Thou shalt not steal... some might think that's basically all their faith might say about SOPA/ PIPA and support the new anti-piracy legislation. From my own perspective though, it's not so simple. I support the initial spirit behind anti-piracy legislation, but as I understand it, SOPA/ PIPA is currently written in a way that would hamper online innovation and freedom while in fact really not doing much to actually stop the pirating of copyrighted content online. In doing so, SOPA/ PIPA would strike at heart of our evolving definition of community, and therefore our evolving definition of the church in the twenty-first century. Jesus taught in Matthew 20:18, "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." What we've seen over the last decade or so has been a revolution in what it means to be gathered, a revolution largely enabled by sites like Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and Twitter that are at risk of being shut down by SOPA/ PIPA.
I've often thought about how important it is for the church to get connected online, but up until the controversy over SOPA/ PIPA in the last few days, I never thought about it in the other direction... how the church must give thanks for the gift of internet freedom that allows us to gather in conversation. Not only must we give thanks for how the internet can strengthen our existing physical faith communities and create virtual new ones, we must further give thanks for what internet freedom has contributed the cause of social justice. As I wrote about a month or so ago, social media sites allowed millennials and other peaceful protestors this past year to enter into conversation and work to reform or rebuild many of the world's most oppressive governments and other social systems, whether in Egypt, Russia or Wall Street. The overwhelming condemnation of Rick Perry's hateful "Strong" ad and today's response to SOPA/ PIPA further shows the political power of online viral organizing.
For those of you who wish to become better educated on SOPA/ PIPA and what it does to curb freedom online, I've found the following video most helpful:
Having realized and unlocked the power of online community and viral organizing against systems of oppression over the last few years, we should all do everything we can to protect the internet as one of our central tools in evolving what the church is and does in the twenty-first century. For more information about what you can do, click here.
After a couple weeks of celebrating Molly and I's engagement while also recovering from a tough semester at seminary, I sat down today and read through Time's 2011 Person of the Year article with great interest. Unlike some of the listed runners up like Kate Middleton and Paul Ryan, "The Protestor" seemed like a pretty appropriate choice, and I thought the piece as a whole was pretty well done. The article aptly characterized 2011 as the greatest year of global protest since at least 1968, and on this go around it wasn't just part of "counter-cultural pageant." Sure, I still saw plenty of the typical lefties (which I'm probably one of) at Occupy Philly, but there were a lot of other folks involved as well. Not only at Occupy but throughout the world, young, educated and solidly middle-class folks flooded the streets throughout 2011, protesting against economic injustice and in some places, political oppression. Most of those protestors were getting politically active for the first time. Credit also must be given to folks from all generations and backgrounds who fought and continue to fight for democracy and economic fairness. While it was therefore appropriate for Time to declare "The Protestor" as Person of the Year, 2011 wasn't just a year of protest... 2011 was the year millennials woke up.
Millennials, a group which could perhaps most simply be defined as those born from 1985 to 2000, have already been defined in countless ways, both good and bad. While many of us millennials have overly relied on Mom and Dad, and some of us might care a little too much about our iPhones, we've also come of age in a world that strikes us as profoundly disappointing and 2011 was the first year we really got some skin in the game trying to change it. Sure, a majority of us voted for Barack Obama in the last election, and will probably do so again, but it was only in 2011 when many of us slept on cold concrete for months, faced government snipers or were humble enough to learn how to protest from our sisters and brothers around the world. Unlike in some other seasons of protest, we as a whole were either humble (or perhaps reliant) enough to want to learn from previous generations... we're largely close with our parents and haven't experienced a generation gap. Perhaps most importantly, we've learned how to make the most of all those camera phones and laptops we tote around... the Arab Spring, Occupy and the now escalating protests in Russia would not have sparked without such technology. Not only have we learned from our sisters and brothers around the world online, we've also been able to stand in solidarity with them. One reason for this sense of solidarity is largely because we don't get our news from talking heads on TV, but rather from each other. Just look at some of the power images we've experienced in the last year:
Remember this video from the Egyptian protests last February? In English it's titled "The Sound of Freedom," and it's by Moustafa Fahmy, Mohamed Khalifa, and Mohamed Shaker. Here's a translation of some of the lyrics:
I went down and I said I am not coming back, and I wrote on every street wall that I am not coming back. All
barriers have been broken down, our weapon was our dream, and the
future is crystal clear to us, we have been waiting for a long time, we
are still searching for our place, we keep searching for a place we
belong too, in every corner in our country.
That's some pretty powerful stuff for sure. Here's some similarly inspiring footage from the ongoing protests in Russia:
It's so interesting (and I think very millennial) that young protestors are exclaiming things like "We just wanted truth, we just wanted the law to work" and as reported they're calling for political evolution, not revolution. It's been my experience that millennials are idealist, but not overly so... Tempered by difficult experiences over the last decade, most seem to know that complete anarchy probably wouldn't result in anything good. Rather, in Egypt, Russia, the US and many other countries most folks seem willing to peacefully evolve rather than completely throw out traditional systems. Even in Egypt, protestors were initially willing to work with army officials. The only instances where this hasn't been the case is when protestors have experienced very violent retribution, such as in Libya and Syria. There's been a great deal of criticism leveled at those who took to the streets in 2011, mostly arguing that the protestors only know what they're against instead of what they're actually for. I think that observation is partially true, but that's also a good thing. As I experienced at Occupy, it wasn't just a protest, but more importantly a diverse community in conversation about how to make a better world. Supported by cellphones and the internet, millennials brought in countless others who couldn't be physically present to join in the conversation.
This idea that millennials aren't only about protest but more importantly about conversation is why I included Rick Perry in the title of this post. Check out this example of how two millennials contributed to a conversation about Perry's hateful campaign ad a few weeks back:
After Perry's "Strong" ad came out, Millennials made many powerful videos like this one, and the ad itself became one of the most disliked videos on YouTube within hours. Without a doubt, 2011 was the year the millennial generation woke up, and I'm greatly looking forward to seeing where the conversation brings us in 2012.
As written in an upcoming edition of LTSP'sThe Seminarian:
Over the last few weeks I had the pleasure of visiting the
OccupyPhilly encampment at Dilworth Plaza three times. Each visit was a uniquely amazing
experience. It was great to talk
with folks and feel a strong sense of community during my first visit, but I
was also disappointed that people of faith weren’t visibly present at all. My second time down I attended a
meeting of the then newly formed Interfaith Working Group. Since that meeting, I’ve seen the
Interfaith Working Group do some fantastic ministry. They’ve organized weekly speakers, made appeals for food
donations and cared for the many homeless folks living at Occupy. The group provided a calming presence
when police closed the encampment last week and they’ve even worked with the
Rev. Jesse Jackson to reach out to the city’s African-American church
community.
I purposely made my third visit to OccupyPhilly during one
of their public feeding times. At
the encampment’s height they was feeding 900 folks each day of the week and
2100 folks on the weekend free of charge.
Meals were cooked at a local Friends Center kitchen and carted
over to the encampment, providing a very public witness to our city’s hunger
crisis right in front of City Hall.
Before leaving that evening I briefly spoke with a man who said he
wanted to start going to church because the Friends Center was so helpful.
The city government evicted occupiers from Dilworth Plaza
last week to make way for a construction project without granting a new
overnight permit for another location.
Since then OccupyPhilly’s Interfaith Working Group has worked hard to
help homeless folks find another long-term residence. While I pray the movement stays alive and even grows in the
coming months, Occupy has already provided us with an important model for being
church in the 21st century.
Living amidst such social and economic injustice, the church must bear
very public, prophetic witness to the many sins of our contemporary
society. Like Occupy, the church
must publicly witness in partnership with our interfaith sisters and brother in
manner centered on conversation rather than violence.
One of the best aspects of OccupyPhilly's former encampment at Dilworth Plaza was that it provided a semi-permanent community for homeless folks in Philadelphia to live in a central location with easy access to food and other important resources. Since the city evicted the occupiers from Dilworth Plaza last week, the rare sense of community for the city's homeless has been destroyed. Immediately after the eviction, some homeless occupiers attempted to set-up another encampment in North Philadelphia under a I-95 underpass, but they were recently asked to leave as well. Paul Klemmer, one of the homeless occupiers, recently wrote an open letter to Mayor Nutter about the situation. Check out the following heartbreaking excerpt:
Philadelphia has about 4,000 homeless people and 40,000 empty dwelling
units, but, apparently, unless the wealthy can profit by our occupying
these dwellings, they would rather see us alone, with our possessions if
not stolen by regular criminals, "confiscated" by police, since we have
no place to store anything we can't carry and are not allowed to
congregate to watch one another's belongings.
You can check out more of Paul Klemmer's letter here. The church needs to be a prophetic witness and support individuals like Paul who want to set up fully functioning communities where homeless folks can live, be good neighbors and even minister to each other without being victimized by our wider society. As Paul mentions later on his letter, these encampments or facilities could be located in those forgotten, abandoned places in the city like foreclosed homes. OccupyPhilly's Interfaith Working group has continued working on helping the homeless of our city find new, fully functioning communities to live instead of simply shelters. The group can certainly provide a strong model for the rest of us.
God's peace,
Dustin
UPDATE 12:47 PM: Here's a great video segment on this second eviction from Fox29 News:
I've been meaning to write a second theological reflection on my experience with OccupyPhilly for a while now. I just watched this footage from ABC6 below, and boy, it's so compelling I had to write something:
Obviously, emotions have very much escalated since police began evicting the OccupyPhilly community from Dilworth Plaza. While I've haven't personally been able to make it down there in recent days, from email updates I've read it is very clear that the Interfaith Working Group has been working hard to cool tensions and develop productive alternatives to occupying Dilworth Plaza. Especially after seeing tonight's footage, it looks like OccupyPhilly needs the help of our local faith community to help keep the peace more than ever.
God's peace,
Dustin
UPDATE (7:02 AM): Right originally posting this I came upon some more footage on OccupyPhilly Media. It looks like from some of the following footage that things were really quite bad tonight:
Are police really trampling folks with horses and pulling knives on people? While this news is still unsubstantiated, I believe our faith community really needs to actively observe what's now happening at OccupyPhilly to help prevent further violence.
Just finished up with a really exciting Interfaith Working Group meeting at OccupyPhilly. While it was my first time participating, today's meeting was the third of such gatherings... they're actually regularly scheduled on a bi-weekly basis: Saturdays @ 1:30p and Tuesdays @ noon. There were fifteen folks involved from faith communities all around Philadelphia, and boy, it was really heartening to see that people of faith are becoming more visible at Occupy. Besides providing a safe space for individuals to pray, meditate or just have a few moments of quiet contemplation, the Interfaith Working Group has also put together a weekly speaker series on Saturday afternoons. An open-mic church is being organized for 5:00p on Sundays and a holiday celebration is also being talked about for December 17th.
As a Christian, I firmly believe the church is called to publicly witness to issues of hunger and inequality, issues which are central to the Occupy movement. Even if believers don't specifically support the political goals of the Occupy movement, surely all Christians are interested in feeding, clothing and caring for individuals. Currently OccupyPhilly is feeding roughly 900 people each day during the workweek and around 2100 each day on the weekend. Collecting food and clothing to support this work is a ministry any faith community could participate in. There is a strong pastoral care need down at OccupyPhilly as well. If you're at all interested in finding out how to get involved, your best resource is the Interfaith Working Group's Facebook group, found here. Thanks so much!
This past Friday I took the commuter rail down to City Hall, making my first visit to OccupyPhilly. On my way there I generally thought I supported what was going on, but my main purpose was to get some postcards signed... Philadelphia is one of the hungriest large cities in America... 1 in 4 folks face food insecurity here. Despite such an alarming statistic the city of Philadelphia also doesn't currently have an official hunger plan. City Soup recently launched a campaign to change all that. Over the coming weeks, members of faith communities throughout the city will sign postcards to advocate for the development of a hunger plan. And they're going to sign a whole lot of postcards... 30,000 of them, to be exact. As part of my field assignment with Lutheran Advocacy Ministries of PA, I was asked to support the campaign by getting the Occupy folks to sign as well.
Upon exiting Suburban Station I quickly realized Occupy was something I had never before experienced. I've been to protests before, marching against the Iraq War in NYC and Washington, but this was completely different. It wasn't a protest at all really, but rather a fully functioning community organized around fighting economic injustice. There was strong infrastructure in place... a welcome tent, a medical tent, a media tent, a legal tent and food tent were only a few of the many ways the community supported it's members. Despite a week-long occupation, the park was amazingly clean.. cleaner than many parks I've visited in Philly. Finally, there were people not only talking, but really listening to each other all around me.
Most impressively, the folks over at OccupyPhilly were doing exactly what the city hasn't succeeded in doing: feeding hungry people. For days police have been directing people who are homeless to City Hall in the hope of overwhelming the occupiers. Instead of being overwhelmed, the community is simply feeding hungry people... a whole lot of hungry people. In fact, over 1000 people are being served each meal. That's right... Occupy has become a huge feeding operation right in front of City Hall. Right after I learned about the feeding operation over a hundred students came marching down (I think) Market St. from Temple University... they had staged a walkout in support of the protest. The community grew to embrace the Temple students, and continues to grow each day.
The sad part though was that people of faith were almost nowhere to be seen at OccupyPhilly, at least in an official capacity. There was a Society of Friends tent and a Unitarian/ Universalist tent, but that was about it. Despite Christ's work feeding the hungry, supporting the poor and serving the marginalized, Christians weren't really around. Even if the church can't support the Occupy movement itself, it surely can minister to the community there. I heard from one of the folks at the Society of Friends tent that pastoral care needs were overwhelming and that help was needed. I heard from community leaders how desperately more food is needed as well.
OccupyPhilly was a truly amazing experience, an experience of the Spirit working in a community organized around fighting economic injustice. The people there (whether they knew it or not) were living out a vocation to feed hungry people and give a powerful voice to those who have never had one before.
