So what really IS the occupy movement?

I work with High School students and it shocked me last Wednesday to joke with a few of them and say, "yeah, so now you will start your own occupy movement.  Ha ha  ha  . . . . ha . . . . . .  ahem"

Blank stares.

They had absolutely no idea what I was talking about - they had heard nothing at all about what the occupy movement was.  I am extremely non-political - I like a little about what everyone is saying so I don't line up on one side or another . . . but this was interesting.  They had no idea what was going on in the world.

Which made me think - what do people know about this phenomenon?  I don't mean politically, if you want to hear political jargon this blog isn't going to help you.  I am more interested in where  this came from and where it is going.

My personal understanding on this goes like this . . .

About 45 years ago Communist leaders in eastern Europe enacted a series of reforms called "The Prague Spring."  It represented a thawing of the rigid structures of Communism to allow more personal and political freedoms.  It filtered through academia and the arts and began a movement among students.  The Soviets responded with force in the fall.


Fast-forward to 2010 and in December last year students and workers in the Arab world began protesting the absolutist structures in their own countries.  They called it the "Arab Spring" in a nod to the demonstrations of the Prague Spring.  When you hear "Arab world" think Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan among others.  Essentially the entire northern tier of Africa and the fertile crescent.  Unemployment in these countries was high and resentment over government inaction led to protests.  Demonstrations there have brought in regime change in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia with major reforms in several other countries.  Syria is currently in trouble with the Arab league because of how aggressive they are being with protestors. 

So anyhow - seeing what was happening in the Arab world, political organizers sent the message through primarily social networks that similar demonstrations can be used to effect change here in America.  Citing the number of people out of work while leaders of corporations are getting 'bailed out,' organizers of a similar kind of movement decided to 'occupy' the centers of privilege that have ignored the vast majority of people in the US (the oft-quoted 99%).  Leaders of a Canadian magazine purchased the domain for the occupy website in early June.  Then in July the same magazine called for an organized protest for September 17th.  They wanted about 20,000 people to take up residence in the Wall Street section of New York City.

Participation in September was more in the neighborhood of 1,000 but the movement began to gather steam in early October as media began running stories of run-ins with police.  The movement purposefully has stayed away from a centralized message and structure so as not to imitate the very thing it is protesting.  The Occupy movement encompasses people who are upset with capitalism, upset with the treatment with women, angry over joblessness and homelessness, irritation with proposed 'austerity' measures and dozens of other messages.

Last weekend most of the Occupy movements were evicted by their host cities citing social and sanitary problems that were taking place at the encampments.  Most Occupy participants have now vowed to take the protest out of the encampments and into the streets.

As an example of this new phase, I was in Philly yesterday and heard that the Occupy movement was going to march up Market Street and demonstrate near 30th Street station to show people that the place needs to be renovated and that people need jobs.  At least they told commuters where to not drive . . .

So there you have it - a hopefully impartial account of where it has come from and where it may be going.

Personally, I don't think we can solve our own problems.  I know that sounds so cynical, but our humanity is like blight.  Our humanity is the one thing that continues to inhibit our ability to treat the ailments that are caused by our humanity.   We need something outside of ourselves and our politics to lift us out of the mess we are in.  You don't treat blight with sanitized blight.  We need something or someone outside this thing we call humanity to lead us out of the mess we are in.  I mean, that is why Jesus came to begin with . . .

. . .  and why He'll come again.

All good things come from an end . . .

So it is 9:43pm May 21st.  Almost an hour (West Coast Time) after our friend Harold Camping has come to the realization that his math was not needed to compute the end of the world.  I wonder what it is like . . . is he defiant?  Did he lock himself in his study?  Did he take his phone off the hook?  Or is he teary-eyed with the realization that perhaps the Bible is bigger than he thinks?  Of any feeling we should have, it should be one of compassion for a brother that made a big mistake . . . a little grace is what we all need when we blow it.

Of course this is the time for others to blow their horn about how religion is about as real as Camping's 0-2 record at prognosticating the end of the world.  As much as we'd like to disassociate with nutjobs that call for the end of the world, we can't slide as far as we'd like. I mean, if you really buy what the Bible says, there will be a time in which Jesus returns to judge the world.  We hold a view that is crazy by most standards - God will return at some (undisclosed and unknowable) time in the future (try talking about that in the breakroom/ at the playdate/ or TGI Fridays).

Remember, our faith is born out of one LOOOOOOONG wait for a Messiah.  With scriptural cues as far back as 1,000 BC in the 22nd Psalm, the Jews waited a long, long, loooooooong time for God to act on their behalf.  In that time, the country divided in half, Kings were evil, foreign countries invaded and plundered the temple, and the country of Israel went through 3 or 4 landlords. In all of this time, the once burning message of God coming to save the Jews went dim.  This expectation turned into a way to placate God.  It's like God let something die.

And then Jesus showed up.  It was the end of an era (but the dawn of a new one).

So some might be saying, "yeah, so where is that God of yours?  Isn't this whole thing with Camping another indication that it is all a bunch of stories?"

We've been here before . . . God seems to have a much different timetable - His idea of lateness is not like ours.  In fact, His idea of letting something die is different than ours.  It seems like He lets something die just so He can raise it to life again.

And THAT is something you can put a guarantee on . . .

Harold Camping . . . a nice guy (and a little frahootled)

It was in the November of the year that I was twelve in which I decided to follow Christ.  I was an altar boy at St. Francis in the Fields church in Malvern PA and up to that point the only thing I knew about Christianity was that most of them were rich.  Our church had BMWs and Mercedes Benz's all over the place.  Kids in youth group had dads who were big deals.  The Dupont family members were in the choir.  It was all very surreal - burlap banners of St. Francis (who was one of the most famous poor people ever) and visiting priests who showed up in pastel, Don Johnson-esque suits with the little priest collar at the top.

So I had to find out what this new faith was all about outside of church.  Lucky for me there was a free magazine that you could call a 1-800 number and get a subscription to.  It was called the Plain Truth.  Years later I would find out that it was linked to a strange cult called "Armstrongism."  

I also found a neat little radio station called "Family Radio" out of Camden NJ that had lots of interesting Bible teaching that I would listen to.  At night it was especially interesting, I got to know a guy named Harold Camping who hosted a nightly call-in show called "The Open Forum."  He would field all kinds of questions about the Bible from people that called in.

Now if his name sounds familiar, its because it is the same guy who says that the Bible has a secret message to believers that is numerically based.  If you are smart enough to figure out the math, you would realize that this Saturday May 21 the rapture will occur and those who are saved are going to be leaving this planet via the Son of God's second coming.

So one question I have is: "How did I ever turn out somewhat normal?"  How could I have had such diverse influences?  Wealthy Anglicanism, Armstrongism, Kooky pastors on radio shows . . . I should be on a commune about now with my eight children with names like "Johiabad" or "Lamech" creating websites about the alignment of celestial bodies and the Biblical signs of the apocalypse.

Of course I remember back when Harold Camping did this the last time - back in 1994 he prophesied that the return of Christ was in the fall.  I remember the guy I was interning with circled September in his Daytimer as "rapture season."  And yes, Harold was wrong then.  

He is a nice old man who knows a lot about the Bible - I would love to be neighbors with him.  Its just that he forgets that when Jesus said He was returning someday, He said that no one would know the day or the hour.  

Mark 13: 21 - “Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it.

and again later . . .

Mark 13:32 - "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

This last one is actually an expression that grooms would use about their wedding day.  In ancient Israel, the man who was engaged would go back to his father's house and work on his "Chuppa" or bridal chamber for about a year.  This was to be where his bride and he would live.  The groom's father would inspect it and only when it met the father's specs on quality would he receive permission to go and bring his fiance back to the house to be married.  When people would ask him when the big day was, his answer was "only my Father knows the day."  Jesus, it seems, is preparing a place for us right now.  And at just the right time, the Father will give Him a nod to put an end to the wait and the Earth can end its separation from God.

So . . . sorry Mr Camping.  There are no mathematical formulas for figuring that out.  You are a kind old man who knows a lot but it seems like you have gone overboard with math.  

But its not too late to rope yourself in and try to bring the Kingdom of God to this Earth through the way you live your life - the graciousness of your actions, the way you forgive, the justice you help maintain, the poor you provide for, the fatherless you defend . . .

Let God decide when its time to come back.