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
This morning I ran across this post , “Why I Support #OWS as a Reformed Theologian” , and early on in the post I was reminded of the “meme” to which occupy opposers have taken hold, that of the “unclear message”. I actgually heard two Tennessee legislators actually say they had never heard an articulation of who the 99% and the 1% Continue Reading
Monica Coleman posted back in November on the New Media Project blog, asking the question that I had begun to asking when I saw the Occupy movement start up, If we used the hashtag #occupychurch with the same revolutionary fervor as the Occupy movements, what would we doing? Here’s my first Tweet: Whatever you did for one of the least Continue Reading
This panel represents what , for me, ought be happening around the country. These clergy are in the NY area, and so it may well be even more obvious to them, as their parishioners may well be seeing the encampments every day, or often. For us in less urban settings, we are nonetheless citizensof this country, and even more Continue Reading
Quote from Jim Winkler, General Secretary of UMC’s Global Board of Church and Society: “In our United Methodist Social Principles, we claim all economic systems are under the judgment of God. We believe corporations are responsible not only to their stockholders but to their other stakeholders.†Winkler believes that if alive, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, would at Continue Reading
Thank you Lauren, for putting into writing what is obvious to anyone who observes and listens (and read on after the quote. I’m not being sarcastic. It is something conveniently ignored by press seeking quick bites and political rancor) Much of the criticism directed at the Occupy Movement has focused on protesters’ lack of clear objectives. However, as I’ve witnessed Continue Reading
Denominational agency efforts and reports re: economic/budget issues affecting our economy are few on the front pages of the denominations’ websites. (This post was originally published on Sep. 29, and I am re-posting it today to check on who may or may not have made progress on this front, now that the OWS movment has garnered at least some popularity, 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
Still finding tasty theological results from my Googling of “Walter Wink powers occupy”. Here’s one on the sequence implied in Walter Wink’s “Powers” series of books: As the theologian Walter Wink shows, challenging a dominant system requires a three-part process: naming the powers, unmasking the powers, engaging the powers(11). Their white noise of distraction and obfuscation is the means by Continue Reading
University of Massachusetts at Amherst emeritus economics professor Richard Wolff speaks about some of the roots of, and solutions to, the economic inequality that’s finally being acknowledged On OWS: It’s clearly a very, very popular movement right from the beginning, thereby giving the lie to those had felt, and thought and said that there’s no left wing base in the Continue Reading
It is something that should cause those of us who consider ourselves to be “in the church” to be simultaneously embarassed and hopeful. Embarassed because it seems to many of us that the church should be have been conscious and mobilized about these issues long ago (it’s been in motion for 30 years, and I was, of all places, in Continue Reading
Really good article here from David Henson (via Mike Morell) on encounter with other religious faiths. and how this can have a renewing effect on one’s own faith. I thought as I read the following line from a Hindu to a Christian who had begun a conversation with some thoujghts about “Hindu scripture”, that this reply would not be received Continue Reading
I so wish I could be there. Hope someone is streaming. stand in unity with those suffering economic hardship and inequality in our nation http://occupyfaithdc.org/ This “People’s Prayer Breaskfast” is to the “National Parayer Breakfast” as #occupyfaithDC is to what has been communicated by the “go to church on Sunday ” use of the hashtag #occupychurch. A self-absorbed, blow your trumpet Continue Reading
http://lambswar.blogspot.com/
When I first hit on the idea to get a domain, occupychurch.org was my first choice. But to my dismay, I found it inhabited by a church group that used the domain as a catchphrase, capitalizing (and “distorting”) the meme into a cheap PR scheme that thumbs its nose at the occupy movement by dissing political protest (and “Occupy” with Continue Reading