I see Black people and Christians too in the OWS Protest…Part 2

As I told you in Part 1 of this post,I went down to the OWS Movement after church. During my train ride to the Wall Street area, I also reflected on my Christian faith and realized that these protests can very much be considered Christ focused. You see I believe Jesus Christ’s whole existence was based on fairness and empowering the oppressed. “Hmmhhh, where are the Christians in this movement?” I thought.

Before I joined the meeting held by the People of Color Working Group (POC), I saw a sign that said “Jesus is with the 99%” moving down Cedar Street while I was standing on Broadway. I began to race through the crowd to find this person holding the “Jesus” sign. Thankfully, I bumped into Rev. Jennifer Butler. She is a Presbyterian minister and Executive Director of Faith in Public Life. Rev. Butler helped organize a group of 70 people to participate in the Wall Street protests on Sunday.


I told her that I was happy to see fellow Christians protesting and asked her why she thought it was important to be there. Rev. Butler said “This society has made Wall Street an idol. We are putting wealth before the needs of the poor. We have to get our values straight.”

Then I asked why should Christians care about the protest?

“Whatever your faith is; we know that we can’t build a society where the wealth is concentrated. My Christian brothers and sisters need to wake up. We need to see that this is a moral crisis. Everything Jesus stood for justifies why were marching today. ”

As I left Rev. Butler, her group was singing the words: Don’t Let Wall Street blow it out. I’m gonna let it shine. Don’t Let Wall Street blow it out. I’m gonna let it shine. Let it Shine. Let It Shine. Let it Shine.” To the music of “This little light of mine.” By this point, they group had gathered around a gold calf that said false idol.

The golden calf has a biblical reference from the time the Israelites were living in the desert. They were frustrated that Jesus was taking so long to bring them to the Promised Land, so they began to worship a golden calf made from their jewelry.

The impact of the OWS movement is still unknown but I hope that all Americans can return to the Promised Land. Personally that means a county where the growth of the middle class is not severely hindered by the outsourcing of jobs. A country where young people have an economic ladder to climb. A country where the gap between the rich and poor is not so vast.A country where people don’t have to choose between medication and food.

Once upon a time, those were the guiding principles of America and that is how it should remain.