Why 'Occupy Judaism' Is Turning Point (Editor's essay | Jewish Daily Forward)

[struggle4progress]

By Jane Eisner
Published October 13, 2011, issue of October 21, 2011.

Charles Finney was America’s best-known preacher in the 1830s when he invented the altar call. At the end of a revival meeting, he’d invite worshippers stirred by the gospel to come before an altar placed in front of the hall and publicly swear their commitment to Jesus Christ. Finney did this to showcase — critics would say, exploit — the redemptive sight of a Christian reborn.

But scholars say that Finney had another motive: to sign up these new converts to join his anti-slavery campaign ...

For at least the past three decades, religious expression in the political sphere has been dominated by evangelical conservatives. Many of the younger people organizing the street protests and religious services in New York and around the country don’t remember a time when rabbis like Abraham Joshua Heschel marched for civil rights, and Arthur Waskow created a Freedom Seder, and Catholic priests and nuns were instrumental in anti-war agitation, their actions propelled by a fervent religiosity and expressed in liturgical terms.

Then again, until a few decades ago, minority religions in America “tried to keep their heads down,” in Putnam’s words. Parade around Wall Street in a yarmulke and prayer shawl? Gather together hundreds of Jews to recite Hebrew prayers out loud? Beat one’s chest in repentance under the bright lights of Lower Manhattan? Unimaginable ...

http://www.forward.com/articles/144298/