financial district

Cathleen Falsani 10-11-2011

Last week, Sojourners CEO, the Rev. Jim Wallis, visited with #OccupyWallStreet demonstrators in New York City. "As I listen to them, I recognize what I felt as a young student-activist in the late '60s and early '70s," Wallis said. "I just feel from them what I felt a long time ago, that we're part of something much bigger than us, much larger than us...The visceral feeling [here] is, 'This could really change things.'"

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Jonathan, 19, who works at a fast food restaurant, said: "There isn't really room for religion here. We are trying to focus on the big problems we face that we all have in common. Religion gets people focused on too many specifics and divides."

His friend Chris chimed in, "How could anything that caused so many wars be any good?"

I asked a group that was serving food what they would think if more religious people joined.

"Awesome! Some Muslim guys came down and offered to do all the food one day," one young woman said.

"No way!" responded a middle-aged man who had been pointing other protestors to vegetarian sandwiches. "We just got a bunch of food donated by some church in North Carolina."

Many protesters here have had some bad experiences with religion, but it's clear that they are genuinely open to seeing religion done differently.