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
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
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
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
I asked Lisa Sharon Harper of Sojourners about her thoughts on the Occupy Movement, and she said something we don’t hear much amidst all the uproar about the “middle class” being under assault. While the economic figures about the shrinkage and stagnation of wages in the middle class make for a wider audience from which to garner movement support, what Continue Reading
Muslim Imam speaks of the prescence of Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, and Buddha with the Occupiers instead of up there in the offices of power. I found this video via “Faith in the 99%” on occupycafe.org http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QYxrFtROe5I#!
I just had a friend forward me an email he got from an acquaintance invitinghim to join “Occupy Cafe”. So I did. And I ran across this link to one of the organization’s people talking at Trinity Wall St. about the moral and ethical implications of the Occupy movement. So here it is http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/webcasts/videos/conferences-classes/trinity-institute-lectures/wall-street-dialogues-occupy-as-a-leap-of-faith
What so many don’t understand is the point made in this article: This is a structural sin: despite best intentions, we have made it impossible to do good. This sin must be repented of and atoned for. In drawing attention to it, the Occupy Movement is a prophetic voice. http://www.rockandtheology.com/?p=4694 Structural sin is so imbedded, that the dictates of the Continue Reading
Jesuit priest and war resister Daniel Berrigan, soft-spoken but still eloquent at 91, and journalist Chris Hedges joined members of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Faith at Zuccotti Park on Thursday morning. They gathered to sing, pray and denounce the continued determination of Trinity Church, an Episcopal parish, to cooperate with the prosecution of OWS protesters. http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/06/ows-presents-a-fracture-of-good-order-for-trinity-church/ To understand why Continue Reading
Make a visible step toward Washington DC and join the church movement speaking the truth to power in DC and NY (ie #occupyWallstreet ) Denominational agency efforts and reports re: economic/budget issues affecting our economy are few on the front pages of the denominations’ websites. I have seen exactly TWO (both UMC) so far in a month of watching this. Continue Reading
JKA Smith defines GPMs (“God-per-minute”): Ramping up references to God to make some piece of content “Christian” or redeemed. References to God don’t thereby sanctify or redeem domestic policies that oppress the poor or foreign policy that breeds war. In fact, if Jewish prophets have anything to say about it, ramping up the GPMs only makes this worse (see Jeremiah Continue Reading
This blogger is talking about some words from Mike Slaughter , pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Ohio (near Dayton) he expressed concern for what I have often railed about myself: the fact that churches are so subservient to the state that they fly the Christian flag below the American flag. Or, when they are flown within the sanctuary, Continue Reading