“People Over Pipelines”

Protesters March On Chesterfield Pipeline Compressor Station Site

“When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices” ~~~ Proverbs 11:10

Pastor Dan Sparling, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, addresses pipeline protesters (Feb. 27, 2016)

I am not one for leading with Biblical injunction, but I feel compelled to begin with Pastor Dan Sparling’s message to scores of NJ Natural Gas pipeline protesters today:

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices ..

Pastor Sparling spoke passionately about how the NJ Natural Gas Pinelands pipeline and compressor station – to be built less than 1/2 mile away from his Church and daycare facility – would undermine his stewardship mission and duty to protect the families and children of his congregation.

He noted that no one in the City was rejoicing about the pipeline and called the protesters righteous.

I thanked him afterwards for his remarks and he condemned the pipeline project in no uncertain terms, calling it “evil”.

Amen Bro. That is a refreshing expression of the kind of visible moral leadership that has been so lacking in liberal institutions, particularly the church.

The protest was largely self organized by local residents in Bordentown, Chesterfield and North Hanover – it was an old school event with cookies & hot chocolate and moms with strollers and kids and dogs.

Organizations – including the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, Sierra Club and Food and Water Watch – played minor supporting roles.

Protesters marched from the church east on Rt. 528 to the compressor station site in Chesterfield.

If nothing else, the scores of folks who marched today show that the anti-pipeline, anti-fracking & climate movement is mainstream and has a momentum of its own.

The greedy corporate energy moguls, corrupt politicians and their captured government bureaucrats in places like BPU, DEP and FERC must be sweating bullets, as authentic grassroots movement momentum builds.

These are not your radicals. When these folks feel compelled to hit the streets in protest, the Revolution is not far off.

Here’s some scenes: