Christian protestors moved by police : Melbourne Indymedia

In the middle of the night three nonviolent Christian activists were physically removed from their tent embassy by police.

We had maintained a peaceful vigil for almost 24 hours before police notified the group at 3:45am, with only five minutes' notice, that the barricades were being moved and that we would need to move along with them. Three protestors refused to comply with the requirement to move and were physically removed by police. Other members of the group had removed themselves only moments earlier.

At 7:30am on Friday 17th November, A G20 Christian Collective had negotiated permission from police to set up a Third World and Environment Ministers' embassy on the corner of Russell and Collins Sts.

Our banners and presence were temporarily moved have now been placed out of sight of the Hyatt hotel, where we are making a plea to G20 ministers for representation for the poor and the environment. We have now negotiated permission for a place in which to vigil for the remaining period, on the corner of Russell and Flinders Streets.

This only serves to reinforce our point that this is precisely the kind of treatment that the poor and the environment receive from those at the G20 meetings. Pushed from place to place, refused representation and ignored, it reveals the bullying nature of the state's tactics against even peaceful protest. This makes it easier for G20 ministers to make or reinforce policies that exclude their interests. Following Jesus' example, we will continue to stand in solidarity with the oppressed despite opposition.

Our protest presence will remain until Sunday evening.

Media contact for A G20 Christian Collective: Rev. Simon Moyle 0402 857 915.

Photos will be available soon.

It's good to see the Chrstians out and about.

Remember the words of the great man himself: 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Give to God what is God's'.

Jesus didn't fight with the Romans or Pharisees. His words did the fighting.

When you're told to move, move. Remember, turn the other cheek.

Be like the one you say you love, kids, and everyone will be fine.

Fuck up like a bunch of hypocritical tools, and Caesar will rip you another a'hole.

God Bless.

Love and solidarity to the g20 Christian collective.

'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Give to God what is God's'.

The point being, that when you give to God what is God's, then there aint much left for Caesar.

Jesus didn't just fight with words, he healed illegally, encouraged illegal taking of grain when hungry, disrupted commerce in the temple. Refusing to move is tame in comparison - hardly going to get you executed.

Keep up the presence guys.

Jesus also didn't throw rocks, urine or any other body fluid at the soldiers. The only time he lost his cool was when the money lenders tried to rip off those trying to visi the synagogue without paying a tithe first.

It's easy to claim to be a Christian. It's really hard to be one.

Be one anyway and don't fight with the police.

One a'hole is plenty for anyone. You don't need another ripped for you.

Dear foulmouthed abusive 'Father' Gerard (previous comments),

You repeat yourself from a comment on another article, just like some sort of deranged parrot. Pardon me if I also repeat myself, not much option really (well, I could be a doormat like you expect 'good' Christians to be, but you know effectively nothing about Christianity, justice or yourself, it seems, so I'll ignore your advice).

> Jesus also didn't throw rocks, urine or any other body fluid at the soldiers.

Neither are the Christian protesters. It seems you have a six-year-old resentment against completely different people, based on an unconfirmed report in the rightist Hun (Herald Sun) about another protest. If Jesus was alive, he might say read a decent paper. He *did* say, don't keep a resentment after the sun goes down. Since you are so full of advice for Christians, no doubt you will also take Christian advice yourself, or be condemned as a hypocrite.

> It's easy to claim to be a Christian. It's really hard to be one. Be one anyway and don't fight with the police.

Fudging again. Sitting is 'fighting'? Fudging the truth is lying. So, it appears you are an aggressive abusive liar who excuses violent action by authority ("ripping new a'holes" as you phrase it), yet condemns peaceful protest.

Sirrah, I suggest you repent and turn your heart to the Lord. Some say you will burn for *eternity* in hell if you don't do so in this lifetime. The longer you persist in sin, the harder it is to turn back. Don't leave it 'til it's too late.

Biblical note: Of course Jesus did not preach against sitting. And he frequently spoke out against corrupt authority, and for justice.

He even recommended the use of weapons for self-defence.

'Father' Gerard, might I also suggest you take a (metaphorical) chill pill and go have a chat to the Christians, you might learn something (and/or help them develop even more tolerance). I did, they are nice people.

"And he said unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet; and he that hath none, let him sell his cloak, and buy a sword... The disciples said, "Lord, look! Here are two swords!" Then Jesus said to them, "That's enough!"
- Luke 22:36,38 ASV/GW

With love and solidarity to the G20 Christian collective, prayers are with you.

dont really care about the religious conviction... great work though.

Clearly someone has sourgrapes about Christians speaking out for the world's poor. It is shameful that a low-key vigil is uprooted in order to create a fortified Green Zone so that corporate pigs can plan new designs for the decimation of the earth and its people.

There are many other areas where Christian groups are progressively active, in the environment movement, in fair trade, anti-war, civil rights. I'm particularly impressed with the 'Ploughshares' group in disarming war machines, and being acquitted because they proved that their actions prevented a greater crime from being comitted.

Christians are anti-corporate - illustrated by Jesus turning over tables in the temple. If the Herald Sun were to cover that, he'd probably be described as a piss-throwing extremist.

It is taught in the New Testament that Jesus used a whip to chase out merchants who had set up a market in Gods temple.

In other words he used violence to protect what was dear to him.

The Parliament last month put through a law to be able to go in and shutdown any religious function they please....

Suprise.Suprise...."Their actions smack of Proto-fascism.

It’s more to do with upholding the right"-wing… not upholding the rights" to "freedom of worship and vigil under the constitution.

The bible talks of those who” molester the Saints"

-Hands off!

This is from Friday, when we were camped just across from the Hyatt.

This is where we were located after the police moved us on Saturday morning, at the bottom of Russell Street.

Actually, this is our second camp, down the bottom of Russell Street. The other picture is obviously from the march. (I got the files mixed up.)

The police took away our cross for a while on Sunday morning, because they were concerned that it could be used as a missile.

We finished our vigil Sunday evening by sharing a meal. We celebrated the eucharist with some Picnic bars that the police had given us, and some cask wine.

Well done to the Christian Collective. You demonstrated that a nonviolent protest was possible on the weekend.

It's a shame that the good work you guys did in representing some minority groups will probably be overshadowed by a few selfish people who went about their protests in a violent manner.

Well done to Simon Moyle on getting the amount of publicity he did.

Yes, the Christian Collective are aware of incident of Jesus driving out the the money changers in the temple, etc. Our stance at the G2O protests came from a long and careful consideration of the whole body of Judeo-Christian writings that make up the bible, as well as, the writings of men and women who have struggled to live out of the Spirit of Christ since. I suggest you might do well to do the same

It's true Jesus was cool - not afraid of the consequences -
but bear in mind that guy St Peter was a total shonk and Roman sellout, like the Jewish priests in the temple. And there's been a lot of very shonky Christian scripture since 80ish AD.

Some of it's fantastic, but it'd be wrong to give the impression the whole corpus of Christian writings is on a high level, or written with good intentions. There's a lot of manipulative politicking involved.

also all the fuss about Jesus obscures the fact that there were many good people in those days working to bring down the oppressive Roman empire. Jesus was ONE of those good humans fighting the Empire.

Sure, although I wouldn't say that Jesus was intentionally fighting the Roman Empire, but rather bringing in the 'Empire' of God - the economics and values of which challenged those of the Empire of Rome and thus got him executed (although there's more to it.)