Occupy this!

Crusty Old Dean is preparing for a conference he's speaking at next week, where I will be giving three, 2-hour presentations. Plus I am doing some supply preaching this Sunday at a local congregation, because, well, COD just can't get enough of that Jesus. So yesterday I was actually working most of the day, not working in spurts and checking email and Facebook every 10 seconds as I normally do.

And lo and behold, apparently an internet meme had taken over Facebook in the few shorts hours in between the time I logged in (BTW, COD keeps thinking meme should have a circonflex over the first "e". He also is also entertained by the fact that something so banal has such a refined name.)

COD saw repeated posting by friends of an image of the Episcopal Church shield with "Occupy the pews of your Episcopal Church". COD, frankly, was perplexed by this phenomenon.

For one thing, it didn't seem to make sense. The OWS movement is a groundswell of populist anger using nonviolent occupation as civil disobedience to protest injustice. The internet meme (OK, saying it's a meme when it is only Episcopalians using it is a bit much, since there are only only about .8% Episcopalians in this country by population using a generous estimate) seemed an inappropriate appropriation of the image: should we really storm our local churches and refuse to leave?

COD was sharing this with CODW (Crusty Old Dean's Wife), and we both agreed it just seemed a little odd as an image. But then COD said, "You know, on second thought, there are some Episcopal Churches I would like to occupy."

Churches that have lost any sense of mission.

Churches that have clergy who are chaplains that minister only to the members already inside the doors.

Churches that accommodate themselves to the caste system, homophobia, and racism of society.

Let's occupy those churches. That's something I could get with.