance
I found this little gem. Creator God! We thank you for the gift of life. We thank you for the millions of children in this world who are created in your image. We thank you for their parents. We seek your blessing on each of these children because every child is special. May we understand your love and kindness, care and concern for these children. Accept our prayers in the name of your son Jesus who came into this world as a babe in the manger. Amen. Lovely.

#9. Write your decision
Well, my personal decision would be to leave the job. I probably would have stayed had I not done all this work and I probably would have dismissed the child labour as another thing that happened. But, this project has really opened my eyes. Probably opened Cookie's as well. So, thankyou Mrs. Morrisey for this project