Religion claims its place in Occupy Wall Street

[SecularMotion]

No shoes are allowed in the "Sacred Space" tent here, but you can bring just about any faith or spiritual tradition.

A day's schedule finds people balancing their chakras, a "compassion meditation" and a discussion of a biblical passage in Luke. Inside, a Buddha statue sits near a picture of Jesus, while a hand-lettered sign in the corner points toward Mecca.

The tent is one way protesters here and in other cities have taken pains to include a spiritual component in their occupations. Still, Occupy Wall Street is not a religious movement, and signs of spiritually aren't evident at all protest sites.

Clergy emphasize they are participants in the aggressively leaderless movement, not people trying to co-opt it. Plus, in a movement that purports to represent the "99 percent" in society, the prominent religious groups are overwhelmingly liberal.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/religion-claims-its-place-1208614.html

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. Indeed. I've had many people ask me where the clergy are in all of this.

Most of the ones I've encountered in my inter-faith work are incredibly supportive. They just don't want to see this used as a religious battle ground since social and economic justice is a corner stone of most contemporary belief systems. They are willing and often active participants who feel it is not the place or the movement in which to assume leadership roles. That's why, when we had a march in my area, the local clergy did not wear clothing that would identify them as such. Not because they wanted to hide who they were, but because they felt their identity as one among the 99% was more important than their pastoral identity.

[roguevalley]

2. this awesome and historical too. Clergy and religious have

always been in justice movements.

[roguevalley]

3. this awesome and historical too. Clergy and religious have

always been in justice movements.