Category Archives: Occupy

Rowan Williams confuses the steps of St. Paul’s with Tiananmen Square

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In 1989 millions of people gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest their totalitarian government and demand democracy. China’s military responded with guns and tanks killing hundreds of people in what became known as the Massacre in Tiananmen Square. Local hospitals filled with the wounded and dying and these images became iconic:

 

 

The occupiers of the steps of St. Paul’s took advantage of the fact that they already live in a democracy to broadcast their outrage at the recently discovered abomination that some people are paid a lot and others aren’t. Not only was no-one was shot at by police, but sympathetic clergy persuaded the police to leave, providing a tacit invitation for the protesters to stay – which they did.

There is as much similarity between these two events as there is between the first world war and a teddy bears’ picnic. That’s not the way Rowan Williams sees it, though:

He added that St Paul’s had become “a theatre” in which conflicts were played out and urban landscapes were often the scenes of defining, dramatic moments in history, citing Tiananmen Square, Cairo and Athens as examples.

The only conflict being played out in the theatre of St. Paul’s is the one between muddled clergy who can’t decide whether it’s better to promote social justice by letting the step squatters stay, or whether prophetic social justice making is served more deeply by collecting the £20,000 daily from visitors who are slightly more well heeled than the churls presently impeding their entrance.

A new target for the Occupiers

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Michael Moore’s multi-million dollar house:


Not only could protesters demand that he give back the fortune he has made using capitalism to deride capitalism, they could also demand he donate his underpants to be used as tents.

From here:

It’s no secret that Moore has made millions from his muckraking documentaries, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t have. As one of the most successful documentary film-makers ever, he’s successfully tapped a rich vein of anti-capitalist rhetoric that sells well among U.S. liberals.

What puts Moore in the Gore camp is his refusal to admit he shares the wealth of his targets, as if wealth and success in themselves are dishonourable. In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan he quails when asked to admit “the bleeding obvious”, i.e. that he’s a member of the 1%.

“How can I be in the 1%?” Moore responds. “Even though I do well, I don’t associate myself with those who do well. I am devoting my life to those who have less and have been crapped on by the system.”

The Church of England continues to ponder what ails society

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And continues to get it wrong. This time it’s the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who tells us that inequality, specifically income inequality, has caused, among other things, violence, drug abuse, “self-harm” and mental illness.

Why does a church whose prescription for alleviating humanity’s angst ought to be spiritual, centred on personal sin and redemption through Christ, peddle materialistic leftist twaddle instead?

Is it ashamed of its own Gospel? Has it replaced the message of salvation with the message of social engineering?

What is particularly risible about John Sentamu’s faith in equality, is that only totalitarianism can make people equal: in practice, equally miserable, squalid, impoverished, brutalised and hellish.

Read it all here:

Drug abuse and violence are rife. Mental illness seems to have become more common, not simply better recognised, over the last generation or so. Rates of self-harm among teenage girls are also high and seem to be increasing. Personal debt has hit a record high.

So what has gone wrong? What has caused the loss of paradise? David Cameron said two years ago: “Research by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, in The Spirit Level, has shown that among the richest countries, it’s the more unequal ones that do worse according to almost every quality of life indicator.”

 

 

Pick up your tent and walk

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The Rev. Graham Taylor has a truly radical idea for the St. Paul’s occupiers, based on the Bible verse that seems to have escaped the attention of other ecclesiastical potentates from the Church of England: 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

Graham Taylor is a successful author of children’s books (well, some adults including me like them, too), including his best known book, Shadowmancer; funnily enough, he’s always had to work for a living.

From here:

It is damnable that such a good man as Graham Knowles should be forced out by a crisis on the church steps which has the sole purpose of hijacking the media spotlight. Is there no one in the Church brave enough to say what most of the right-minded people in this country really feel about those surrounding our nations foremost church?

The Church should have realised that any offer of help to the anti-capitalists would have been used against them. If the protesters were people of honour, they would have thanked the Dean for his hospitality and moved on. St Paul’s Chapter should have been firm from the start, robust in its message and united in its determination for law and order.

I believe that the message of Jesus to the protesters would be to tell them to pick up their tents and walk – get a job – for the worker is worth his keep and not to be kept on state benefits. Much of what Jesus taught was tough love. It was about sacrifice, community and commitment.

His call to the protesters would be to put the time they spend sitting in their tents working for those who are really in need. If they are truly concerned about the economic crisis, then they should be contributing with hard work instead of hard talk. Their idle words should be translated into care for those around them.

In these difficult financial times, it is very easy to blame the bankers and financiers for all our financial woes. They have become the demonic enemy to be cast out of the City.

Yet, this dispute isn’t about the poor; it is an attack by a motivated liberalati on the way in which we live in this country. It is an attack not on our financial institutions but on our way of life. I have to ask those protesting about poverty why don’t they go and sweep the streets of the housing estates or clean up the mess still left over from the riots? After all, that is what Jesus would do.

And now for something completely different

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An Anglican clergyman says something sensible about how Christianity might be applied to the financial mess and the St. Paul’s occupation.

Read it all here:

The best thing the Church seemed to be able to come up with was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s support for a new ‘Robin Hood’ tax — in other words, another financial instrument to add to the pile. But what might have been a better response, given the complexity of the issues involved?

The first answer in any realm of public responsibility lies in the model Jesus Christ set before his followers, as the Lord of all who nevertheless came “not to be served, but to serve”.

I remember a lecturer many years ago who argued that this ought to be the guiding principle of Christians in the arts. The first goal of the artist, he said, should not be self-expression but service of others. The answer to the question, “What should I paint or sculpt or design?” should be, “What could I paint or sculpt or design that would be of benefit to someone else?”

Yet this can apply to financiers as much as to artists. The guiding principle here should be not “How much money can we make?” but, “How can I best be of service?” In every occupation and relationship, those who claim to follow Christ should follow his example of being “the servant of all”.

 

The Occupy story so far

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Things are progressing as expected.

The St. Paul’s occupiers are using the cathedral as a toilet.

A Vancouver occupier has died, probably of a drug overdose.

As Peter Hitchens says, every crank, dingbat and fanatic in Southern England is now on the steps of St. Paul’s.

Rowan Williams continues to command the respect of the media:

OWS protester demands free capitalist hamburger from McDonald's

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From here:

An Occupy Wall Street protestor was arrested early Friday after a violent rampage at a McDonald’s that refused to offer him free food.

The NYPD says it happened at about 2:45 a.m. at a McDonald’s near the make-shift tent city in Zuccotti Park.

The man, who had not been identified, went into the world’s largest restaurant chain and demanded free food, apparently craving a burger over the gourmet food being served in the park.

The people behind the counter, who are working instead of protesting, were not about to offer the man free food.

The protester then turned violent, even breaking a machine inside of the store before police arrived and arrested the 27-year-old.

As we all know, McDonald’s is a place where the unspoken anxieties of society can often find a voice; it is a stage on which to conduct by proxy the arguments that society itself does not know how to handle.  The urgent larger issues raised by those demanding free hamburgers remain very much on the table and we need – as fast food consumers and as society as a whole – to work to make sure that they are properly addressed.

The eviction of one hamburger-crazed anti-capitalist activist has constituted violence in the name of the purveyors of grease-laden unhealthy food the world over.

But at least it has triggered awareness of the need to advance the moral agenda of redistributing artery clogging fat to those who aren’t getting their fair share.

h/t mcj

Occupy Vancouver degenerating into violence and drug use

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Contrary to Occupy propaganda, the protesters do not represent 99% of the population, since 99% of the population is comprised of people who work for a living, don’t routinely take or overdose on drugs, don’t physically threaten anyone and, since they are busy earning a living to support themselves and their families, don’t have the time for extended self-indulgent posturing in a tent.

From here:

Tempers flared at the Occupy Vancouver encampment Thursday morning as one person was taken to hospital suffering from a drug overdose.

The unconscious victim was first given medical aid by paramedics with Occupy Vancouver, said Vancouver Fire Chief John McKearney.

[….]

Some media covering the overdose were subjected to threats by those living in the tents on the lawns outside Vancouver Art Gallery.

CKNW reporter Charmaine de Silva said she was “physically threatened” while covering the breaking story.