The one thing the Occupy movement is missing
Occupy Wall Street protesters join a labor union rally in Foley Square in New York's Financial District. (Jason DeCrow/AP)
The Occupy Wall Street protests that have now turned into a global movement have been an interesting development. Through the movement, we have seen that people are so fed up with corporate greed—backed by the complicity of Wall Street companies—that they have decided to speak out and attempt to shame the corporate giants into submission.
I don’t know if that will ever happen, but I do know this: Throughout all of the demonstrations, camping out at parks and challenging the status quo, it seems as if the Occupy movement has missed one very important thing.
A few weeks ago, my pastor, the Rev. K.R. Woods, of Covenant Worship Center in Berkeley, made it all clear in his sermon when he touched on this very subject.
The title of his sermon was simply “Occupy,” and he based his sermon on Luke 19:10-26, also known as the Parable of the Ten Minas, in which Jesus tells a story about a king who gives his servants ten talents and tells the servants to make use of them.
The point my pastor made, which is so profound, was that folks in the Occupy movement are directing their frustration at other people instead of recognizing that the problem—greed—is, in actuality, a spirit. Greed is not a political issue. It’s not even a financial evil. It is a spiritual problem. And you can only fight something spiritual with spiritual weapons. The only spiritual weapons I know about come from Jesus Christ.
“The word occupy to those who are out there in front of City Hall, the word occupy for those who are camped out in Oakland, the word occupy to those who are camped out in London and France—it means to seize in order to bring to a halt,” my pastor said. “But the word used here in the text for occupy means the exact opposite. It means to seize in order to advance.”
He went on to say: “They’re trying to deal with a spiritual problem by occupying it in the natural. They can camp out, riot, burn stuff. But the demon that is behind the chaos only becomes more emboldened. It takes believers, you and I—the people of God—to tell the devil enough is enough.”
You can hear more from the sermon in the clip below.
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So wouldn’t the Occupy movement be so much more effective if, instead of occupying a park or a bank, people occupied the rows of a church where the power of Jesus could set folks and their debt free?
On that same notion, wouldn’t it be so much more inspirational if churches occupied the cities in which they reside so that more souls could be saved?
If a church couldn’t do that, then why not occupy the block surrounding the church so that at least the people in that area could be blessed?
And if that couldn’t be done, then why not just occupy your family so that you and your loved ones could prosper in God’s love.
Nymphomania, Christian video games and holy high tops: Or, what happens when a Christian decides to become CEO
If you thought Christianity in today’s world was for the birds, then you might want to think again. I’ve been reading God is Back, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, in which the authors make a case for how religion, especially the American style of Pentecostalism, is starting to spread again throughout the world. In one chapter, the book explains how Christian entrepreneurs are borrowing ideas from mainstream American culture and adapting them to meet a religious audience’s needs–with huge amounts of success so far. And I’m not talking about Christian clubs or holy hip hop. Check out these examples:
Christian Nymphos
Although the name sounds like a bad idea for a porno, there’s no need to get your mind out of the gutter with this one. This is a website for married women dedicated to “teaching saints how to walk in sexual freedom with their husbands.” Although sex mostly doesn’t get talked about in the church, believe it or not, Christians do know how to spice things up (under the right circumstances, of course).
Left Behind: Eternal Forces
This Christian video game became an instant hit when it came out in 2006. It allows players the choice of either mowing down enemy soldiers or conducting warfare using prayer and worship as weapons rather than guns.
Scripts Footwear
Although these just look like Chucks with Bible verses on them, you gotta give it up to the marketing people at Scripts Footwear who thought of creating a brand of shoe that is both good for the soul and sole.
“Jesus” rifles in the military?
Interesting investigative story from ABC News (via AlterNet) about how the U.S. military is using high-powered rifle sights inscribed with passages from the Bible.
According to the report:
The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.
U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious “Crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.
…
Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.” The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.
It’s interesting because it shows how people sometimes can’t comprehend the Bible being used anywhere outside of a church. Now, I don’t know too much about guns but, according to the story, the Bible verses are on the sights, which are used by troops only to see their targets, correct? But they’re not on the bullets themselves. So couldn’t the argument also be made that the Bible verses are for the troops, and perhaps they’re the ones being subliminally “proselytized” to?