A recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service found that less than a third of Americans say the Occupy movement represents their values, but the police evictions seem to have boosted religious support for the movement.
This comes with actually learning something about the movement, instead of letting the inane memes circulating through various media rule the day. As people become educated about the actual aims of the movement, and learn that it’s not whatever “Marxist” conjures for them, the movement has grown. This is the problem with the Religious Right. They have become so sold out to Right wing politics, aligning with them because of their alleged “moral values” and “family values” , that they tend to join the chorus of characterizing the protest as a bunch of smelly, jobless, hippies.
So this is why people are surprised to see church folks involved and backing this movement. It’s a case of the church having become a defender of the status quo. They did it re: slavery, civil rights, and now they buy, hook, line and sinker, the garbage coming from Fox News and the like. People see this and assume this is the “religious response”. No, this is the response of the culturally assimilated “church” that meshes “Americanism” with theology. Their “patriotism” becomes indistinguishable from their “Americanized theology”; what threatens one threatens both. So people continue to be surprised when they see discerning, intelligent people express their solidarity with Occupy with theological language.
Currie said he found the number of young people who thanked or prayed with the religious emissaries “astounding,†especially because only one in four Oregonians identify with a faith tradition.
“A number of people expressed surprise that we were there. They did not realize that the church had an interest in these issues,†Currie said.
Although surprising to some, many of the Occupy camps now have some kind of faith outreach group, prayer tent or meditation class.
RNS Feature: “Churches help Occupy movement survive crackdowns, winter”.
