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#Occupy and the Church

Mark Barrett and Ginger Haag @OccupyLSX | 09.01.2012 14:13 | Occupy Everywhere | Analysis | Sheffield | World

“What would Jesus do?” asked a pithy placard at the Occupy the London Stock Exchange protest recently. It seems rather obvious in a way. For some the answer was given in another St Paul’s placard, carried by a man dressed as Jesus “I threw out the money-lenders for a reason”. Of course we’re not in Jerusalem, nor are we technically in a temple.



But according to David Cameron’s speech to mark the anniversary of the King James Bible, we have a dire need to “return to Christian morals”, and we the people should revive “what we stand for” and go back to the Bible to define ”the kind of society we want to build.” Some Occupy supporters may agree with some of these sentiments. We are a ‘broad church’ and the Bible, and the Jesus it portrays does contain a lot of progressive political references. Plus the idea of reformulating what we are about as a nation sounds quite democratic.

There is, however, a dissonant note associated with a politician – the politician - lecturing the masses on returning to Christian morals. As Luke 16:13 has Jesus himself saying: “No servant can serve two masters.. you cannot serve God and mammon.” Cameron’s economic nationalism should also grate on Christian souls.The world needs international co-operation to solve its many problems, and Christendom was never ‘Little England.’ In fact, for most of its history it was associated with Europe as a whole ,and further afield. Yet Cameron retreats pointlessly from the European project just when we should be pulling together against the dictatorial power of the financial markets.

David Cameron’s visionary idea for Britain was ‘the big society’. Revd Giles Fraser says “one can imagine Jesus being born in the protest camp” and the early Christian movement was one of the biggest ‘big society’ movements in history. In a way those hardy souls camping out, in an effort to transform the system are the closest thing we have to a functioning global – big – society. Yet Cameron’s government has recently legislated to ban political camping!

The energy, practices and idealism Occupy embodies is a potentially huge, productive motor around which to build a new, enlightened economy. Yet no major politician has been willing to engage with the movement on its own terms. All we ever hear from them is words of demonisation or co-option.

However the church is quite a different matter. As Giles Fraser put it recently: “Occupy .. begins .. with the idea that lasting change is only possible if more people are sucked into the conversation, more of us educate each other as to the workings and effects of a dysfunctional economy… Remember the total non-event that was Tony Blair's Big Conversation? Well, this is how you do it properly”  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/12/occupy-starfish-regenerate-protest

Or, as the Archbishop of Canterbury himself put it earlier in the year: “A democracy going beyond populism or majoritarianism but also beyond a Balkanised focus on the local that fixed in stone a variety of postcode lotteries; a democracy capable of real argument about shared needs and hopes and real generosity: any takers?”  http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2011/06/long-term-government-democracy

It is now commonly agreed that debt-based finance capitalism has failed us, and from within Occupy that we need alternative, civic institutions to develop our collective understanding, and transform society. Unlike the state and the market, civil society does not yet have a recognised political form, but through the promotion of its egalitarian Assembly model of decision-making, that is exactly what many in Occupy are hoping to create.

The roots of organised religion are radical and quite relevant today. The early Church was a decentralised, counter-cultural and international movement in which persecuted Christians promoted forgiveness of sins (including oppressive debts), interest-free lending, mutual support and common ownership. Going back further, the Old Testament refers repeatedly to ideals of economic justice and in particular of debt-cancellation and 'jubilee'. So, in the spirit of the recent Christmas season, and right at the start of a new ('Diamond Jubilee') year, an interesting question comes to mind. Could Occupy and the church join forces in 2012?

Working together, nationally and internationally could we not make alternative civic institutions to develop, quoting the Archbishop of Canterbury again a conversation about "who.. we are as a society" and “a long-term education policy at every level that will deliver the critical tools for democratic involvement, not simply skills that serve the economy”?  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/25/archbishop-of-canterbury-rowan-williams-christmas_n_1169168.html

On the wider, European level, this would chime with the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sack's recent call for European Jews and Christians together to "rediscover .. faith and prophetic voice" and to "recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God. Humanity was not created to serve markets. Markets were created to serve humankind"  http://www.chiefrabbi.org/ReadArtical.aspx?id=1845

In our broken times, with people neglected and the community fabric undone, a well-organised common endeavour between the church, Occupy and other civil society actors could help revitalise the true spirit of our culture, and the church, and transform our ailing European and UK political economy.

Mark Barrett and Ginger Haag @OccupyLSX
- Homepage: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/occupy-and-the-church/

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

reclaim spirituality from religion!

09.01.2012 16:26

Churches are often built on old pagan sites.
Perhaps a return to nature observation is a good idea now.
Its bad enough that the christian faith has been so divided into its denominations, see recent footage of priests battling it out in the church of the nativity in Bethlehem.
So just because Henry VIII wanted a divorce, we end up with the church of england?! what a joke.
Catholic church?
They worship St Peter,
Peter means idiot in ancient greek, literally 'clod of earth' not as many would now have it a rock.
Peter in the bible is the idiot materialist, nevertheless an important archetype.
The catholic church has always been all about stuff, filling palaces and churches with gold, at any human cost, because they worship st peter the idiot.
Its just a story, there never was a Jesus.
There is no mention of jesus anywhere until about 80 years after he is supposed to have died.
But there are extensive records from that time and place (roman empire) going down to small and tedious details about very mundane things, but no mention of a jesus anywhere.
And thats because its just a story! Its full of symbolism and hidden meaning, but its not hidden that deep. I am constantly disappointed by christians as they seem not to know their own religion very well.
Spirituality may be the essence of religion but SPIRITUALITY DOES NOT NEED RELIGION.
religion is just a way for the controlling elite to own spirituality. They do it by force.
Just open any history book at random and it won't be long before you are reading about the destructiveness of religion.
There are many many ways to get to a spiritual place, you will know if you feel a sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself, thats is your connection to god (or whatever you want to call it), not to some club, but a real feeling of being connected.
Religions operate like violent gangs going around selling spirituality to people, usually by fear or by force
e.g. during ottoman empire times, many christians in the balkans converted to islam so as to avoid being sold into slavery, similar examples from christianity etc.
The pre-patriarchal 'pagans' (thats our label not theirs!) did not worship nature as if it were some kind of authority figure.
They just observed it as best they could so that they could live harmoniously as part of it.
Then a load of romans came along and killed a load of people. (see julius caeser's diary of the invasion of Britain, it reads a bit like chris columbus' diary of his discovery of america, or his discovery that it had already been discovered).
Britain was converted to christianity during the roman political decline, brutally.
The first celtic churches tried as best they could to preserve the ancient knowledge of the cycles of the moon etc. But christianity has been continuously dumbed down, and if american evangelical christianity is anything to go by then thats a trend that is set to continue.
Religion does not own spirituality, not even the seemingly innocent buddhists own it. They have their dogma too. Just find your own way to see that we are not separate entities but all connected in a tapestry that can be as beautiful or as terrible as we make it.

shirley bassey


war in the holy land

09.01.2012 16:50

The god moses talked to on the mountain was yahweh a local storm/war god.
He was part of a pantheon of gods, and he told moses that he and his people should only worship him, but he acknowledged that there were other gods, he just said don't worship them.
He seems to have had a major problem with goddesses especially I dont know how a god can have a gender anyway, does yahweh have a penis? if he does then why does he have a penis? what does he do with it?
anyway so the god of the jews christians and the muslims is this war god character yahweh (called allah by the muslims), who apparently (according to a muslim friend of mine) has an enormous penis (but never has sex, which may explain his frustration towards the goddesses).
So the land of milk and honey which was so horribly and bloodily annexed by the children of israel (who decided to only worship the god of war) has been slowly degraded from a lush and diverse ecology (forest from jerusalem to damascus) into the scarred desert we see now.
A state of perpetual war has existed in the holy land ever since the adoption of this monotheism.
funny that.

gary barlow


Christianity is real take it from an ex atheist gang leader.

09.01.2012 19:17

Take it from me Christianity is real, take it from an ex atheist gang leader:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAMvHnkP8QY&feature=related

Ex atheist gang leader


spirituality despite religion

09.01.2012 19:55

Spirituality need not have anything to do with religion.
In fact it is considerably easier to achieved a spiritual awareness without the contradictory dogma of religion holding you back.
It has been shown in studies that when people pray with sincerity, or meditate there are certain patterns in brain activity which occur, thought to be related to our awareness of time and space.
Spirituality can free us from our physical reality as we lose ourselves as part of something bigger, our collective spirit, the spirit of nature or the universe or 'god'.
This can be achieved in lots of ways, in fact often just going for a stroll can do the trick, or looking at the stars, whatever floats your boat.
When you have experienced this feeling, then it becomes normal to think and act in ways which tend toward harmony.
Religions have violently occupied spirituality for a good long while now, and we would all be better off without them.
It is vital that when we reject religion we do not reject spirituality, as often happens.
Religion has taken people so far away from spirituality that when they sever ties with it, they call themselves atheists or become materialistic or amoral.
Many of the atheists I know are deeply spiritual people but are just very uncomfortable with the idea of it or of 'god', because they have been so put off or even traumatised by the evil and violent behavior of religion.
DON'T LET RELIGION RUIN SPIRITUALITY FOR YOU




bemused


MSM/VI

09.01.2012 20:52

"But there are extensive records from that time and place (roman empire) going down to small and tedious details about very mundane things, but no mention of a jesus anywhere."

That's because the Roman mainstream media was owned by senator Murdochio.

Bet there's no mention of Rome burning to the ground either!!!!

Time traveller.


Same ole same ole.

09.01.2012 21:06

As part of our historical narrative through archeology, we have found that the Romans obviously had an advanced society with a strongly developed (maybe overdeveloped) political order. One part of our investigations we have found through the archelogical record is that government buildings were routinely covered in grafitti.

The most common form of grafitti we have found on these buildings is a single slogan - "Know thyself".

There is tremendous debate in historical parlance about what this slogan means. Is it a local curiosity, a bland and local slang or a profound statement of philosophy.

Well, the slogan "Know thyself" in those times was a euphemism for "Masturbation". Far from being a reference to an inner existential angst, this slogan was a put-down routinely aimed at government and those who represented government.

What the cynical Roman people were doing, was calling their government "Wankers"!!!!

There aint nothing new under the sun...and you learn something new everyday.

Lurkio.


re time traveller

10.01.2012 00:15

haven't we met before? :)
well there are records of lots of other notable and not so notable characters from the time and place, but still no sign of jesus. There have been various attempts at forgery (by the catholic church) and all have been discredited.
But the lack of a record is not the only reason to think that jesus is just a character in a story.
The fact that his story shares so many characteristics with dozens of other solar hero stories, from before and even since (you could include the king arthur myth) right from the date and place and nature of birth, and of conception, to his age of death, all has meaning.
For example he died aged 33, and it just so happens that 33 years is the time it takes for the sun and the moon to return to the same place (almost) on the horizon (at rise or set) on the same day
The twelve disciple thing is a big clue, representing the zodiac (people back then were interested in the stars and didn't differentiate astronomy from astrology, probably because they had no tv or internet), same with king arthur, who by the way gets his name from arth fawr which is welsh for great bear which is the constellation that always points north and around which the zodiac circles.
Anyway aside from all these details the main point I wanted to make was something along the lines of:
Rather than occupying christianity (and therefore accepting that it represents 'our' spirituality) we should liberate spirituality from religion.
I mean jesus he seems like a dude, but he wasn't real, still nice guy, but come on. Take away all of the bits of the story that are only included to have meaning and what are you left with? nothing.

Sorry to go on about it so much but I really think this matters.


shirley bassey


The last appendage.

10.01.2012 01:14

"Anyway aside from all these details the main point I wanted to make was something along the lines of:
Rather than occupying christianity (and therefore accepting that it represents 'our' spirituality) we should liberate spirituality from religion.
I mean jesus he seems like a dude, but he wasn't real, still nice guy, but come on. Take away all of the bits of the story that are only included to have meaning and what are you left with? nothing."

I see what you are saying, but there is a risk of simply looking at it from the point of view of those who have appended the story through the ages, and then dismissing that unreality and watching the reality go with it. For instance, the twelve zodiacal signs and the 33 year solar lunar cycles. Very nice but is it possible that even Jesus would ask what on earth is all that about! Could it be that Jesus was a very normal 'dude' who wouldn't have turned your head if he walked by you...but had something 'in him' that certainly turns your head now.

Whether you beleive or not, the 'dude' certainly made up a good account of himself. After all these years, he's still in our souls. The real question is not whether Jesus Christ lived or existed...but 'who' he was or perhaps wanted to be!

The base reality is that all stories are appended over time and the catholic church, along with the Protestent, Adventist, Latter Day, Puritanical and the rest of the 'horde' have all been tinkering about with the grand 'story'. Its not anybodies fault, its just the nature of time. These things happen, its quite normal.

I'm not entirely sure about 'occupying Christianity'. The occupation's strength comes in what is shared. The church occupies the long distance human narrative and the Occupy movement occupies the morality of the long distance injustice that present-day Capitalism is currently responsible for.

If you think about it, the story of Jesus Christ is right there...under your nose!

Time Traveller.


uncertainty

10.01.2012 02:08

I wouldn't want to give the impression that I think I know what happened in history, because I obviously don't know (nobody does), but I have looked and searched with an open mind and I can't find any reason to believe there ever was a real jesus. To my surprise I found lots of reasons not to.
The jesus story is likely a construct of various symbolic cliches, but there may I suppose be references to real characters from history. Even then we would be looking at a very different character or more likely characters. In fact I can think of few people I know who embody kindness and empathy. They give me inspiration.
Seeing good in others gives me enthusiasm to be good too.
It is infectious.
But I worry that this deep spiritual connectivity between people (our spiritual fabric) is severely weakened when it is shackled to religion and when myths are taken literally.
Religion can facilitate spiritual connectivity between people within a religion (but often fails even to do that), but forms a barrier in connectivity between different religious groups.
There are so many different stories that it would be wise not to take any of them literally.
They tend to share symbolic parallels and all pretty much end up in the same sort of place.
But when any one story is taken literally, then there can be no reconciliation unless one side gives in to the other. I think this is how we got into our current spiritual stalemate.
Try talking to christian or a muslim or a jew about any of this, and they will basically ignore you or run away, or just relentlessly try to convert you to their version of the myth.
I think religion is a hinderance to spirituality.

shirley bassey


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