Occupy Faith

Last week I went to Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, my alma mater, for an Occupy Faith National Conference, a three-day gathering of people from various faith traditions who support the Occupy movement. I met people from all over the country, including New York, where the Occupy Faith movement started in response to the Occupy Wall Street encampment. We were hosted by people from the Interfaith Tent of Occupy Oakland. We visited Oscar Grant Plaza one evening and led an Interfaith service that was well-received by the people there.

I arrived at the Occupy Faith conference with a question in mind: Is there a good reason to organize a distinct group made up of people of faith to support the aims of the Occupy movement? Or is it enough to support and participate (or not) as individuals who are informed by our various faith perspectives? I am convinced that the Spirit is present in Occupy and is a motivating force in compassionate actions and in nonviolent struggles for justice wherever they may take place.

But I have come to the conclusion that organized Interfaith coalitions can make unique contributions to Occupy and to the overall movement for social, economic, and environmental justice. We can serve priestly, pastoral, and prophetic functions in ways that further the effectiveness and credibility of the movement as a whole. If these terms turn people off, let me explain:

By “priestly” I do not mean promoting religious hierarchy or favoring particular religious traditions, but rather invoking and acknowledging the presence of the holy in the struggle for a more compassionate world. At the Occupy Faith event, symbols of various faith traditions adorned the tents that were placed around the altar. A Native American woman welcomed us to the land of the Ohlone, and a Buddhist centered us with a gong to invite us into silence. A rabbi blew the shofar, a Wikkan invoked the power of the four directions, and I led us in singing the New Testament-based spiritual “Eyes on the Prize.” Not all at once, of course, but at various openings, closings, and transition points along the way. It was also acknowledged throughout that some people are “spiritual but not religious.”

By “pastoral,” I mean compassionate listening, supporting people who are struggling, and offering prayers with them and on their behalf. For instance, many Occupy groups around the country are involved in supporting people whose homes are being illegally seized by big banks. (No, people don’t just “lose” their homes as if they have to look around to find out where they went. We know where they went.) Interfaith coalitions can offer personal support and provide a place for deep listening and sharing that can help heal the shame that comes from feeling alone in such painful and unjust circumstances. Ministries with people who are oppressed by the economic system are already a part of many faith traditions, and we who are connected with Occupy are in a unique position to link such ministries with the movement for justice.

By “prophetic” I mean analyzing and interpreting current events from the perspective of different faith traditions, as an antidote to the dominant culture’s focus on the goals of instant gratification, financial success, and worldly power. Most spiritual traditions call adherents to a life of simplicity, compassion, and just dealings with our fellow human beings and all parts of creation. As we share insights we can gain new perspectives about where we are as a human family and where we need to be. And in those places where we agree our voices will be amplified as together we speak truth to power.

At the Occupy Faith conference we decided on a national action based on New York Occupy Faith’s proposal for an Economic Truth Commission. We will be working out details, but it will include the following elements: 1) The gathering of stories of individual victims and survivors of the current economic disaster and the story of how this economic disaster came about; 2) An economic truth telling bus tour to various cities to highlight these stories and their significance; and 3) A national day of action in Washington, DC on January 21, 2013, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and the third anniversary of the Citizens’ United Supreme Court decision. More will be decided as details and funding get worked out through a smaller committee we convened at the conference.

I came home thinking that there are good reasons to form an Interfaith coalition here in Nevada County so we can consider together what we can contribute uniquely to the struggle for a peaceful, just, and sustainable world at this time when people are realizing what is at stake and are rising up. I also plan to stay in touch with the Occupy Faith network, and to support our joint efforts through that network in any way I can.

Interfaith coalitions can help move us toward a way of being that leaves religious conflict behind and manifests justice and harmony in the world. It can also demonstrate, as the Occupy movement in its best moments does, that “another world is possible.”

Small Victories along the Way

I’m sitting by the fire, listening to the rain in these early morning hours of prayer, meditation, and writing. A Stage Two drought has been declared in Nevada County in spite of recent rain, reminding me that climate disruption and the struggle for climate justice continues. Still, I’m grateful that we have a climate and for all the ways that weather manifests. Precious rain. Precious peace.

The work is ongoing. Last night we had a big success- Nevada City joined other cities and towns in calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood and declare that money is not speech. It was late, after 9:30, when the City Council cut off public comments and voted unanimously in favor of the resolution. Instead of the “twinkles” that had expressed appreciation throughout the meeting as people spoke, after the vote we broke into claps and cheers. Then we stood around outside in the rain celebrating, some of us even singing and dancing to AmousLou’s “Corporations Aren’t People” routine.

The City Council vote was a welcome gift, and in a way it was a gift, as if it had just fallen into our hands. We had done the footwork of organizing a coalition and of educating ourselves and others. When a previously unknown (to us) person named Charly Price submitted the resolution to the Council and we learned that it would be on this week’s agenda, we wanted to maintain our balance and focus as a group, but also respond to this new development. We strategized, put the word out through our networks and helped get about a hundred people to turn out to support the resolution. It passed. We did the footwork, but it felt like a gift.

We needed it. We need these small victories along the way. Our local Occupy Nevada County and Nevada County Move to Amend are experiencing the joys as well as the frustrations of working together. As we get to know each other, our rough edges start showing. Sometimes our goals or our personalities clash. Issues arise related to structure and process. Direct democracy isn’t easy. We have work to do in the areas of nonviolent communication, conflict resolution, and community building if we are going to be a cohesive, persistent, and vital force for creative social change.

I value each person in our group. I feel compassion for us as individual human beings and I feel honored to be getting to know people and to be sharing our struggles and hopes with each other. I am grateful for this amazing community of people, as flawed and limited and beautiful as we all are, people who see what is at stake and are willing to give so much as we travel together on this journey toward transformation and love and healing and peace. Power to the people. We are the people!

Occupy the Church

December 2011

Published in the December issue of Voices and Silences

Okay, so “Occupy the Church” sounds a bit radical.  But how else can I express how important I think it is for us as United Methodist clergywomen to support this fledgling peoples’ movement and to speak out and embody hope for the kind of radical systemic change that will make a just, peaceful, and sustainable world possible? 

            In October I spent two weeks at Occupy Wall Street in New York, and I am currently immersed in helping to lay the groundwork for our fledgling “Occupy Nevada County and to support the Occupy movement as a whole.  I don’t plan to give the details here.  You can read about my experiences in New York and my ongoing reflections at http://sharondelgadoblog.blogspot.com.  The first blog, “Why I’m Going to Occupy Wall Street explains why I’m so involved and how it relates to my faith. Here I will relate a couple of scriptural passages to the Occupy movement today.

            Two years ago I went through a thirty-week guided intensive practice of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, through Mercy Center in Auburn, California.  As you may know, the Exercises involve employing the imagination to enter deeply into different biblical passages, to bring them to life.

            One morning in prayer I entered into the scene from Luke 19:41-44.  I walked beside Jesus as he rode on a colt on his way to Jerusalem.  Suddenly, to my dismay, he started weeping.  Then he addressed the people and it was as if he was speaking directly to me:

            “If you, even you (even you, Sharon) had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will build up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.  They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

            I was stunned, shaken to the core.  I wept with Jesus, and I wept for my children and grandchildren and for the state of the world. 

I was relieved a few weeks later when I returned to that scene and Jesus (in my imagination) assured me that yes, I was starting to get it.  But I know today that I cannot rest on my laurels or take anything for granted.  Knowing the things that make for peace and recognizing God’s presence is a discernment process that requires ongoing spiritual work.

Why was Jesus weeping?  And what are the things that make for peace?  I understand it as an inner peace of mind, of conscience, as well as peace with justice in the outer world.  When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he was not just weeping for his followers, but for the larger community, for all the people.  He could see the disaster that was coming and it caused him to weep.

After this scene, Jesus went directly to the Temple, and “began to drive out those who were selling things there.”  He used the words of Jeremiah in saying that they had turned God’s house into “a den of robbers,” thus bringing to mind the prophet’s distress at the coming disaster and his critique of the prophets and priests of his day:  “You have treated the wounds of my people as if they were not serious, crying ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace.” 

Jesus’ nonviolent direct action in the temple challenged the economic system of the temple and the stability of the religious establishment’s collaboration with the Roman occupation of Jerusalem.  Note that Jesus not only drove out the people who were selling things, but he and his many followers occupied the Temple:  “Every day he was teaching in the temple,” to the dismay of the chief priests, the scribes, and the so-called leaders of the people.  At night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, but “all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.”

According to Luke, up until then the leadership had been hostile to Jesus, grumbling, ridiculing, and cross-examining him, but after this confrontation their opposition escalated and they began actively planning to kill him.  They were hampered, for a time, in their plot because “all the people were spellbound by what they heard.” 

            How are we, today’s prophets and priests, treating the wounds of God’s people?  What is the peace of Christ that we are offering?  Is it sufficient and relevant for our day?  Are we recognizing the signs of God’s visitation today?  It may be that the Occupy movement is such a visitation, a movement of Spirit rising up just in time to bring hope and transformation to the world in place of the disaster that is surely coming if we do not repent/ turn around.

            It would be easy to criticize this movement and to stand on the sidelines until we see how and whether it progresses and matures into something we can support.  But what alternatives are out there?  Most of what we hear in the mainline media and (sadly) from most of our elected representatives falls far short of what is needed.  People are finally rising up and challenging the assumptions upon which the dominant system has been built. Here is one of many articles about United Methodist involvement in the Occupy movement:  http://www.christianpost.com /news/methodists-increasingly-involved-in-occupy-movement-61360/.

            I feel called to offer whatever gifts I can to help this peoples’ movement mature and succeed in its quest to initiate social, economic, and global transformation through the process of direct democracy, and to learn what I can in the process.  I am also challenged, as always, to maintain balance, clinging to Christ, practicing the presence of God, and trusting that I am growing in my ability to recognize the things that make for peace. 

            Sometimes I still weep when I consider the direction we are headed as a species, but more often now I am exhilarated and hopeful.  After many years of working on these issues, it’s as if people are waking up, not just to the many interrelated crises we face, but to the power we have when we join hands and work together for the common good.  It’s not time to be timid in our preaching or in our actions, so let’s offer what we can to the Occupy movement, occupy the church, and boldly proclaim and embody hope for God’s intended, compassionate future.

Homecoming

November 2, 2011

            I arrived home from Occupy Wall Street exhausted but exhilarated.  I was delighted to find that our fledgling Occupy Nevada County was organizing new working groups and expanding its outreach into the community.  I rested for a day or so, then got to work, writing, attending meetings, demonstrating, organizing, and speaking publicly about my time in New York. 

            A high point was a “Move to Amend” public gathering on November 9 that I had organized before I left, focused on amending the constitution to abolish corporate personhood and overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows unlimited corporate funds to flow into election campaigns.  The gathering was co-sponsored by several local groups, coordinated with national groups, and held simultaneously with over 200 similar gatherings around the country.  The campaign is ongoing (see movetoamend.org.)  A great short film about this issue is “Citizens United vs. the FEC” (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5kHACjrdEY).

            So now, it’s back to balance, to continuing those practices that enable me to stay grounded and follow the leading of the Spirit moment by moment.  It’s challenging, with family commitments and holidays coming, deadlines for articles, and a seemingly endless array of opportunities to contribute to the growing momentum of the movement for radical political, social, and economic change. 

            Many of us have been working on various social and environmental issues for years, making connections between issues (just follow the money), but only to see the overall situation getting worse and worse.  But now, it’s as if a “Great Awakening” is taking place, with people waking up to the extremity of our situation.  The Occupy Wall Street movement has flipped a switch, turned on the light, awakened people not only to the insanity and destructiveness of the current system, but also to the “power of the people” to change the conversation and to rise up together to call for justice.  I am immersing myself in this movement, offering what I can and learning what I can.  This is no time to sit on the sidelines—there is too much at stake, by every measure.  And at last there is an energetic, grassroots, hope-filled movement made up of autonomous groups in various locales rising up spontaneously around the world.

            Working to build a strong local Occupy movement is not as exciting or dramatic as a two-week immersion experience in New York, but it seems necessary, fulfilling, and real.  What great new friends I am making.  Some I have known before, some I have not, but we are mutually engaged in community building and organizing through direct democracy in new ways. 

            I find the Occupy movement to be filled with inspiration and hope for global transformation.  I see God working through this movement in our time.  Surely the Love that brought the Universe into existence is pulling for us, drawing us into a future that is peaceful, just, and sustainable, where mutual caring replaces greed and exploitation, where global cooperation replaces systems of domination and violence, where protection of ecosystems and species replaces the degradation of the natural world.  May it be so, and may I be so fortunate as to participate in its coming.