occupy wall street

We learned last week that the Department of Education is taking steps to provide a measure of debt relief for students victimized by the whole Corinthian Colleges debacle. That's ostensibly a good thing, but it comes with a good deal of red tape—which means not everyone will get relief quickly, or at all.

It is easy to conclude that the Occupy movement was a flash in the pan, enacted by disgruntled people without a plan or staying power, a passing whim to be forgotten. This book insists otherwise.

This spring, the most interesting question for me about the Occupy movement isn't whether it will find focus or whether it will revive or whether it will make a difference in the election. What I want to pay attention to is the ongoing and generative outpouring of creative politics.

The Occupy movement is rich in unedited signs. In my mind, creative placarding will forever be its legacy.

A lot of people didn't like Tony Perkins' CNN Belief Blog post last week, and rightly so. Jesus was a free marketer, long before the concept was developed? Sure, if you say so.

Tuesday's speech was the most fired up and the readiest to go that we've seen Obama in a good long while.

A record number of Americans are poor. And by any measure, the poverty rate is rising.

Church leaders can appreciate the challenges
that St. Paul's has faced. Yet there is something profoundly right about
a moral protest in a cathedral courtyard.

Over 20 years, the CEO pay multiple went up 1,000 percent. Former bank CEO William J. McDonough calls this "grotesquely immoral."

The protesters sleeping in the cold do not claim that 99 percent of Americans agree with them. Their point is that the top 1 percent plays by different rules.

Social ethicist Gary Dorrien talked to Century executive editor David Heim after writing his cover story on "the case against Wall Street."

This video started making the rounds last week, presenting a clever idea for communicating with the big banks at their expense.

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly's latest stories include an overview of the religious presence at the Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti
Park in New York.

Jay Smooth’s video blog is always good; last week’s was especially good.

"Occupy Wall Street may not come up with solutions, but at least it is asking the right questions in a nonviolent setting," says Shane Claiborne. "I don't believe that love can be forced, but I believe it can be provoked."

I'm a big fan of The Conversation, the New York Times online feature in which Gail Collins and David Brooks have a casual chat. I think the appeal is supposed to be that the two are reasonable, amicable and witty columnists who clearly like each other a lot. That's all nice, but what I enjoy is the palpable pleasure the hilarious Collins takes in needling the less intentionally hilarious Brooks.

Whatever its explicit message, Occupy Wall Street has made a powerful statement with its very mode of existence.