Its been stated numerous times that there is "religion" or "spirituality" at OWS. In the next breathe we here OWS isnt about religion. A second later they are. Confusing, right?
What upsets me is people have forgotten God, or atleast have been delusioned on a massive level. In seeking truth and determining what they believe, have OWS gone pagan?
It has been stated they have a "sacred space" tent at the encampments where people can worship their gods of their respective faiths. It has also been stated that a Golden Calf is making its rounds of all the OWS encampments. Upon it first arriving a senior minister of a presbyterian church lead in the worship of this calf.
Lets take a look at Exodus for a moment.
Exodus 32:1-14 KJV
1And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
6And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
11And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
So you see, history seems to be repeating itself. Upset with God and the fact He has not returned yet to Earth, people are seeking a new god to put their faith.
Now lets take a look at what the minister said herself.
Quoted from a Senior Minister
“We put it [the golden calf] on our altar, and then carried it down to Wall Street on Sunday to feature it in our multifaith worship service.”
“When the original calf arrived in our empty sanctuary on Saturday night, about a dozen of us gathered to greet it. The artist was there as well to humbly tell us how he built it. We were moved to pray, which I have to admit is not something we do that often on Saturday nights.”
- Donna Schaper, Senior Minister, Judson Memorial Church (A senior minister that hardly prays unless it is Sunday? Perfect.)
Donna Schaper should be ashamed of herself. She is no Christian. Based on this worshipping of the Golden Calf, lead by a minister who should know better, OWS seems to be pagan. Not spiritual. For if they were spiritual they would know Truth and worship God, not a paper mache golden calf.
Two articles concerning OWS and the golden calf
OWS and the Golden Calf
When I was a kid learning the story of Moses and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, one part of the story was particularly remarkable to me.
A short 45 days after their miraculous liberation from bondage, witnessing the Lord delivering plagues on their overlords, and God parting the waters to allow them to escape, the Israelites seemed to forget everything that just happened. At the foot of Mt. Sinai the people decided that it was a golden calf that had actually liberated them from Egypt, not the Lord.
In less than 2 months, they had turned their back on their deliverer. The ingratitude, and more importantly the astounding arrogance seemed to me to be impossible. People could not be that stupid, could they?
Along came OWS, and I realized that not only could people be that stupid, arrogant and ungrateful, but that it happens more often than you would expect.
All one needs to do is look at a photo, any photo at all, of the OWS mob to witness their equal measure of arrogance and ingratitude.
How many of the people in these camps of whiners and ingrates are aware of how truly blessed they are? It is clear they do not appreciate what they have been blessed with, but focus only on what they want.
For example, the poverty level for a family of 4 in the US is $22,350, according to the US Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS). (Source)
That poverty level, $22,350, is more than the per capita GDP of 166 of 215 countries in the world. 78% of the planet, or more, live on less than those in the US at the poverty line. Worse yet, most live on less than HALF of that $22k per year (144 of 215 nations). These are not even small backwaters. The list of 144 includes Russia, Poland, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile among others you have heard of. (Source: UN June 2011 Indicators on income and economic activity).
Those in poverty in the US have more money (and stuff) than typical people in most of the rest of the world
While stats like the ones above are not “sexy” and easy to dismiss or ignore, personal observation is not. We live in a really wealthy nation by any standard you wish to apply. Even people living in poverty in the US are materially blessed beyond measure.
According to various US Government reports, most people at or below the poverty line likely have:
air conditioning
more living space in their home than AVERAGE residents of most major world cities
one or more color TV’s with cable or satellite service
a home stereo system
an automobile
a DVD player
a cellphone.
Almost none are in imminent danger of starvation or malnourished. Almost all have indoor plumbing, multiple sets of clothing and footwear, and almost half actually own their own home.
So here we have a movement that complains that the rich are the problem. They seek vengeance against the 1%.
Has even one of them stopped to think that almost the entire rest of the planet looks at THEM as part of the 1%?
These glittering jewels of colossal ignorance have the chutzpah to think they are somehow abused, neglected, and deprived?
They will tell you their tales of poverty and abuse with a post on Facebook or YouTube from their Apple iPad or MacBook Pro over their wireless internet card from Verizon while dressed in North Face winter gear, Lands End boots, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and name brand underwear (for females probably Pink by Victoria’s Secret, and Hanes for the men).
While they post about their struggles, they are sipping a half caf double mocha latte from Starbucks. They are also probably wearing some gold jewelry worth more than most of people of the world earn in a year, many encrusted with precious gems. Most have stomachs full from their 3rd or 4th meal of the day, and they may even be technically obese. Oh, and they just got their hair styled and colored last week.
Those poor souls. I think I better understand their plight now. The people of Bangladesh must look upon these OWS masses and weep over their sad living conditions. Well, that is if the people of Bangladesh had electricity, a TV and satellite service.
And they wonder why people like me look at them and see nothing but spoiled brats throwing a tantrum?
Time for OWS to build their golden calf. Like the Children of Israel thousands of years before them, OWS has forgotten or ignored every blessing bestowed on them and are now making colossal fools of themselves.
Wait…what’s that you say? Oh no. They already did build a golden calf. They worshiped before it, too.
“We put it [the golden calf] on our altar, and then carried it down to Wall Street on Sunday to feature it in our multifaith worship service.”
“When the original calf arrived in our empty sanctuary on Saturday night, about a dozen of us gathered to greet it. The artist was there as well to humbly tell us how he built it. We were moved to pray, which I have to admit is not something we do that often on Saturday nights.”
- Donna Schaper, Senior Minister, Judson Memorial Church (Emphasis added, irony not. A senior minister that hardly prays unless it is Sunday? Perfect.)
The rest of us probably should get ready to wander the desert for 40 years until our ranks are purged of these ungrateful tantrum throwing overgrown children. That was what happened the last time around.
America, get your hiking boots and sunscreen ready. It’s gonna be a looooong walk.
The LORD’s anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone. – Numbers 32:13
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Occupy Wall Street, The Golden Calf And The New Idolatry
By Donna Schaper
When the paper Mache golden calf arrived at the church, it looked ever so much like the Wall Street Bull. I am not secretly cursing. The calf animal looked like a bull animal. Our choir director and one of our ministers carried it on their shoulders, from its rented van up Thompson Street, from Houston Street, into Judson Memorial Church around 8 p.m. on Saturday night. What surprised these two religious soldiers was how many people in the open bars recognized it immediately, "Why, that is the golden calf. You know, from the bible."
James Salt of Catholics United, who was on a spiritual retreat the weekend before, made the calf. He built and designed it within three days. Why? He was inspired by the actions of Occupy Wall Street and wanted to lend spiritual and biblical support. Faith in Public Life rented the van and brought it into town. We put it on our altar, and then carried it down to Wall Street on Sunday to feature it in our multifaith worship service. We are in the process of reproducing the calf as I write. Why? The Calf has returned to D.C. for the weekend's protests there.
When the original calf arrived in our empty sanctuary on Saturday night, about a dozen of us gathered to greet it. The artist was there as well to humbly tell us how he built it. We were moved to pray, which I have to admit is not something we do that often on Saturday nights. We took turns reading Exodus 32, verse by verse. We knew where to find the original golden calf story but we had rarely heard it in the context of paper mache, built into fifty pounds of calf. We started with verse one, how the Exodus people were disappointed with the same Moses who had taken them out of the wilderness. Then Aaron was summoned to leadership. Aaron plotted an overthrow of Moses by building a new altar, a golden calf, made from the earrings of the people. (Some biblical scholars argue that the women refused their jewelry. Who knows?) The people had a big expensive party in front of their handmade idol. Then Moses came back and destroyed the calf, begged God to repent of God's wrath against the people for their idolatry. Then the people repented. And God promised not to destroy them. We remain in prayer, as the calf of Wall Street is not yet in mothballs.
On Sunday, four strong men carried the calf on their shoulders, looking more like pallbearers in a street funeral than anything else. It was hot. They had yellow sponges to cushion the calf's blow to their shoulders. How they walked the two miles with the 50-pound paper Mache calf aloft is a matter of physics. But why they did it is a matter of the spirit. They suited up so reporters would not dare call them hippies. (There is nothing wrong with hippies except that people use them to stay distant from the Occupation Wall Street's general and universal message.) The pallbearers wanted to look like the Wall Street they protested. They marched and carried because they know what idolatry is. It is the replacement of a false God for a better one. Note I did not say true one. We all know how much we have internalized capitalism. We all know our distance from the truth. The 99% don't have an enemy in the 1% so much as a need to bring money in line with human values. Our multifaith service wanted to be sure not to resemble the punishmentalists or those who are absurdly sure about the divine or who like to find someone to blame for what has gone wrong. We went for the basics of our many faiths, the golden rule which is so distanced from and by the golden calf. "Do unto those downstream from you what you would have those upstream from you do to you." This rule applies to hippies, Republicans, church members, ministers, and financiers.
We all know how little Sabbath we keep, how frequently we let other people tell us our value, our place, our position. We all know how much we have let Wall Street control the conversation, alerting us that the market is "up" today or the market is "down." We brought the calf to Wall Street to confess our allegiance to false Gods and to announce that something was dying for us. That death is our own belief in the sacred calf of the Wall Street picture of the universe. The "mike check" was just the beginning of a new conversation, between and among people, about what is really important. What is important is people owning our own times, our own tongues, our own labor, our own worth. What is dead is Wall Street's control of the conversation and us.
View Rev. Dr. Red Conrad, D.D.'s profile
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