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Occupy Wall Street: Light From Above From the People Below
By Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr.
Senior Minister Emeritus, Riverside Church
Posted: 06/03/2012 8:59 am
We began the month of May marking the Occupy Wall Street movement, now into its eighth month, whose connections to previous public outcries -- perhaps a little of the 1932 "Bonus Army" or the "Resurrection City" encampment of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign -- have similar DNA, and yet may be something else entirely. But what is Occupy Wall Street about? What ideology informs it and how are we to place OWS in the landscape of the turbulent activity of these times?
Might I be so bold as to suggest that the Occupy Wall Street movement is an answer to our prayer? Let me explain.
After the destruction of Sept. 11, through the long process of search, recovery and removal of rubble, all across the country, at school assemblies, Broadway plays, in churches, synagogues and mosques, we banded together and sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" with a new sense of urgency. Written nearly 100 years ago, not everyone knew the introduction Berlin wrote for it ends with, As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. But after 9/11, we sang this old song as a prayer, even those who didn't claim a religion -- practically all of us were praying.
Then follows that specific petition: Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the light from above. For all who sang that song from the heart, the Occupy Movement was, in a sense, part of God's answer to that prayer. I like to think of the movement as a light from above through the people from below.
More: HuffPo Story
Senior Minister Emeritus, Riverside Church
Posted: 06/03/2012 8:59 am
We began the month of May marking the Occupy Wall Street movement, now into its eighth month, whose connections to previous public outcries -- perhaps a little of the 1932 "Bonus Army" or the "Resurrection City" encampment of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign -- have similar DNA, and yet may be something else entirely. But what is Occupy Wall Street about? What ideology informs it and how are we to place OWS in the landscape of the turbulent activity of these times?
Might I be so bold as to suggest that the Occupy Wall Street movement is an answer to our prayer? Let me explain.
After the destruction of Sept. 11, through the long process of search, recovery and removal of rubble, all across the country, at school assemblies, Broadway plays, in churches, synagogues and mosques, we banded together and sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" with a new sense of urgency. Written nearly 100 years ago, not everyone knew the introduction Berlin wrote for it ends with, As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. But after 9/11, we sang this old song as a prayer, even those who didn't claim a religion -- practically all of us were praying.
Then follows that specific petition: Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the light from above. For all who sang that song from the heart, the Occupy Movement was, in a sense, part of God's answer to that prayer. I like to think of the movement as a light from above through the people from below.
More: HuffPo Story