This, from a blog post I started reading yesterday, and took up again this morning, is very close to where I come down as a “theological reading” of the Occupy movement, and what makes it a “teaching moment” for the church. #OWS reminds the church of something that it has forgotten, namely, that faithful and active shouldering of covenantal responsibility in relationship Continue Reading
The “angel” here is, as Forbe’s reads Walter Wink’s exploration of “The Powers”: Walter Wink’s concept of “the powers” in which he describes that there is, in a sense, an angel of every nation. “The angel or spirit of America,” Wink writes, “stands, as it were, before God; it bears the knowledge of that to which it is called. The Continue Reading
Jim Rice writes in Sojourners magazine about Occupy. Sojourners is one of those communities that have become a mashup of activist, publishers, movementOrganizers….and has been an example of the kind of theological discernment regarding our country and its churches that have been seeing the kinds of things Occupy has been good at bringing into movement form in the public square. Continue Reading
My favorite writer, Elizabeth O’Connor, who wrote accounts of the journey and history of The Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC, wrote about envisioning a new world in this selection from the Inward Outward blog (this blog posts daily selections from a host of great theological writings). I thought it very relevant to how interested I have been in Continue Reading
Jarrod McKenna wrote today, on this MLK day 2012, about the big problem so many Americans have in co-opting MLK and making him a “cheerleader” for whatever cause they please. I have heard this over and over from those who oppose the Occupy movement on the basis of “lawlessness” and seemingly the very idea of being critical of U.S. structures. Continue Reading
<A HREF=”http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Ftheoblogical-20%2F8005%2Ff6fdcec6-01e1-491d-84fb-8edf78634575&Operation=NoScript”>Amazon.com Widgets</A> Be Schofield’s article I blogged about earlier includes this assesment of MLK’s “final campaign” (the Poor People’s March) : King had developed several goals in his final campaign, which may or may not inspire the OWS movement. He had hoped the Poor People’s Campaign would achieve direct employment through a massive public works program, a guaranteed annual Continue Reading
On Dr. King’s birthday, Jan. 15th 1968 – which was sadly to be his last – he was organizing with a multi-racial coalition of Native Americans, Chicanos, Appalachian whites and urban black people to start an encampment in Washington D.C. that would be a massive “nonviolent army†which would “cripple the operation of an oppressive society.†By 1968, King’s earlier Continue Reading
“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry.… Now this means that Continue Reading
This quotation from an article in CounterPunch brings some well considered rcommendation re: what is needed from OWS based on where “the problem” lies. Watching Bill Moyers talk to the authors of a book called “Winner Take All Politics”, the evidence is pretty overwhelming that the normal “democratic process” has been increasingly rigged over the past 30 years. Martin Luther King, Jr. Continue Reading
Juan Cole with an excellent post on the MLK who was vehemently anti-imperial and keenly aware of the crimes of empires. But there was another King, the critic of the whole history of European colonialism in the global South, who celebrated the independence movements that led to decolonization in the decades after World War II. The anti-imperial King is the Continue Reading
I just ran across on HBO West the movie Amazing Grace, which I went to see at the theater a couple years back. The scenes of the British Parliament being thrown into uproar over Wilberforce’s speaking against the slave trade are reminders of how empires throughout history constantly appeal to the idea of “take it slow†in hopes of passing Continue Reading
What a great video of MLK, to music of a U2 song Pride In the Name of Love performed by John Legend John Legend performs PRIDE (In The Name of Love)by ElectricArtists Waving or Drowning?: April 4, 1968 – Pride Redux
MLK gave his last speech on this night 40 years ago in Memphis. Complete speech links (with no video but photos accompanying the audio) YouTube – I’ve Been To The MountainTop 1/2 (Dr. Martin Luther King) YouTube – I’ve Been To The MountainTop 2/2 (Dr. Martin Luther King )