I just created a post type in WordPress for EcoEcclesia. EcoEcclesia , however, is also OccupyTheology, since I contend that it requires an action of “Occupying” the theologies, economies, and spaces of the status quo to ensure that a fundamental questioning must take place. The status quo which brought about the call to “Occupy” is no longer tenable, and that Continue Reading
“Where are or where should we theologians be?” http://theologysalon.org/ Read about this inOccupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude by Joerg Rieger and Kwok Pulan
The security and surveillance state, after crushing the Occupy movement and eradicating its encampments, has mounted a relentless and largely clandestine campaign to deny public space to any group or movement that might spawn another popular uprising. The legal system has been grotesquely deformed in most cities to, in essence, shut public space to protesters, eradicating our right to free Continue Reading
I concur deeply. In other words, a hearty amen on just about every point. I’m disappointed in RLC, as I have been over the past year in the “social justice” orgs and their strange, what I can only identify as “reticence” to really be a support and encourager and enabler and participants with the Occupy movement. To say “they Continue Reading
I was just in a mini-stream on Twitter with @james_ka_smith , where I tried to re-open the topic re: the church and the Occupy movement. I had tweeted a while back to JKA on this, but it didn’t seem to spark much interest on his part. He and I had done a bit of back and forth back in 2005-06 Continue Reading
I totally agree with my friend Brian here: In the end if they break ways with Christ’s teachings we are required to break with them as well and speak truth in love http://indefinitedefiniteness.org/2012/09/07/politics/ And saying such things just scares the bejeebies out of so many of my “secular” friends. They just can’t seem to grasp the idea that the “theocracy” ideas Continue Reading
It’s true we must guard against becoming devoted to the “brand”. “Occupy” as a brand is not the aim; it’s not the point to see that this name survives as the main narrative title. If the media succeed in discrediting that, then the aims and goals still remain. We simply need to articulate it and present it through new actions Continue Reading
When I read the following, from a previous Chris Hedges article just after the start of Occupy Wall Street, I immediately added my own group to the list of “discarded intellectuals”: Bakunin’s vision of revolution, which challenged Marx’s rigid bifurcation between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, carved out a vital role for these rootless intellectuals, the talented sons and daughters Continue Reading
I blogged on this a couple weeks ago, as I recoiled at the inane thesis of a WIRED article about “conspiracy theories” such as global warning. The modern belief by evangelical Christians in the rapture, which does not exist in biblical literature, is no less fantastic, one that at once allows for the denial of global warming and of evolution Continue Reading
Chris Hedges , in reviewing a book by Dave Eggers, describing the Saudi kingdom (“A Hologram for the King”), sounds very accurate re: an alarming percentage of the Religious Right in this country: outward religiosity and piety mask a moral and physical rot that fits seamlessly into the world of globalized capitalism http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/the_mirage_of_our_lives_20120827/ This “seamless fit” is exactly what the Continue Reading
This whole rape can’t cause pregnancy thing has me thinking abou the tentacles of this current of “God will protect us from ourselves” mentality of the right wing (both the political and the theological). The notion that God won’t let pregnancies happen from rape is a form of this. The “free market fundamentalism” is a form of this (and also, Continue Reading
Brian Merritt has written an excellent OccupyTheology sermon. The only thing I dont like about it is that there are too many great things in it I want to quote in full. I am told by a prepackaged and consumeristic society that there are non-threatening and easy answers to societal’s ills. The reality is that recycling will not save the planet, voting Continue Reading
Franklin County (Columbus) GOP Chair Doug Preisse : I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—(read African-American)—voter-turnout machine http://www.thenation.com/blog/169454/ohio-gop-admits-early-voting-cutbacks-are-racially-motivated# Apparently, Mr. Priesse seems to think that the “voter turnout machine” is somehow a form of cheating, since he doesn’t consider them worthy of “accomodatation” to vote. He baiscally is defending the idea of Continue Reading
Ever since #OWS began, I have grown particularly attracted to Chris Hedges’ columns , often peppered with scathing observations about the professsionals who run and enable and tweak the systems that have led to the increasing inequalities and insane denials of the effects of “human progress” on all of our ecosystems. In our present day media environment, such scathing Continue Reading
in this video, Chris Hayes talks about the way elites and their clubs stick together vs even the people they ostensibly are there to serve (priests in Catholic Church vs their parishoners, or the government and corporations vs thier constituents and/or customers). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDaFVjaZr7w&feature=plcp This is a good angle also for the financial system, and for a headlong dive into many Continue Reading