Opinion: Is 'Occupy Wall Street' an opportunity for Christians? Comments
Say what you will about Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Say that it's a communist movement, or that it's financed by the very same establishment it appears to criticize. Say that it's anti-American, anti-freedom, and anti-church. Say that it's filled with anarchists. Say that it's going to be short-lived. But regardless of what critics say, the movement should cause us to stop and think. Continue Reading
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Bulbajer: Your sappiness is alarming. Here is a quote that you, many other Catholics, and many other Americans need to become familiar with: "All the perplexities, confusions, and distress in America, arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation" --- John Adams. The Federal Reserve is a "central bank." It is the focal point of all the crony capitalism that has harmed our economy. It is THE primary culprit. And OWS protests ignore it because they are ignorant of it! I have hammered on this ad nauseum. I have recommended numerous times that people read "The Church and the Market" by Dr. Tom Woods. In it you will find the most complete rationale available as to the grievous harm done by "central banks" including our own Federal Reserve.
Occupy "Coming Home': I grieve that the Catholic Church has lost a brother/sister in you. I don't know why you left but that is none of my business. The Coming Home program is to invite people like you to come back home and give it another chance. It is not a program to pry into the personal feelings of why someone leaves in the first place. If one wants to talk about it, that is entirely up to them. In most cases, the reasons that have been given to me are mostly misunderstandings between them and the teachings of the Faith or possibly a disagreement with the Priest or Pastor. There isn't a church/denomination in existence that is perfect. Leaving "Peter" because of "Judas" is very sad. The Catholic Church is Holy, the people are not. We are all sinners. The Church is Holy because Jesus is Holy and He is present in His Church, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. I will pray for you and hope that you will return to your brothers and sisters in full communion in our Faith. If you do not, I still will pray for you that Jesus will shower you with many blessings. God bless.
Elcid, good point about "pro-choice" violence. I was one of those Catholics duped into voting for Obama, convincing myself that he wasn't going to do much about abortion. Turns out he did. I guess my point was that in every large gathering, there's bound to be some crazy youths who tip over police cars as if that demonstrated something. We can't judge the OWS movement by the small percentage of them that are violent and foul-mouthed. Your success story is inspiring and I congradulate you, but most people aren't as lucky as you. Hard work alone is not enough to succeed financially in life. You need backing. Meatworkers, for example, work harder than almost anyone in this country. They get paid absurdly low salaries, work in dangerous conditions, and are pressured to take pay cuts (and in the case of women, pressured to sleep with their overseers). It's one of the worst jobs in the country - mostly taken by immigrants, legal or illegal. The meat companies even provide one-way bus trips from south of the border to the factories. Very, very, very few meat workers ever improve their condition through hard work alone. The companies treat them like the waste that comes out of their cattle. So should these workers be expected to rely on themselves? No welfare? Sure, there's charity, but if charity reached every person in need we wouldn't have such a constant need for donations. It may not be the government's responsibilty to provide income for people, but it is the government's responsibilty to ensure that no working person or family drowns in uber-capitalism. Theresa H, same point. Welfare should not replace charity, but what about welfare and charity working together? You might argue that the government is under no obligation to help people under the poverty line. You might also argue that the government has no obligation to provide quality education to all children. If the government helps people regarding education, why is it so evil for the government to help people regarding liveable income?
Awesome Kevin! We can't expect a different result if all we do is elect the a democrat or a republican every election cycle. In the same way someone like Obama could become president, why not a third party? What are we so darn afraid of?
Good article. The American voting people have brought this on themselves in two ways. First, for believing the pretenses of the Republicans and Democrats that they care about anyone other than the lobbyists --rich fat cats and unions-- despite decades of consistent and overwhelming evidence that they do not. There is faith and then there is blind, unreasoning faith. The two major parties have been getting by on the latter, and by fooling the public into thinking that they are the only two choices that voters have. Secondly, people have brought this on themselves by allowing an increasingly intolerant secularism to take over public institutions, with the result that the only objective basis for morality, a transcendent, personal Creator who truly exists --you're free to believe in fairy tales as long as you acknowledge them as such-- is officially rejected and the only possible result is moral relativism. There is no longer a reason for people to not victimize each other when they feel they can get away with it, but that's OK as long as you throw your lot in with identity politics and seek protection in numbers. People have been fooled by leaders who intone "God bless America" or show off their church memberships at election time, only to act like God is a quaint superstition once they gain power. Every election cycle the people fool themselves into thinking that this Republican or Democratic candidate isn't like all the others, even though they have the imprimatur of their party establishment. There is certainly a place for Christians in all of this, but we have been squandering our influence supporting those whose pretense to being our allies doesn't even pass the straight face test. We need to stop the wishful thinking, acknowledge reality and support third candidates. We also have a great opportunity to point out the intellectual bankruptcy and real-world consequences of moral relativism. And maybe even repent of some inconsistencies of our own.
Catholicism is inviting people to "Come Home," but how are they addressing the reasons people (like me) left? Catholics may do well to take this opportunity to ask themselves what they want to represent in the world and to their children and how they can distance themselves from the mistakes Catholics made in the past with regard to unchecked greed and abuse of power at the expense of the faithful.
I admit, I haven't thought about Jesus much since leaving the Catholic faith 10 years ago. But since Occupy has started, I think about Him daily and I understand and respect him more and more. Occupy might bring me home, but that home won't be a Catholic Church if they're not on the side of Christ in this very clear matter of unchecked greed in big business and government.
I am having a hard time making the correlation between OWS and the abortion epidemic. I feel that many of you who post on here want to try and make abortion the dominate issue no matter what is being discussed.
1) OWS has nothing to do with abortion. It is a movement that wants to disentangle the government from Wall Street.
2) It was the greed of the Wall Street Bankers and the compliance of the government (who is supposed to represent all of us, not just the elite few) that has caused every major economic crisis. The great depression, the S&L loan frauds, junk bonds, and betting against housing are all examples of this type of greed run a muck. Why would anyone support people who's god is money and power. "Greed is good" (Gordon Gecko) has been the ethos of Wall Street, Corporate America, and the government for way to long.
3) Doesn't the church require that take care of the poor, comfort the foreigner and sick. Didn't Jesus tell us to love our enemies and how many times were we supposed to forgive them. I see almost none of that by the comments I have read on this website, unless you follow the extreme right wing dogma. What did Jesus tell to the rich man who anted to follow him. I am sure is was not don't tax me, look out for number #1, and let those who make huge amounts of wealth on the backs of others through evil means have everything.
4) The media only likes to show the outages of a protest. The Fox News network only likes to interview the least able to articulate the movement for their own slanted view. The media is failing to take heed to the utter disgust most of America has with what we have seen in the last 20 years. If the media would take the time to truly understand the movement, you might be surprised to find that you have a lot in common with them.
I am very happy to see the strong responses to this article and that people are not being fooled by such an article. God bless all of you. Keep fighting the good fight!
"If the American People ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing power of money should be taken from the bankers and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies." - Thomas Jefferson
“Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce…when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.” - James Garfield, 20th President Of U.S.
"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers." - Congressional Record 12595-12603 June 10, 1932
“Every effort has been made by the Federal Reserve Board to conceal its powers, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve System has usurped the government. It controls everything in congress and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will.” - Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and
Currency
"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States."
- United States Senator Barry Goldwater
END THE FED! VOTE RON PAUL 2012!
I think we would all be advised to take a step back and look beyond some of the nonsense that comes with every protest, whether it be the tea party or these protest. I think the take away from these protest is that I believe the American people are waking up finally that things have gone horribly wrong. Each of these groups is focusing on a different aspect of the problem and maybe their ideas are not perfectly conceived, but they both have point. The Tea Party is not wrong to say that government has become out of control. Our elected officials in DC have been steering us into a ditch for a long time and eventually it had to come to a head. And I think the OWS folks see that there are some fundemental problems going on with our economic system. We are all kidding ourselves if we do not admit at some level that between our government, lobbyist and the influence of the powerful that our free-market, capitalistic system has been somewhat hijacked. Our system of governance, our economy and our general society is coming apart and while the ideologues of both sides want to point the finger at eachother, there is plenty of blame to go around for both groups. I think as Christians, we have to look at both movements and ensure that we are in line with Church teachings. The Tea Party is right to be angry about the over reach of government. We would all be well advised to ensure our government officials understand subsidiarity and concepts that will allow the government to function better. The OWS folks are right to be angry about an economy that is basically rigged for those who WE'VE allowed to control our government. We shouldn't have a system where some folks can't lose. Privatizing gains and socializing losses is not free market capitalism. Ignoring the human dignity of people for the sake of a stock price or the bottom line does not comport to church teachings either. We can't pick and choose what parts of the social doctrine of the chruch we like and don't like. We would be well advised that our laws and systems ensure the common good of all men. Lastly, I think as Christians, we must be careful to ensure that our system of government, our economy or any aspect of our way of life as it pertains to being Americans, does not become an idol. All systems of man are never going to be perfect as they only have sinful, imperfect people to create and run them. The moment we cannot be honest withourselves about the state of things, particularly as it applies to our own ideologies, we are in trouble. If both the right and left focused on the cancer's in their own ranks, we'd probably be able to move foward together. But because we are so focused on the speck in our brother's eye, we haven't made the time to deal with the plank in our own. We have to stop defending our idologies as if they are perfect, because they never can and will be.