The Occupy Church

“…regeneration, in addition to being a mystical reference to the world’s return to an Eden-like state, is about letting go of the envy and competitiveness being shown both by the young rich man and especially by Peter (who eventually won the big competition among the apostles and is regarded as the first pope, oddly enough).”

“God stands in judgment over our economic arrangements” [Micah] told us and quoted Luke 4:18-19. [He] told us that some secular Occupiers were uncomfortable with his particularly Christian outlook, whereas many clergy seem reticent to be too radical. There needs to be a challenge to the Christian dominionist view that the government should be run according to conservative Christian values. There [...]

This rampant illegality is what really astonishes me. …I never imagined how brazenly the biggest banks are engaging in outright illegal activity, nor how the court system goes right along with it! Occupy Our Homes DC will continue to work with residents of the DC metro area to expose these systematic unjust and illegal practices.

What Christians need to inject into this movement is two elements of biblical realism: (1) No activist and no theoretician has all the answers. The path to justice is lit by the heart of God, and only spiritual transformation will ensure a revolution that doesn’t simply install a new 1%. Dialogue and prayer are essential [...]

The events of the last six months have raised up countless new leaders with a huge range of experience, skills and spiritual gifts. This spring, we will begin the process of nurturing these emerging leaders, equipping ourselves for the work that God is calling us into. We know from first-hand experience that the Lord calls [...]

“…I am being healed through the working faith of the new branch of my faith family: Occupy Boston.  It is in participating in direct actions with Occupy Boston that we occupiers are healing each other and offering healing, as well.”

“We live in a world that is divided between ideological poles: Left and right, liberal and conservative, red states and blue states. This dynamic plays out not only in popular culture, but also within the Church. Our congregations endure vicious arguments over hot button issues like gay marriage, the ministry of women and abortion – [...]

…Is this what Lewis, Nash, Carmichael and other civil rights activists thought they were putting their lives on the line for? De facto segregation in the nation’s capital? A city divided by enormous gaps in wealth and privilege, where most of its black residents are consigned to one isolated quarter of the District? Seeing the dynamics at [...]

“In liberal circles, we always put the guilt on systems, providing all of those involved with a convenient out. Yes, the systems are powerful, but the only way we will be able to end this powerful injustice is if we have courage to take responsibility before God for our actions within unjust institutions. If we [...]

“The poet Ezra Pound liked to say that the notion that “money is energy” constituted a “satanic transubstantiation” because it falsified the facts about where energy really exists: in nature, in people, and in the divine.”