Would Jesus "occupy Wall Street" / "Grand Rapids"? Jim Wallis says "YES"

from Grand Rapids Press online article on local "Occupy Wall Street" protest movement and events sponsored at Fountain Street Church, Grand Rapids --

If Jesus were here today, would he be among those hoisting a sign as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement? The Rev. Fred Wooden thinks so.
As senior pastor of the nondenominational Fountain Street Church, Wooden delivered a sermon this month which highlighted the similarities between the Occupy movement’s cry for economic equality and the gospel story of Jesus cleansing the temple by casting out the money changers.
But Wooden didn’t stop at words when it came to expressing solidarity with the Occupy movement. The church has allowed the Occupy Grand Rapids protesters to camp in its parking lot at night and is providing other support measures. . .
Fountain Street’s support has allowed the protest to maintain a footprint downtown while protesters conduct daily rallies in Monument Park. Their cause was discussed during an interfaith panel earlier this month, which led to the Occupy members being invited to appear before the City Commission this past week.
Peter Vander Meulen, coordinator of the Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice, said the faith-based justice community “applauds” the movement’s effort to bring awareness to the negative effects of such inequality.
Although the CRC has taken no official position on the movement, Vander Meulen echoed the Occupy Wall Street message, saying the disparity between the wealthiest few and the rest of the population is at the root of many economic problems relating to hunger and poverty.
“The Occupy Wall Street protesters have successfully made that point,” he said.
Panelist and Mayor George Heartwell, who has expressed sympathy with the movement, said that confronting issues with justice makes many uncomfortable because it forces people to examine their own complicity.
Heartwell invited the Occupy representatives to the city meeting following the panel, which featured Jim Wallis speaking on what was originally billed as “What Would Jesus Cut” out of the federal budget (hint: not aid for the poor), but focused largely on the Occupy movement instead.
Wallis, founder of Sojourners and current chair of the Global Agenda Council on Faith for the World Economic Forum, recently wrote a new book called Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street — A Moral Compass for the New Economy.
Don’t expect the Occupy protesters to produce a list of policy demands, Wallis said. That’s not their purpose. Rather, they are creating space for the fundamental questions about social justice that weren’t being asked before this fall.  “It’s our job to push the conversation forward,” he said. In the meantime, he suggested church communities need to do what they do best: Feed the protesters. Bring them a casserole. Bring them hot coffee. Bring them pizza. “Think of it as ‘peace-za.’”
“There is a biblical concern for justice that’s not just a liberal, left concept,” said Wallis, who added that Christians who look down upon the Occupy movement are not following their traditions.
Wallis said Washington, D.C., is not a place where change originates, but where change arrives. If nothing else, the movement has been successful in refocusing the media and politicians on the problem of inequality, he said.
“The Bible says you see the truth of a society more clearly from the bottom and the edges than from the top,” he said.
http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/10/would_jesus_occupy_fountain_st.html