Christianity Today‘s Tobin Grant writes that the Sojourners—Jim Wallis’ left-wing evangelicals—have (not surprisingly) hitched their wagon to the Occupy Wall Street star.
You can read some evidence of their interest here and here.
Of course, they’re not the only ones involved, and it has to be tempting for anyone who is looking to proselytize to show up at the protest.
Thus Columbia University sociologist Courtney Bender writes about “Spirituality and the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Movement”:
We could even say that occupiers’ refusal to give uncomplicated answers to the question of whether their motivations are
rooted mainly in religious, secular, economic or political identities holds up a useful mirror to the very messy, complicated social and economic morass that they critique. This is another way of saying that sussing out religion in Occupy Wall Street might be easier through attention to the origins and effects of the impulses playing out in groups that identify with the phenomenon. To the ways that they draw upon or resonate with atmospheric connections among religion, capitalism and American identity.
It’s hard to know exactly what she means by this. Is she just asserting the (for me, at least) unobjectionable proposition that religious people don’t sort their concerns into neat little boxes but are capable of finding God and applying their faith everywhere? Or is she arguing that religion supplies an ideology that supports—but can also undermine—capitalism? Consider, in this connection, one of her links:
A few Sundays ago I was in what I suppose passes for my church: an activist space in an old warehouse on the edge of the city. I was there with my partner to train a group of veteran organizers on how to employ creativity and the arts in their activism in order to become more effective political players in our media-saturated, culture-rich world. Standing in front of the organizers, I got to a point in my stock presentation where I introduce Jesus as an example of a creative activist. My proselytizing was of a secular rather than religious nature: it wasn’t the spiritual figure of Christ I was interested in but the purely historical Jesus, a radical Mediterranean Jewish peasant building a revolutionary movement two millennia ago….
I was done with this lesson and ready to move on to a discussion concerning the use of creative tactics in the American Revolution when one of the participants raised their hand and asked me if I was a Christian. The question threw me, and I had to think for a moment. I was raised Christian and I know my Bible, my father and grandfather were both ministers and, most other Sundays, I attend a “real” Church with my family. But am I a Christian?
By way of an answer I explained that a large majority of Americans—anywhere from 76 to 83 percent, in fact—identify themselves as Christian and that many of the guiding myths, symbols and ideals of the United States have their roots in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. I argued that religion, as a compendium of stories, a system of ethics, and a model of behavior could be drawn upon as a popular alternative to norms and ideals of competitive consumer capitalism. I admitted that there’s much to condemn in religion, its bigotry and intolerance for starters, but also pointed out that most religions also extol such virtues as love, community and responsibility for others. Good material for an astute organizer to work with….
By the end of my jeremiad I realized I had my answer. I am a Christian, but only because I believe it makes me a more effective political activist. In a word, I am an opportunistic Christian. (A public admission made more awkward by the fact that the minister of my—albeit activist—Church was participating in the workshop). So much for the authenticity of my faith. But sitting down to retell this story now I realize something else. I do have faith in Jesus, but a particular and perhaps peculiar faith. Do I believe that Jesus walked on water? No. Do I believe in the divinity of Christ? No. Do I believe in God? No. But do I believe that Jesus cared about those who are used, abused or forgotten by society? Do I believe that Jesus wanted to radically transform the world? Do I believe that Jesus can teach me something about how to be an effective political organizer? The answer is Yes, yes and, again, yes.
The author of this piece—whose “religion” might be described as a postmodern left-wing gloss on Jefferson’s Jesus—is not cynical, but it would hard to call him a Christian. He’s more than happy to make use of cultural artifacts for his political purposes, and he certainly has the intellectual wherewithal to give some shape to the rather shapeless protestors who are occupying everything everywhere. But he’s not going to lead them to God.
I have no doubt that God is with the folks near Wall Street, but I doubt they’ve recognized Him yet.
October 8th, 2011 | 9:58 am
Your conservative remarks, like those of most conservatives, go flatly against the Bible. Which said, with regard to those of “weak faith”: “wecome them.”
October 8th, 2011 | 12:22 pm
When the idealists have finally trashed Zuccotti Park they should decamp to the cemetery grounds of Trinity Church, on the very spine of Wall Street. As an added bonus they can then desecrate the grave of Alexander Hamilton, clearly one of the sources of all the recent evil, and thus display their religious zeal.
October 8th, 2011 | 1:53 pm
I am so embarrassed that I used to follow Sojourners.
I so wanted to believe that you could cherry-pick which parts of Christianity to take as “true”.
The desire to escape conclusions you don’t like leads naturally to absurd results. Instead of moral you get “nice” – like in the Stephen Sondheim musical (“You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice…I’m not good, I’m not nice, I’m just right….)
…the funny thing about “nice” is how selective it is: it’s possible to be “nice” even while judging other people as “bad”, dehumanizing them, trashing their belongings, or worse….they’re not “nice” so it’s all good….
October 8th, 2011 | 7:00 pm
[...] Religion and Occupy Wall Street – Joseph Knippenberg, First Things/First Thoughts [...]
October 8th, 2011 | 7:43 pm
Cogito, the point of that passage in Romans 14 is that some people have weak faith which expresses itself in prohibitions-they don’t eat meat because of its associations with the pagan culture, or they don’t watch secular movies because they feel it harms their faith.
A mature believer realizes that even though we may not be weak, and feel harmed by such, we shouldn’t throw stumbling blocks in people’s way. I’m not sure this is applicable to someone (and maybe an entire movement) who has no personal faith at all in Jesus, but views his maxims more like Lao Tze Tsung, or Gandhi.
October 9th, 2011 | 4:06 pm
It would seem to me that as a political organizer Jesus was a complete failure. As I recall, he was executed by the Roman empire and none of his policies were put into effect. And if he wasn’t who he claimed to be, then he was a particularly wicked political leader too since he managed to get a lot of his followers killed.
October 10th, 2011 | 9:05 am
Because they know so little economics, history, or theology, it’s hard for me to take the Sojourners crowd seriously. Perhaps if they did a little homework, that would change. Until then, good intentions are no substitute for competence.
October 10th, 2011 | 9:11 am
“Jim Wallis’ left-wing evangelicals—have (not surprisingly) hitched their wagon to the Occupy Wall Street star.” WOW, talk about a comment providing further proof that Christians eating their own is still alive and well, like when the first settlers of America tossed out and killed anyone not following their “version” of Christianity.
&
“Jefferson’s Jesus” you mean the one who re-wrote the bible, the version that was handed out to every new member of Congress for decades, the one written by Jefferson, the man who was so liberal that he helped end the practice of forcing religious minorities from being forced to fund the churches of those who lynched them?
October 10th, 2011 | 10:24 am
[...] “Religion and Occupy Wall Street.” I have no doubt that God is with the folks near Wall Street, but I doubt they’ve recognized Him [...]
October 10th, 2011 | 1:25 pm
[...] « Previous |Home| Next » More on Occupy Wall Street Monday, October 10, 2011, 12:30 PM Joseph Knippenberg There’s a good bit more than I noted in my first post. [...]
October 10th, 2011 | 3:02 pm
Jefferson, the man who was so liberal that he helped end the practice of forcing religious minorities from being forced to fund the churches of those who lynched them?
I think George Washington treated his slaves better.
Washington set them all free in his will. Jefferson just left his slaves to his heirs.
If treating minorities well is what made Jefferson “liberal”, then the practice of cognitive dissonance has been associated with America’s left wing since its very founding.
October 10th, 2011 | 3:55 pm
I’ll confess to maybe being unaware of something, but what’s the history of religious lynching in Colonial America? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of such a thing before.
October 12th, 2011 | 1:49 am
[...] This is another way of saying that sussing out religion in Occupy Wall Street might be easier through attention to the origins and effects of the impulses playing out in groups that identify with the phenomenon. To the ways that they draw upon or … Read more on First Things (blog) [...]
October 12th, 2011 | 10:07 am
[...] hijacking as legitimization for the self-serving ultra-rightwing. But some don't like it. There's a snarky blog post about it all by a conservative, Joseph Knippenberg, who seems to have a direct upload to the mind of God and the [...]
October 13th, 2011 | 1:49 am
I for one am grateful for the courage of those occupying Wall Street. The simple message of most of those protesters is that the illegal behavior of Wall Street has brought the middle class economy to a dangerous point of failure. The tax payer was given no choice but to bail out Wall Street, & they did not reform their crooked ways. Wall Street infected global markets, which in turn highlighted the disparity of the one tenth of one percent who continue to thrive monetarily and the rest of the country desparetly looking to continue to work and support their families or pay off their student loans.
October 13th, 2011 | 2:30 am
The protesters are doing what should have been done by journalist and news media all along this past decade. I wish I had the courage to be out in public to protest the incredible destructive actions of some major players on wall street, in fact some actions were illegal. This freezing up of the bailout money highlights how Main Street and the Middle Class are considered dispensable by wall street and their Washington legislators who are bought by Wall Street. Let’s support these protesters and write letters to the editors about the issues that are being at least finally discussed nationally. Wall Street has pushed us to the brink of a depression, a word we are afraid to say. Ask anyone who cannot find a job and thus cannot pay their bills to live in these United States. I urge us to refocus the executive bonus money + bail out money to support small businesses, to rebuild our infrastructure, and to re-inspire our educators & administrators to care about the students and not just their paycheck. Bring back the 1933 regulations to separate the investment bank from the depositor bank. Make transactions transparent and let investment banks fail when they can not cover their bets. Prosecute any trading desk that does “naked shorts”. That is like printing money without any consequences. The main street reason this is dangerous is because retirees who are pushed to invest in the stock market to earn some return on their savings. The retirees are considered as the dumb money for the traders who do shorts and have no money to back up their trade. This is just one example. In conclusion, please focus on NO MONEY IN POLITICS. Instead put the MONEY into R&D, MANUFACTURING, EDUCATION. Yes the tax payer funds this and let them get the benefits and profits from that investment. Bonuses depend on the success of the company for at least 5 years after any board member & CEO leaves to see if the company survives their tenure. If we do these simple steps we will have a free market economy and not a government subsidized Wall Street.
As for religion, “In God we trust” is on our dollar bills. I believe that is where my trust needs to go only and anybody else, I watch and see their actions not just their words.
October 15th, 2011 | 3:27 pm
Poem: Occupy Wall Street http://jimpinto.com/writings/o…
This was written on October 15, 2011 while the “Occupy Wall Street” movement was just about a month old, and still growing. Many are confused with the message. This poem may help to explain. I’ll appreciate your comments and suggestions as I prepare a YouTube video.
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