Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Occupy Wall Street

  • How Failures Win: In Movements and In Life

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    5 min read

    Failing is good. Every day I remind myself. We call ourselves perfectionists because we’re in pain. We use perfectionism as a kind of diagnosis which makes us feel better about playing it safe or feeling hurt. The kind of imperfection that can become a badge of honor – the strength we pass off as a weakness…

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  • See the degree of inequality

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    1 min read

    For many of us, the notion of inequality is intolerable. A system that perpetuates poverty is an affront to our faith and belief about what we are called to do in this world. Of course not everybody has the same conviction. As this video highlights, however, virtually everybody believes the system is inappropriately rigged and…

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  • More Christian Than Christians

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    3 min read

    A year ago when the Occupy Wall Street movement developed, it was easy to recognize a correlation between the church’s mission and #OWS’s. It’s participants were attempting to forge a different way of gathering that was egalitarian and grass roots. It’s decision making was communal and encouraged a type of shared leadership most churches can…

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  • There is More Than Supply and Demand

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    2 min read

    One of my pet peeves is false dichotamies. You know, when we make complex problems into simple either/or solutions. Like politics. That’s why Robert Reich’s recent column struck me this morning as I read it. He was talking about what the U.S. could learn from the European economic crisis, which is a telling case of…

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  • The New Authority: Trust

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    5 min read

    It comes down to trust.  Our current behavior demonstrates that we don’t trust the system, we simply rely on it and expect it to function.  Then when it doesn’t, we condemn it.  Sometimes we even argue that the system can’t do it.  And even then we still don’t hold the community responsible for cleaning up the mess. Perhaps this…

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  • (Dis)order and Witness

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    3 min read

    Since the Occupy protests began, I’ve been struggling with what is so objectionable to so many people about protest.  Perhaps I am as pinko as my former rector, Matt+ says I am, but I’ve never found protest in itself to be ugly.  Between my own limited experience and the research I’ve done, criticisms of protests of…