From the United Methodist Reporter:
The Rev. Paige Eaves, pastor of Crescenta Valley UMC in Montrose, Calif., acknowledged she hesitated about getting involved in Occupy Los Angeles, “trying to figure out what the message of the movement was and if I could align myself with it as a clergyperson.â€
But soon she had concluded affirmatively.
“It is obvious to me that the call to economic justice is clearly part of our theological and denominational legacy and mission,†she said.
http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=8435
The floodgates are opening, and the churches are awakening. What the Right dismissively labels “Culture War” is becoming a new theological division between the Right Wing of Christendom and the politically concerned. And, as usual, a disturbingly large, inactive, un-engaged group of “Moderates” or “Centrists” who don’t even think about it. The large majority of them seem to diss the idea of political activity and open dissent. If the active, “Occupy-supporting” and “Occupy involved” can articulate a theological vision (which many groups have been doing for decades), then this movement will naturally reach many more as more of the middle class slide down into poverty and debilitating unemployment, home foreclosure, and health care debts. We’ve already reached an apparent tipping point. And many in the church who have been so fortunate as to have heard or been exposed to visions of God’s Kingdom as a place and life of justice and peace are seeing the importance of lifting this vision up and re-affirming it in solidarity with the increasing oligarchy that is being strengthened before our very eyes.