There is also work to be done in study. Every revolutionary movement needs people who think and study and write and analyze. A revolution is not sustainable if there are only people on the street.

via Models and Authorizations: An Interview with Walter Brueggemann. — Theology of Ferguson — Medium.

Somewhere in this mention I find myself,  or wish to locate myself.  I went to Ferguson in mid-August on a day after I had made a business trip to the St. Lois area.  I took my video stuff,  and went to see what I could,  and hoped to talk to some people.

I arrived home to discover that there had been a delegation of ministers there,  meeting at a local church very involved in helping the protesters and hosting ministers from around the country who came to show their solidarity with the black community of Ferguson.  I had been disappointed with what I had not gotten.  I had hope to find some theological conversation about this tragedy,  and the ongoing reactions of the authorities in the coverup and handling of the protests.  And when I found that I had missed out on being with all those ministers,  including Brian Merritt who is a friend of mine and also had been tweeting his trip to Ferguson,  I fell into a state of discouragement about my failure to be attentive enough to my own Twitter stream that could have hooked me up to that group.  I had even heard of the church at which they were meeting because of a police raid that confiscated the church’s supply of aids for victims of tear gas.

So out of my sense of disappointment over what I did NOT get,  I posted none of the video I did get.  I told myself I’d regroup and return again.  I have yet to do so.  With the news of “no indictment” on any of the charges,  and reading a bit this morning from reactions,  I ran across this interview with Walter Brueggemann,  where he mentioned how movements need people who “think and study and write and analyze.”  I thought about how I want to help in this effort,  and do some video story telling.  I’m still not at all over how I missed out on a gold mine of people showing up to offer their presence and their encouragement and bring the good news of the gospel to bear on this situation.  Now it seems we have only the beginning of a longer effort.  In other words,  a movement that elicits many actions and protests and conversations in multiple channels of media.