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Ahhh, we’re falling over doing good. Read confessions of a charity fundraiser; why photos of starving people still work; and, this just in, the All New BS Detector.

In this issue we’re focusing on the way words and images are used in the realms of faith and good causes.

We start by looking at ways in which faith organizations, social change movements and NGOs sometimes slide their words and images down a slope toward deception and manipulation.

Then we move into a greyish zone, where pros and cons are aired openly, where conclusions are not offered on a platter and where no one is trying to sneak into the back door of your consciousness to get to your wallet. The colour grey is not always the best — there’s a time to speak with single-minded passion and conviction — but the honesty and humility required by the grey zone seems to be in short supply these days.

Finally, we offer a diversity of ways to move away from slick, prescriptive, agenda-laden use if words and images toward a more imaginative, liberating and honest discourse.

• The 'war on cancer'
  Sandra Malasky 20
• The ethics of slick
  Geez Staff
• Changing the story of change
  Nate Buchanan 17
• Join the revolution
  Geez Staff 21
• Hope: Crutch or inspiration?
  Various
• Come on, a washable Bible?
  Aiden Enns 44
• Good design
  Rob Peters
• Make a difference TODAY!: Reflections of a fundraiser
  Laurel Hoffmann 16
• Religious satire: Path to truth or smug peanut gallery
  Becky Garrison 38
• A good kind of slippery: From skeptical to reparative reading
  Miriam Meinders 74
• The space for poetry
  Adrienne Rich 71
• Hot pop feminist mag
  Jenny Henkelman 65
• On watching good bad movies
  Kurt Armstrong 61
• The ethics of vision: Photojournalism and human rights
  Susie Linfield 47
• Liturgical language as antidote to consumerist chaos
  Paula Huston 72
• Complicity in the cycle of poverty
  Theresa Mienders 18
• Sympathy for the poverty peddler
  Stephanie Tombari 19
• Leaving the garden
  Miriam Meinders 20
• pt1: Too slick for their own good
• The 'Other' problem is deep
  Rachel Reimer-Vanderberg 26
• How to watch a documentary
  Andrea Palant Dilley 27
• why does life seem so small
  Laurel Mathewson 31
• pt2: The rigour of the grey
• Abdul Ali
  Phil Sparrow 32
• Blessed are the poor... and the rich
  Josiah Neufeld 37
• Posing as progressive: The problem with PC
  Will Braun 40
• The more politically correct, the better
  Miriam Meinders 41
• pt3: Responding to spin
• The temptation of truth
  Will Braun 52