One person's take on "Occupy Wall Street"

POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Monday, October 10, 2011 18:51
VIEWED: 858
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NIKI2

Friday, October 7, 2011 8:42 PM (P)

Here's some of what I've been trying to say. I'm not "bitching" or "whining" when it comes to caring about the less fortunate, I'm being a fucking American--as Americans began and as some of us believe we SHOULD be. I've GOT mine, but that doesn't mean I'm going to say "fuck you" to everyone who hasn't.

Ironic that this caught my eye and is so much about what I, too, believe, given that it's wrapped around religion. But there you have it; I have nothing against faith or religion, only about "organized religion" and its egregious actions, none of which were what any religion was begun as or intended to be. Apparently there's a correlation in what America was begun as and was intended to be:

Quote:
In the movement that's making campgrounds out of city squares across America, it might seem there's little religion happening. But Occupy Wall Street, and its local offshoots springing up everywhere from Boston to L.A., has described itself more clearly in the language of “soul” than in the language of federal financial regulation policy.

That’s because, at its heart, the Occupy movement is about creating a democratic society in which everyone matters, there is dignity in working together across differences, and there is enough for everyone. Is this vision tantamount to socialism? No. Once upon a time, we called this “American.”

It also sounds pretty Christian to me. What the early Apostles called “The Way” was a vision for peaceful living that built on Christ’s teaching, life, death and resurrection. The Way repudiates the pursuit of individual wealth in favor of building communities that care for the marginalized, the desperate and the powerless. Jesus demonstrated this by healing lepers and dining with prostitutes and tax collectors.

This is not to say that American democracy is synonymous with Christianity, nor to argue that it should be. Understanding what’s happening in these protests, though, requires that we quit impatiently insisting on a list of demands and listen for what the Occupy movement is saying. The US Day of Rage website, one organizational hub for the protests, says we’re “fighting a war for the soul of our nation.” Such language is unmistakably religious and reveals how deeply this popular discontent reaches.

The consistent message emerging from the protests against the concentration of wealth in the hands of 1% of Americans is this: We are the 99%, and we intend to chase the corrupt moneylenders out of a democracy created for the people. It’s a vision of inclusivity and participatory government that confuses pundits and politicians alike, because this movement is more about being for a way of living than it is against anybody or any group. It’s the thing Christianity talks about but often has a hard time doing. It’s a new politics fighting to restore the vision of equality laid out in the Declaration of Independence and enshrined in the checks and balances so brilliantly constructed in our Constitution.

Critics have derided the protesters with the usual rehearsal of slurs: spoiled kids, lazy hippies and so on. But the occupiers don’t want your money or your stuff. In this entitled era of “Have it Your Way” and overwhelming consumer choice, spend any time listening to people speaking about their grief and hope, and you hear a groan of longing for a different way of living. “I want less,” a friend told me once. “Less of everything.” She wasn’t talking about wanting to be poor. She just wants real life.

Jesus teaches that in return for having less, we get more. More life, not more stuff. The little experiments in community arising in cities across the United States in the Occupy movement are revealing how much there is in “less.” For many, “less” is not a choice. The Boston camp is full of people who have lost homes to foreclosure, whose unemployment applications have gone unprocessed for weeks and whose retirements have been absorb

FREMDFIRMA

Saturday, October 8, 2011 1:58 AM (P)

Hell, one could call that the essential humanism of any decent belief - although therein lies some of my struggle within since my own theology sometimes comes at odds with that, although by choice, when ideology crosses up with humanity, imma chose humanity every time.

CHOOSE LIFE.

Yanno ?

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

KWICKO

Saturday, October 8, 2011 3:26 PM (P)

It just cracks me up how many of the people on the right - those who claim to have "god" on their side, no less - can act in such un-christian ways towards their fellow humans. I still can't find the passage in their bible where it says "Laugh at those who are stupid and who have fallen on hard times, and let them suffer and die for not being as smart as you."

Maybe I'm just not reading the right bible. Might have to consult Ayn Rand to find their true feelings and beliefs.

NIKI2

Saturday, October 8, 2011 3:36 PM (P)

Yeah, Mike; I think Ayn Rand IS their bible. Or they're brainwashed, because any true Christian UNDERSTANDS the religion they follow, and it's diametrically opposed to what the Tea Party professes. Given it's been proven that the Tea Party is made up vastly of Republicans and fundamental Christians, it's obvious those "fundamental Christians" aren't following their religion at all. if they WERE, they'd be having a crisis of conscience about advocating for the rich and following those who want to trash the poor.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

RIONAEIRE

Monday, October 10, 2011 1:51 AM (P)

Hi Niki, I liked this. I know what you mean about a lot of Christians saying one thing and doing something else, its a part of why people don't take us seriously. I agree with most of what the protestors in my city are fighting for, it all seems good and logical.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

NIKI2

Monday, October 10, 2011 6:51 PM (P)

Yup, it's why there are so many cracks made about Christians, and it's a shame. I've known a few REAL Christians (like you and others here) who live their religion, and I admire them greatly. Unfortunately, the impression I get is they/you are in the minority, which is also a damned shame.

I'd like to talk to a Tea Partier who approves of all the things the Tea Party professes and who considers himself/herself a true Christian, and get a take on how they reconcile the two. It's a mystery to me. Jesus' teachings are so clear and obvious on the matter--even as a non-Christian I've read/heard enough to know that. I don't see why it doesn't cause them to constantly question one or the other...

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off