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The sounds of hymns were an unexpected sound at the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, where dozens of white-robed worshipers descended upon New York City. The self-proclaimed “Protest Chaplains” sang spirituals and blessed the demonstrators at Zuccotti Park Oct. 10, while holding signs that read, “Blessed are the poor.”
The Protest Chaplains claimed to have traveled from Boston in order to advocate for “the 99 percent” of Americans against the “1 percent,” who they say rule most of the country’s capital. The group is made up of mostly Christian students, seminarians and laypeople who are using faith to show their support for the protest against greed.
“In a group that had a lot of bandanas and black hoodies, we stood out,” Marisa Egerstrom, an organizer of the group and doctoral student at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts Sciences, told The Huffington Post. “But people kept coming up to us and saying, ‘You know, you are the first Christians I’ve seen at a protest…on our side.”‘
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