[Note: See video of Chris Hedges’ speech in Liberty Square on Dec. 3, 2011. ~ DS]
by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
Dec. 5, 2011
Image by waywuwei via Flickr
Chris Hedges gave an abbreviated version of this talk Saturday morning in Liberty Square in New York City as part of an appeal to Trinity Church to turn over to the Occupy Wall Street movement an empty lot, known as Duarte Square, that the church owns at Canal Street and 6th Avenue. Occupy Wall Street protesters, following the call, began a hunger strike at the gates of the church-owned property. Three of the demonstrators were arrested Sunday on charges of trespassing, and three others took their places.
The Occupy movement is the force that will revitalize traditional Christianity in the United States or signal its moral, social and political irrelevance. The mainstream church, battered by declining numbers and a failure to defiantly condemn the crimes and cruelty of the corporate state, as well as a refusal to vigorously attack the charlatans of the Christian right, whose misuse of the Gospel to champion unfettered capitalism, bigotry and imperialism is heretical, has become a marginal force in the life of most Americans, especially the young. Outside the doors of churches, many of which have trouble filling a quarter of the pews on Sundays, struggles a movement, driven largely by young men and women, which has as its unofficial credo the Beatitudes:
[…]
via Truthdig
Copyright © 2011 Truthdig
Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.
from the archives:
Chris Hedges: #OWS – Where Were You When They Crucified My Lord? (video of speech)
A Voters’ Rights Amendment To Unify Occupiers and Tea Partiers by William John Cox
What Jesus Said About Who He Is, Life and Following Him
The Rev. Madison Shockley: Jesus and the 99 Percent – Truthdig
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Right on chris!! powerful message. i too am a true Christine as I refer to myself.
the ONLY hope for any real change in America is for the good folks who agree with us to start standing on the street corners and town squares, even if but ONCE a week for ONE hour…holding a sign that sends an educating message, and ‘ speaking truth to power ‘ .
imagine if instead of 5 or 10 such folks on a street corner in some town, we had 50 or 100 each week? THAT is how change begins.
Phillip — there is no doubt that we need more numbers on the street. i think that from spring to next fall is when it is really gonna happen .
speaking truth to power is the name of the game in any form or genre one uses.