Occupy's Sacred Mob and the Politics of Vagrancy | A religious reading of the Occupy movement

Occupy's Sacred Mob and the Politics of Vagrancy | A religious reading of the Occupy movement

"I offer this as a second religious reading of the movement as a whole, alongside the demonic interpretation offered by some of its opponents. While the Family Research Council only encourages Christians to pray against what they frame as a dangerous distraction, Dr. Cindy Jacobs of the Reformation Prayer Network has prophetically asserted that a non-metaphorical “Power of Darkness” animates the movement, “a Spirit of Anarchy trying to arise in the land.”

It is unclear whether Ann Coulter’s recent claim that the Occupy participants “are following the contours of what a mob uprising is, including the embracing of their demonic aspects” has the same ontological weight. In some sense she is referring to a Christian theological notion derived from the image of “Legion” in the synoptic gospels, but this is also a case of Coulter transforming theological notions to brand her politics. Continuing to inflame beyond her book declaring even Social Gospel Christianity Godless, Demonic is effectively just a shorthand for her vision of populism, and progressive populism in particular: “The demonic is a mob, and the mob is demonic.”

Occupy's Sacred Mob and the Politics of Vagrancy | A religious reading of the Occupy movement