Churches help Occupy movement survive crackdowns, winter

[rug]

By Josef Kuhn| Religion News Service, Tuesday, November 29, 4:19 PM

WASHINGTON — As Occupy camps nationwide deal with police crackdowns and the inevitable onset of winter temperatures, religious communities of all stripes are stepping in with offers of shelter and solidarity.

Soon after police forcibly evicted the original Occupy Wall Street camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15, many of the protesters began sleeping and gathering in local congregations, including Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village.

The eviction ... really shifts what happens here, and it really boomed the movement, because immediately there was this network in place that we’d developed of communities throughout New York that were willing to open up their doors and house the movement,” said the Rev. Michael Ellick, a pastor at Judson Memorial.

Ellick and his colleagues got involved early on, marching to Zuccotti Park with a golden calf fashioned to look like the iconic Wall Street bull statue. Ever since, phones have been “ringing off the hook” with churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and monasteries wanting to get involved in some way, he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/churches-help-occupy-movement-survive-crackdowns-winter/2011/11/29/gIQAJnRh9N_story.html

[roguevalley]

1. as they should, as they always have. Good.

[JoeyT]

2. K&R

Good on them.