In recent weeks, the Occupy Wall Street protests have drawn attention to the issue of economic disparities in America. Those facts seem particularly significant here in the poorest big city in America. Do too few have too much money and power? What values are at issue here and how should we process these protests?

In one of my recent hip-hop theology class sessions we held a passionate and engaging discussion on Black Liberation Theology and the construction of God, Power, Sacrifice, Revolution and misrepresentation. I appreciated the involvement and engagement with such sensitive matters. We began the work of deconstructing how God gets appropriated with a particular group within a societal hierarchy and thereby render those on the underside helpless and hopeless. I realized that so many people are conditioned by oppressive infrastructures that exist that we have come to fear alternative realities – even if the current reality is counterproductive.

Clearly our country’s unbridled capitalism has come to benefit a small percentage of all people while subjugating the masses to poverty, inadequate education, paralyzing health conditions and other social calamities. The rising tide of 1% does not float the boats of the other 99%. Our current economic structure has not trickled down to benefit the least of these, rather, it has taken more from the least and given more to the powerful and privileged.

In spite of this reality so many of us are convinced it is merely a matter of personnel and not political philosophy. Add to this the way in which religion has been incorporated into the equation and begun to embrace a Walmart ethic and ideology which supports and recreates the oppressive economic practices in the name of “prosperity” and you have a Molotov cocktail of ministerial calamity. Whenever religion is tied to power (and vastly ALL power – except the power of LOVE is oppressive) it tilts God towards the powerful and away from the powerless – sustaining the social hierarchy. When this occurs the only redemptive measure is for the bottom percentile to become enraged, empowered and engaged enough to stem the tide and try to balance the scale.

I believe this is the spirit of the Occupy Movement. Regardless of the critique of its lack of specificity and the demonization by those on the right, I believe this movement is centered in love for ALL humanity, equality and justice. In many ways I believe this is a God movement. In the strength and spirit of love, God is associated with the most vulnerable in a given society (AKA the Power-Less or the bottom percentile) and thereby redeems the people AS A WHOLE. I believe that God is standing with those who have been moved into a civil protest response to the injustice that they (and those whom they know and love) have experienced.

The truth is those who FEAR alternative realities (which the Occupy Movement is trying to usher in) are usually those who benefit (or will benefit) the most from the current power structure. Therefore, I suggest that the core of the clash between the Occupy Movement and the top 1% is a battle between FEAR and LOVE. And I believe that LOVE and FEAR cannot co-exist. In fact, “…perfect love cast out fear…”

This is why WE (even many of those who are within the representation of the powerful) LOVE the occupy movement… It is inculcated with LOVE and FEARLESSNESS!!! Therefore, in the spirit of love… I’m headed to OCCUPY MEMPHIS – and beyond! Not just Downtown Civic Square, but everywhere I stand – as a pastor, professor, parent, partner in marriage/ministry and prophet, I stand in the name of the LOVE that casts out FEAR!

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” 1 John 4:18 (NRSV)

In recent weeks, the Occupy Wall Street protests have drawn attention to the issue of economic disparities in America. Those facts seem particularly significant here in the poorest big city in America. Do too few have too much money and power? What values are at issue here and how should we process these protests?

Occupy Memphis like the other Occupy protests around the country have emphasized that they represent the 99% compared to the 1% who take nearly a quarter of all the income in the United States. In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth. The next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%. This means that just 20% of the people held 85% of the wealth, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one’s home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share nearly 43%.

The Occupy protests seek to represent the 24 million people in this country can’t find a full-time job, the approximately 50 million people in this country can’t see a doctor when they’re sick, the 47 million people in this country need government help in order to feed themselves and the 15 million families owe more on their mortgage than the value of their home. Insofar as the Occupy protests are offering a critique of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, they stand within the prophetic tradition and the tradition of Jesus.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich points to why the Occupy protests are underway, “Wall Street banks got billion dollar bailouts but the American people get austerity. Fourteen million Americans are out of work. 50 million people don’t have health insurance and a million homes a year are lost to foreclosure. Our policies take the wealth of the nation and accelerate it into the hands of the few. We need a government of the people and for the people. We need a financial system that is of the people and for the people. It is time we take our nation back and take our monetary system back from the big banks.”

The Occupy protests recognize that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is distorting our nation and our political institutions. They point out that from January 2009-March 2010, big banks and Wall Street spent $500 million on lobbying and campaign contributions to derail real financial reform and consumer protections.

So, are the rich too rich? Do too few have too much money and power? The answer is yes to both questions.

For those in the Christian faith, the prophetic tradition and the words of Jesus are particular appropriate as resources for reflecting on the Occupy protests. Micah, for example, cries out, “Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds!  When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance.  Therefore, thus says the Lord:  Now, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily” (Micah 2:1-3). There are plenty of other examples from the prophetic writings (Amos 2:6-8 and Isaiah 58:1-7 are good places to start).

Or there are the succinct words of Jesus, “Woe to you who are rich” (Luke 6:24), and of course his judgment of the nations based upon how the “least of these” are treated (Matthew 25:31-44). Jesus tells parables of a “rich fool” (Luke 12:13-21) who hoards, and of a rich man whose neglect of the poor man Lazarus lands the rich man in hell (Luke 16:19-31).

The prophetic tradition and Jesus were both very concerned with the undue concentration of wealth in a few hands. Wealth has as its purpose the well being of all the people. To hoard wealth and to use wealth to oppress others offends God.

In recent weeks, the Occupy Wall Street protests have drawn attention to the issue of economic disparities in America. Those facts seem particularly significant here in the poorest big city in America. Do too few have too much money and power? What values are at issue here and how should we process these protests?

When too few have too much, and too many have too little, is it any wonder that Americans are angry, disillusioned and resort to sit-in protests?

While I confess that I do not understand the intricacies of economics, I do understand God’s economy in Scripture. In the Jewish law the poor were to be treated equitably. Gleaning laws focused on the widow, fatherless, stranger, and destitute. During the Sabbatical year debts were canceled, and Jubilee provided release for Hebrews who had become servants through poverty. Moreover, the Hebrews were enjoyed to tithe to set aside for God the first tenth of their crops or income. The Hebrew prophets also proclaimed a common litany that the people would be judged harshly for their lack of generosity and compassion for the poor, widows, aliens and helpless in their midst.

Jesus was birthed into a poor family. He lived a life of poverty and died in the same way, but he was not afraid to engage the powers of the day. Jesus talked about money more than any other subject. He challenged greed of any kind, warned against defining ourselves in terms of personal wealth or material possessions, and insisted on reversing the world order so that the first would be last and the last first.

We in the faith community must be among our modern day prophets, willing to sacrifice and calling others to join us. This includes powerful Wall Street and Corporate America.

In recent weeks, the Occupy Wall Street protests have drawn attention to the issue of economic disparities in America. Those facts seem particularly significant here in the poorest big city in America. Do too few have too much money and power? What values are at issue here and how should we process these protests?

Was it John Calvin who pointed out how the one who objects to the opulence of dabbing one’s mouth with a fine cloth napkin—when a simpler, courser cloth will do—will inevitably be outdone by the one who won’t utilize a napkin at all? But who should care so much whether one uses a dinner napkin made of Egyptian cotton or burlap or paper, or uses a tiny moist towelette, or goes at their meal sans napkin? The ascetic diner makes no fundamentally better decision than the fine diner. And it is quite possible that the ascetic diner is entirely more preoccupied with his choice of the burlap napkin, such that he can’t enjoy the meal before him for continuing to cast an incredulous glance across the street at the fine diner. (Whose enjoyment of his meal is obviously because he is arrogantly unconcerned for the poor and needy?)

To me, the Occupy Wall Street protestors have this preoccupied feel. I’m sure there are exceptions to the whole, but one wonders if anyone taken to the streets in New York, Oakland, or Atlanta can actually enjoy the life they have right before them for denigrating the lives of that villainously opulent 1%. What!? All true Americans wipe their mouths with their sleeves?

The Occupy Wall Street folk seem to be channeling Inspector Javert’s (Les Miserables) pursuit of Jean Valjean. According to Javert’s Procrustean logic, there are only two kinds of people in the world: the criminal and law-abiding. Valjean is simply criminal and his wealth therefore does nothing noble. If this is how it is now, everyone in America with money should start praying Psalm 23 at dinnertime: “ ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…my cup overflows’—but we’re keeping the crystal in the cabinet, God, lest we be misunderstood.”

I am not naïve. I know the protestors have salient points to make, and urgently. There still is spectacular greed and graft in the echelons of finance in our country. Many are hurting financially now because of it. I can’t throw my own quarters, dimes, and nickels as far as I used to. Opportunities to get ahead are harder to come by and people feel they’re falling further behind. There are no Rip Van Winkles just now awakening to economic disparities in America, of course. We know such disparities have been around since Washington Irving’s story was first published almost two hundred years ago. But the game seems more rigged, or at least the populace seems more cynical. Much has been mismanaged and misappropriated with seemingly little accountability. Retirees in my own church have suffered from corporate collapses.

The frustration is palpable, and frustration must have an outlet for expression. I do not deny the protestors this. We all share in the frustration to varying degrees, and the right to protest from one’s frustrations is as vaunted an American right and tradition as the freedom to pursue one’s happiness materially. Both have coexisted in our country like no other, and our rule of law is to hold both in check—so protestors should be arrested when they disobey disperse orders and executives should be arrested when they disobey disbursement regulations.

And let’s not misunderstand the biblical approach on this: the Bible opposes the love of money, not the earning of it. You can love money and not have it; you can have money and not love it. God knows every heart and the motivations therein. It is flatly inaccurate to say Jesus “preached against the rich.” He preached in the hearing of those who used their riches and power to exclude people from God’s kingdom; He warned Pharisees and Publicans both to repent of their pride and not put their hope in their possessions, for nothing buys nor earns the favor of God. That is given by grace via mercy.

My overall point here is that greed and graft can be found in the hearts of the have-nots as well. For much of our history, Americans have simultaneously admired and envied the family in the house on the hill. We praise them when they descend from the hill to finance the town’s new park, then despise them for re-ascending there to throw exclusive parties. I grew up in a rural community with a few such families. One of those families attended our small church. Their fortune was from the cattle business. They lived in a big house, drove newer cars, and their pretty daughter with a sweet personality wore the newest styles. For that she was disdained by a couple of girls in our youth group who lived down the hill on the same road she lived on, but in trailers. She didn’t have a greed problem. They did.

The ball to keep the eye upon is not rich people. They are not the problem. I thank God for many wealthy people in Memphis who leverage their influence and deploy their wealth generously to improve lives they don’t have to care about but do, and deeply. Would that all people of wealth did likewise! The ball to keep the eye upon is greed and graft. But beware: this ball may be found under your own arm, on your own home court. It doesn’t always roll up the hill, or down Wall Street.