Conscious Thought?

The God Question

What if? How often do those words come into our lives - what if? BUT what if we, as Christian's consider Jesus, but without religion? What if the world is a living entity - something that preserves itself over millenia by natural preservation - earthquakes, floods, tsunami's, meteor showers and the like. What if God is literally in every living cell from the heated core of the earth to unknown dark matter of the expanding universe - what if we are no more than beings that have choice, but that only has two constants - change and evolution! 

Why is there a split between science and religion? I do not and cannot see why they cannot work together - In Genesis, in the very first chapters, it tells the story of evolution: light/dark, sea/land, fish/birds, .... eventually man! Then you ask, what about the seven days? Surely in God's omnipotence seven days could be a billion years, besides - God is in everything and everything is of God, which surely that means every cell from the nucleus to the mitochondria are part of God! It also means that God is not what we think God is - He is far greater than any human comprehension, which brings me to the idea of worshipping in buildings and giving money to the church - Jesus despised the moneylenders, it was after casting them out that the Pharisees and Chief Priests plotted his death - money never played a role with Jesus - he had no belongings of his own, no house to call His home ... (we are born naked and alone, we leave naked and alone). 

And the church - It is written somewhere that a church is when two or more people come together in His name - so no grand stained-glass windows with massive atrium's and clanging bells ... no indeed, no expensive buildings there then - besides, has everyone who professes to be Christian forgotten that Jesus was born in a stable - humility comes to mind! Cast away the trappings (good word for them) of wealth - true wealth is found in inner peace, love and contentment (very hard to come by in these days). I used to scoff at conspiracy theorists, now I am not so sure - I think there is a conspiracy, but one we have all been a part of in the West in particular, even if at times without even realising it - we are self destructive, we buy into the brands, the celebrity, the belief that fame, money, materialism is everything - the greatest fool is one who is fooling him/herself. 

Humility is such a forgotten word ... courtesy, consideration, manners, respect ... old fashioned? How can they be? I don't fit the norm, whatever that may be, I never have. I have no desire to conform now either, this doesn't mean I am totally content, I still live in the West, with all it represents, but I despair of it. Even the very church that I deny, the church I see falling apart, stumbling blindly in the darkness, with only politics leading it, money driven to survive, betraying the people who still faithfully follow - but GOD I do not deny - I have fallen at times far by the wayside, and He should by rights deny me, but when I call ... there He is ... always there: to guide me, pick me up, console me, help me, support me. Never in all the years that I have believed, has He failed me ... though I regularly failed Him! Perhaps I am blessed, I believe we all are, we just deny it so much we fail to see Him or listen when He calls on us.

Occupy a New Language

I have recently noticed in conversations I have had, with not only with Occupiers from Occupy London and Occupy Wall Street, but with academics and religious leaders, the need for a language of change, but also a change of language. I recall a conversation in which a Jewish Rabbi was discussing the difficulties and questions, that were raised when Ben-Yehuda wanted to revive the use of Hebrew as an everyday language, and how at that time he faced opposition to this, as it was considered a sacred language, and had not been used as an everyday language for nearly two thousand years.

We have been bound by the language of power, which deliberately oppresses critical language awareness, which facilitates critical development of consciousness, in the discourse of our society. This dominant language of power inhibits the conceptualisation of shaping critical consciousness, often by playing to the inherently artificial, glib political rhetoric, where passion replaces rationality; and those who question this rhetoric are either silenced, ridiculed or simply dismissed. This ideology is pervasively present in language, and is one of the primary mediums of social control and power. Occupy as a movement was influenced by the Arab Spring uprisings and the Spanish Indignados, but has also come about through a rising dissent people feel from the economic crisis. The movement, challenges the dominant discourse of the legacy of neo-liberalism and capitalism. A legacy in which maximisation of the profits and power of the 1%, depends on the maximisation of the exploitation and domination of the 99%. This domination is often put in place through legitimising the ideology of the repressive forces of those in power, by means of coercion and consent in the maintenance of social control.

Increased government and institutional control has come about through a number of means, not least bureaucracy and state intervention. Just consider the UK government, now planning to cast its intrusive eye over all online activity, phone calls and text messages, under the guise of an anti-terror law. A law, in which they will not only know which websites a person visits, they will even be able to access private social network messages. Accumulating the data of every keystroke, this personal data that will then be stored by landline and mobile phone companies and internet service providers, and always at the disposal of the security forces.

Occupy has raised questions on how do we transform society to move away from an individualistic and fragmented society, towards an emerging consensus of a civil society. A society that strives for the benefit of the greater good, but with an understandable knowledge that this can only be undertaken as a global transformation. Should we be seeking a renewed collectivism, to ensure decision-makers are accountable and through endowing ordinary people with effective power, encouraging a fuller concept of citizenship. Not a citizenship based on globalisation in its current form - an accountable global form of citizenship - and how would we undertake this?

In times of crisis in the last century we saw a rise in economic dislocation, racial and national assertiveness, and the growth of chiliastic ideology - which once again we are starting to see emerge in the current crisis, especially in the UK and Europe. There has been a notable rise in racial hate crimes, the increase of membership to fascist groups, such as the EDL, and an escalation in political support for the BNP in the UK, whilst in Europe, people like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Le Pen in France are but two examples. Yet, the struggle for unity in order to eliminate economic, social and environmental injustice as a global problem, and not an insular one, has to move away from ideas of polarisation and move towards democratic aspirations beyond nation-state concepts.

Occupy London and the wider global Occupy movement are not the first to emphasise the importance of direct democracy and direct action, as legitimate and effective forms of political practice. However, what is so different with Occupy as a global movement, is just that - the coming together of people who consider themselves to be part of a global “community” - for all the intense diversity of participants. There is an overriding sense that radical social, economic and systemic change is necessary, now all we need to do is find the language by which to empower this change.

He Always Walks with Me

I have since I was 17 had a profound belief that God is always with me and always has been, and recently I have felt as though I have much need of His presence, as I have an image in my head of the Lord walking with me holding my hand on the one side, the Holy Spirit walking with me holding my hand on the other side and our almighty Father God gently propelling me forward with His hand on my back, as I walk along with trepidation into a realm in which I have to trust in Him for my every need. But this is not an easy path, as many blessed friends have and are helping me spiritually, emotionally and even financially as I struggle through these personally challenging times, though my trials and tribulations are nothing compared to many others nor anything that was what the Lord Himself went through during His time on earth.

As I have felt so in need of His guidance, wisdom, courage and strength; today as I thought of my predicament, I came across this Psalm 20:

“May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble!
May the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from his Temple and give you aid from Mount Zion.
May he accept all your offerings and be pleased with your sacrifices.
May he give you what you desire and make all your plans succeed.
Then we will shout for joy over your victory
And celebrate your triumph by praising our God.
May the Lord answer all your requests.
Now I know that the Lord gives victory to his chosen king;
He answers him from his holy heaven
And by his power gives him great victories.
Some trust in their war chariots and others in their horses,
But we trust in the power of the Lord our God.
Such people will stumble and fall,
But we will rise and stand firm.
Give victory to the king Oh Lord;
Answer us when we call.”

It’s time the faith communities invited the Occupy Movement indoors - into the churches!

“And He looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw also a poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said, Of a truth I say to you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

For all of these have in their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, He said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” 

Luke 21 vs. 1 - 6

Our faith communities and organizations should swing their doors wide and greet the Occupiers with open arms, offering them a “thank you” for having the courage to raise the issues of growing inequality in our society, the ever widening rich - poor gap.

Concentrations of wealth and power, unfairness in our political process, the loss of opportunity — especially for the next generation — and the alarming rise of poverty in the world’s richest nations are all fundamental concerns for people of faith and those of no faith. 

So why haven’t the faith institutions invited the occupiers into churches and ministries for good conversation and a warm meal.

The Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor, the City of London Corporation and the government are trying to systematically eradicate the right to protest, to save their own iniquitous self serving system that facilitates the ever widening rich poor gap. They slowly shut down protests by legislation prohibiting protests in certain forms and by progressively disallowing this democratic right. Thus the Occupiers and protesters are deeply unwelcome, as they raise the stakes on confronting the unethical and corrupt system.


So why are the faith communities not welcoming them to stay on church property if they need someplace to go? Somewhere they can regain their strength, rest, share and revitalise in order to continue their just and peaceful protest.

Open the church basements and parish halls as safe places to sleep — provide shelter and sanctuary as cold weather descends upon the country.

It’s time both to embrace and engage this movement of people who are articulating the underlying, but often unexpressed feelings of a nation which believes with the protesters, that the economic structure of the country is unjust and skewed to benefit the banks, the rich, private landowners and the elite in power.

Bring the occupiers in out of the cold, and offer them the appreciation and warm hospitality that a Christian community and faith communities should do. 

Our government is made up of the archetypal wealthy elite, who either buy or inherit political power through their long family elitist associations or their vast wealth - over 60% of the English parliament MPs are millionaires. The uprising in this city to challenge what the elite and rich stand for, which has made the Mayor of London, the Corporation and the government uncomfortable about the protests since the beginning. 

The protestors from Occupy London are part of the global movement and the clear signal is that this movement is for economic, social and environmental justice, as well as one that addresses the growing oppression of the government, as well as the eradication of democratic rights of peaceful citizens in protesting.

The Occupy movement needs a sanctuary. And what better safe and welcome place could these people find than with communities of faith?

The churches should have provided that safe sanctuary for this generation of protesters who dream and hope of a better world, but the churches have lost the chance to engage the protestors in the spirituality of the change Occupy seeks. 


This is a social movement where spirituality, and moral sensibilities play a central role.

It seems a shame the churches failed to see the power of putting their faith into action early on, as they failed to invite the Occupiers into the churches as a sanctuary, failed to provide a place of warmth and shelter and failed to show the institution of the church as one that works as a whole body of compassion, love and values.


"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:


And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.


Then the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison and came unto thee?


And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Insomuch as ye have done it unto the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me."


Don't turn away the cold and hungry strangers who are among the occupiers ... Our cause is a just cause - we seek a better world for all, however utopian that may seem!

A Last Chance for Christianity? by Revd James Lawson

The Occupy London camp outside St Paul's cathedral was unique. No other protest in hundreds of cities across the world was so passionately engaged with the church. That gave the church a chance to learn from the movement. In an essay called "the Judgement of the World" Archbishop Rowan Williams writes about the way Christian identity has always been worked out in relation to what lies beyond its borders. The church may even find out what scripture itself is saying in her confrontations with the world. The Christian community may be enlarged in understanding and even in some sense evangelised in such encounters. Christians rediscover their own foundational story in the parables of the acts and deeds of others.

The Occupy movement seemed to exemplify this "judgement of the world". Christians could learn from  the movement about the injustice and destructiveness of capitalism. We could discover our won complicity and complacency. We were reminded that we worship God or mammon, not God and mammon. But Christians who visited the camp could experience more  than this kind of judgement. David Graeber, the anthropologist who was one of the initial organisers of the Occupy Wall Street protests, speaks of a pre-figurative politics. It's one thing to say "Another world is possible". It's another to experience it, however momentarily. People expecting lists of demands were missing the point of the movement. Pre-figurative politics is not about demands. It's about being the change you want to see in the world. And joy, festivity, laughter and desire are a revolutionary impetus that brings an alternative future into the present.

The Occupy camp at St Paul's could feel like an enclave of Friday night in the perpetual Monday morning of the City. It could feel like church on a good day. Perhaps its pre-figurative politics could even enlarge the Christian understanding of the realised eschatology of Jesus who brought the great banquet of the future kingdom into the present in the festivity of his meals with sinners?

So I hope that the church will not turn its attention away from this pre-figurative politics after the eviction of the Occupy camp outside St Paul's. I hope that it might even learn something also from the response of the Protestant churches in Communist East Germany to dissident groups.

Churches there had been taught by the martyr theologian Dietrich Banhoeffer and the Nazi era that the words of the church lose their force when it is more concerned with self-preservation than with the service to others, such as the Jews. So they wanted the church to be a "church for others", a church that stands up for more than just the faithful.

In the 1970s groups began to be founded to oppose the injustice and destructiveness of communism, not in the name of capitalism, but of "Justice, Peace and the integrity of Creation". Some of these groups were Christian. Many were not. They still found shelter in space found by the church, just as in London. The Stasi denounced the leaders of these groups as "fanatics who want to shine politically". The churches of East Germany provided these groups with the use of its roofs and its rooms, and also with protection, inspiration, pastoral care, and help with networking and communications.

Inside the church the seeds of a revolution were sown and tended. The church of St Nicholas in Leipzig still has a banner up that says "Open to All". In October 1989 thousands of people lit candles and prayed there for peace at evening services organised by its pastor. They took candles out onto the streets to demonstrate against the communist system. They had an incredible experience of power of a non-violent revolution by candlelight.

Could a church within capitalism imitate this church within socialism? Could a beautiful friendship develop out of this chance encounter at St Paul's when the movement was unable to occupy the Stock Exchange as it originally intended? And could the crisis of capitalism and an intensifying fear of ecological catastrophe even provide "a last chance for Christianity" as the East German Green thinker Rudolf Bahro asked ironically? Although he was an atheist he argued that these are ultimately spiritual problems that demand spiritual solutions. "No order can save us which simply limits the excesses of our greed. Only spiritual mastery of greed itself can help us. It is perhaps only the Prophets and the Buddhas,  whether or not their answers were perfect, who have at least put the questions radically enough". Could Occupying Faith release a power that will change the world?

Written by Revd James Lawson

Speech for St Paul's Institute Discussion - Practical Possibilities for churches

I hope you will all indulge me, as I have prepared a little speech. I am a Christian who joined Occupy London on the 15th October 2011, when the Occupy here in London first began outside St Paul's cathedral, but was intended for Paternoster Square.

Before Occupy I had never been an activist, although I guess in a way I have always been against the injustices that I have lived through in our world. I am from South Africa and grew up under the inhuman social and economic injustices of the undemocratic Apartheid system. Personally, I believe that the Holy Spirit is moving like a jet stream through the Occupy movement and I feel God’s hand in His desire for us to confront those who are fighting to keep the iniquities of the City in place.

Occupy London has been striving, as part of the wider global Occupy movement, to raise awareness of the economic, social and environmental injustices that are being committed by the corporations, the governments and the banks.

I don’t need to highlight the global economic crisis, as I am sure that everyone reading/hearing this is fully aware of the global crisis, but when it comes to asking the question “what can we do?” I have to speak as a Christian first - we can stand up and protest against what may seem an insurmountable task to try and influence changing the system. This is the narrative that Christ taught us, he too protested peacefully.

We must action our faith.

Many Christians feel that the church has lost it’s way. The very cathedral in which this speech will be heard, has collaborated with the iniquitous City of London Corporation to evict the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp that tarnishes the views of the historic Wren building.

But I ask you, is the building more important than the narrative of Christ? The churches were built to protect and house the alter - a place of sacrifice - but since Christ was the sacrifice, and communion the means by which Christians remembrance of that sacrifice is taken, then the building is surely less important than the narrative. The church needs to be dynamic, but always in keeping with the values and principles given to us through scriptures.

In Habakkuk, Chapter 2 vs 5 to 8 it clearly says:

"Wealth is deceitful. Greedy men are proud and restless - like death itself they are never satisfied. That is why they conquer nation after nation for themselves. The conquered people will taunt their conquerors and show scorn for them. They will say, 'You take what isn't yours, but you are doomed! How long will you go on getting rich by forcing your debtors to pay up?'

But before you know it, you that have conquered others will be in debt yourselves and be forced to pay interest. Enemies will come and make you tremble. They will plunder you! You have plundered the people of many nations, but now those who have survived will plunder you because of the murders you have committed and because of your violence against the people of the world and its cities."

For the cathedral to have played a role in supporting the City of London Corporations eviction case, through the testimony of Nicholas Cottom, simply because the camp is an eyesore and has attracted some of the marginalised and problematic people that make up our society, it seems forgotten that Jesus was homeless and mixed with those marginalised in His society … tax collectors, lepers and prostitutes. The Occupiers outside the cathedral doors may seem like the lepers of today, as we struggle to engage the establishment in addressing change. The preservation of a building was not what Jesus taught for He challenged the authorities, He challenged the law and in 1 Peter 2 vs 5 it says "Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple ..."

That spiritual temple is the one we should be focussing on as Christians and as community, because we are all part of this global community. Surely there is a better way, a way that encompasses faith, love, understanding and respect for all people with a desire for peaceful resolution towards an equal, just, sustainable and democratic global community.

In practical terms, there is much that the church can do and consider through collaboration, through pursuing the philosophy that all faiths teach us, and through encouraging conversation and forging relationships to foster discourse with those who are actively challenging the system.

The Occupy movement has much to offer in collaborating with the church and the church needs to recognise that for any of us to achieve structural change to the nefarious system that currently dominates our world, we need to share our skills and knowledge to challenge that which is unjust, in order to attain the shared values we hold.

Occupy Faith UK is an affinity part of Occupy that has recently started, autonomous in some ways, but acting on and engaging in the wider Occupy movement ideals and principles. In the United States Occupy Faith has over 1000 churches affiliated in support. I am happy to share some of the plans Occupy Faith UK has at the moment, that would be mutually beneficial for the church to be participant in, and we are open to discussion and receiving support on some of these initiatives. We need the churches involved in some of these initiatives, but mostly we need people to remember we are all bound together with shared values, regardless of faith.

Celebrating Martin Luther King Day - My speech

Racial segregation in South Africa started in colonial times and was already in force by the British colonial government before South Africa gained independence. This racially based segregation became more oppressive and detailed through the Apartheid laws after the 1948 general election.

What makes South Africa's apartheid era different to segregation and racial hatred that have occurred in other countries, is the systematic way in which the National Party, which came into power in 1948, formalised it through the law. These laws became know as the Apartheid laws - Apartheid in Afrikaans means Separateness.

I was born and grew up in South Africa and the legacy of Apartheid not only still affects South Africa in its struggle towards equality, but affects me when I think of the thousands of people who lost their lives in my lifetime in the struggle for freedom and social and economic justice in South Africa.

I think of Steven Biko …. His loss to the country and what could have been, I cannot put into words. His death was something that affected the consciousness of all, regardless of the race divide the Apartheid government strived for, and actually bound together many of the very people it was trying to divide by this politic.

Thankfully my parents were anti-Apartheid, as they believed in equality, social justice and that South Africa would one day be free of the fascist, racist oppression that Apartheid held over millions of people. The day Nelson Mandela was released was one of the highlights of my life.

I came down to Occupy on the 15th October last year, without any predisposed ideas of really why I was here, except that I felt strongly that things are very wrong in our society and the world today. I’ve read a section of a speech by Dr Martin Luther King that sadly is still relevant today. Social, economic and political injustice still dominates the world we all live in.

Martin Luther King had a righteous anger as a man of God and as a political activist who truly believed in the struggle to fight non-violently for a better world, one that addressed the problematic issues of poverty, prejudice, war, oppression and the lack of fairness and equality in our global society.

He truly sought justice for all and his anger was directed at the iniquities of a system that divides, polarises and oppresses.

We have not since the Depression of the 1930s been in such a desperate spiral of economic crisis, injustices and social degradation of human rights, which has the potential to lead the world into another era of scapegoat ideology, in which the rise of fascism, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia and racist nationalism finds a place in the vacuum of logic, reason, equality and justice.

We need to strive to avoid a world that is based on such hatred and prejudice, we need to find a peaceful path that will rally against tyranny, exploitation, and oppression, in which our own governments deny the voices of dissent. People feel disenfranchised. We need to rise up and challenge the nefarious system that brings about prejudice and hatred through division.

We must stand together, united as one against a system that wants to alienate us as communities, destroy our shared values, and in which our governments attempt to control, suppress and at times persecute people who rise up against this failing global system. We need to be united, as one race - the HUMAN race and put aside our differences, but respect and love our diversity as humans.

If we look at Dr King’s belief in the method of non-violent resistance as unsheathed from its scabbard, the entire community, society, and the people CAN become mobilized to confront the adversary of social, economic and political  injustice.

Dr King’s greatest legacy for us to learn from is that he recognised that economic injustice facilitates all injustices, all forms of hatred, division, oppression, and social injustice. I have seen first hand the bitter devise racial hatred and prejudice bring, and we need to be vigilant in times of strife and crisis to ensure that racism and fascism do not find a place in our society.

We are living in times impoverished by spirit. Apathy and a sense of powerlessness has pervaded for so long, but NOW is the time to look at ourselves in light of Edmund Burke’s recognition, that all it takes for evil to triumph, is for good people to stand by and do nothing. I don’t want to be a person who stands by and does nothing … do you?

“God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense, in order to shame the wise, and He chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.” 1 Corinthians 1 vs. 27.

And as Dr Martin Luther King said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”.