Watching St. Paul’s from a distance has been an interesting experience recently.
I was then intrigued to discover (from Challies.com) that a Christian street preacher in Calgary was comparing his treatment with that of ‘Occupy Calgary’ — anti-capitalist occupiers who have been left to openly flout many of the same bylaws that he has been routinely arrested for.1 Artur Pawlowski comments: ‘I have stood over 70 times in the courts. We have been charged over 100 times. Eight arrests’, he says. ‘Just because I believe in Jesus Christ, I’m treated differently.’
Apparently his treatment is in contrast to the more familiar and understanding attitude that the Occupy Calgary protesters receive. There may be many reasons for this beyond the scope of the theological, perhaps, and beyond the scope of this article. But it raises an important question for Mr. Pawlowski and for us: what sort of ‘counter-culture’ campaign is the church allowed to launch these days? What kind of marching would be permissible? When was the last time anyone threw any moneylenders out of any temples?
