How spiritual violence can impact us all: a family story
People who know me, know that I was once studying to be a Catholic priest in the early 1980s. By the end of that decade I no longer identified as a Catholic or a Christian. The reasons for leaving the church were many, but one of them was because of the harm of spiritual violence.
My introduction to organized religion as an adult, was because of my brother, who also introduced me to the Catholic Worker movement and other more radical aspects of the Christian tradition. My brother introduced me to Direct Action and fostered my growth in critical thinking. It is safe to say that if it wasn’t for my brother, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.
My brother has been a truck driver for some 30 years and he recently began posting videos where he talks about spiritual/religious violence and how he was traumatized by it while he was a teenager.
In the mid-1970s, our mother took us to a religious revival or sorts at the Hershey Arena. We heard the non-denominational preacher Jack Van Impe, a longtime televangelist. Van Impe was a fire and brimstone preacher and spoke in very black and white terms about heaven, hell and the influences of the devil.
The Van Impe revival that my brother and I attended also included an alter call, where people were invited to meet with spiritual counselors with the goal of dedicating your life to Jesus. I wasn’t buying what Van Impe was selling, not because I was skeptical, it was just not something that I could relate to. Unfortunately, my brother was deeply traumatized by the notions of hell and eternal suffering, which he discusses in this first video.
In his second video, my brother explores the impact of the spiritual violence he suffered, where he talks more about the concepts of hell, Dante’s depiction of hell, what other writers have had to say about it and how this apocalyptic view of the world has grown in the US, finding its way more and more into the dominant culture.
I am inviting people who read GRIID to check out these videos and to even offer some feedback in the comments section of the YouTube videos included in this post, as I think it would be welcomed by my brother. Thanks for your consideration.
A far right Christian blog just referred to GRIID as a left-wing website that isn’t committed to the truth
In March, I did an interview with a GVSU art professor about an art installation that a far right group of Christians tried to censor.
In that interview, the professor quoted the student who made the art piece and had written a statement:
“The murals are aimed at addressing societal challenges without undermining the core tenants of the Catholic Faith. These murals seek to confront gender-based violence, homophobia, and mental health disorders advocating for a nuanced reevaluation of certain aspects of Catholic teachings to foster a more inclusive and compassionate culture. The intent is not to criticize, but to encourage thoughtful reflection on interpretations that may inadvertently contribute to societal issues.”
The far right Christians did not agree with this statement, nor were they willing to budge on their attempts to get the mural censored.
A far right Christian blog has now weighed in on the issue in an article entitled, Michigan university reinstalls blasphemous pro-LGBT image mocking Our Lady. Actually, the far right Christian site – Christianity House – merely reposted an article from Kokx News, a site that has as it’s tag line – “All things Catholicism, all things politics, and everything in between.”
Stephen Kokx is the founder of Kokx news and also included a video interview with one of the GVSU students who has been involved try to censor the student-created mural. In this video interview with GVSU student Noah Mullins, Kokx and Mullins both display blind allegiance to Catholic teaching in such a way that is very similar to the pro-fascist Catholic group known as Opus Dei. Mullins then says that, “the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy is a very, very far left, and I would almost describe it as a Socialist press company.” Stephen Kokx simply labeled GRIID as “propaganda.”
Later on in the interview, Mullin again referred to “GRIID as in no way interested in the truth.” However, what is most concerning to me is the fact that they include in the video interview a photo of one of the GVSU professors and their contact information, essentially they were doxxing this professor.
Getting back to the article, here is the reference to GRIID:
In an interview with left-wing website Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy in March, Colley downplayed the blasphemous nature of the image. He claimed that it was simply meant to “promote dialogue” and that Catholic students at Grand Valley were overreacting. He also referred to Our Lady of Guadalupe not as a woman but as an “it.”
Ok, so I could care less if Christians are bad mouthing GRIID, especially since it wouldn’t be the first time. What I do object to is how both GVSU Student Noah Mullins and Kokx News founder, Stephen Kokx ,are doxxing GVSU professors.
I also object to how the Christianity House website normalizes hate and potential harm towards the LGBTQ community, how they normalize Patriarchy, how they normalize the genocide happening in Gaza and how their embrace of Christian Zionism has weaponized antisemitism. These issues are no laughing matter, which is why GRIID has made it a point to report on both the political and religious right in West Michigan for the past 15 years.
Last week, the Meijer Corporation had an employee arrested at one of their stores in Ohio for eating food that was going to be tossed anyway.
The arrest, along with bodycam footage made it’s way to social media, where people were outraged by what happened and some are calling for a boycott of the Grand Rapids-based hyper-market retailer.
I completely get why people are outraged over the treatment of a 19 year old employee. The Meijer Corporation humiliated the 19 year old and subjected him to arrest. Such treatment should piss us off. Yet, this is merely an isolated incident and what we need to be doing about corporations, indeed, about the economic system of Capitalism, is interrogate it on a systemic level.
While the treatment of the 19 year Meijer employee was abhorrent, we need to ask larger questions and have an analysis of why these kinds of incidents generate so much attention, but they daily exploitation of workers does not.
According to GlassDoor, which is an online job search platform, Meijer cashiers can make between $13 – $16/hr, Pharmacy Technicians $17 – $21/hr, Overnight Stocker $14 – $18/hr, Grocery Clerk $14 – $17/hr, and Produce Clerk $14 – $17/hr.
The wages for these jobs are not a livable wage, no in Michigan or anywhere else that Meijer stores are located. Right now in Michigan, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, you need to make more than $25 an hour just to afford the average cost of rent in this state. And that is just rent, so add on to that the cost of utilities, car payments, groceries, gas, and other basic necessities, and people out to be making at least $40 an hour to meet those needs.
Now, lets compared what Meijer store employees are making and what the Meijer brothers are worth. According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires ranking, as of August 26th, Mark Meijer, Doug Meijer and Hank Meijer are each worth $6.8 billion, making their collective wealth a total of $20.4 billion.
A fundamental principle about Capitalism is that the ownership class makes most of the money, while the working class barely survives. In March of 2024, I wrote a post entitled, Meijer family wealth increases by $1.5 Billion, putting their combined wealth at $16.5 Billion. This means that over the past 17 months the three Meijer brothers increased their collective wealth by $3.9 billion.
If we take that $3.9 billion that the Meijer brother made in 17 months and used it to pay their stores workers $40/hr, that would be a $90,000 annual salary, which is more than double what most of their store employees make. With the $3.9 billion that the Meijer brothers made in 17 months, they could hire 43,333 employees at $40/hr. This would leave the Meijer bothers with a mere $16.5 billion. I think it is safe to say that they would be fine.
Of course, Meijer won’t do this, because this would send a really bad message to Capitalists, since workers everywhere would be demanding a livable wage. Since many people will be celebrating Labor Day this coming Monday, why don’t we talk with Meijer workers about this wealth gap, support them in organizing a labor union, with increased wages and whatever other demands they might want to fight for. This is how you fight against Oligarchy, and this is how you fight against Capitalism. Calling for a boycott in this instance is reactionary, not strategic.
Civil Rights activist and entertainer Dick Gregory spoke at Fountain Street Church in 1969
Editor’s note: I have been working with Fountain Street Church and looking at a substantial amount of archival materials they have. Today’s post is only possible because Fountain Street Church has provided me access to their archives and they want this information to be public and available to the community. I will be hosting the archival material on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, but also posting here on GRIID. This is the second in a series of postings from the archival material at Fountain Street Church.
Earlier this year I posted a transcript of a lecture from Kwame Ture, known as Stokely Carmichael when he spoke at Fountain Street Church in May of 1967, which you can read here. Last week, I posted an audio recording of civil rights activist James Meredith who spoke in 1967 at Fountain Street Church.
Today, I wanted to share an audio recording of the Comedian and Civil Rights activist Dick Gregory, who spoke at Fountain Street Church in January of 1969. Gregory was also a fierce critic of the US war in Vietnam and was arrested numerous times for civil rights and anti-war actions. Dick Gregory used humor as a tool to expose the absurdity of the American Empire. Gregory died in 2017.
Some of the issues and themes in Gregory’s talk at Fountain Street Church were his affirmation of youth, talking about old folks lying, systemic racism, and changing the system. Gregory also talked about how the 1968 Democratic Convention, where the the Democrat Mayor Daley used severe repression against those protesting at the convention. Gregory said that the response of the system during the 1968 Democratic Convention woke people up.
Once again the GR Chamber of Commerce wants us to believe that they are looking out for the little guy
Last week the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce hosted Neil Bradley. Bradley is the Executive Vice President, Chief Policy Officer, and Head of Strategic Advocacy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce posted some pictures of Bradley on their Facebook page, with the following comment:
Thank you to Neil Bradley, Chief Policy Officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for sharing your insights today on how policy changes, taxes, and tariffs impact small businesses.
It is instructive that the GR Chamber mentions how only small businesses would be impacted by taxes and tariffs. However, this is not surprising since the GR Chamber of Commerce always appears to act as the great defenders of small businesses. For example, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has come out against a ballot initiative in Michigan called Invest in MI Kids. The premise of this ballot initiative is to restructure the tax system in Michigan so that millionaires and billionaires will be more in taxes. The GR Chamber is claiming this would negatively impact small businesses, but in reality, they are opposed to any tax policy that would impact members of the Capitalist Class.
It is also instructive that the GR Chamber of Commerce only referred to Bradley as the Chief Policy Officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, where he is in fact so much more than this. According to his bio on the US Chamber of Commerce site:
As executive vice president, chief policy officer, and head of strategic advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Neil Bradley is responsible for the organization’s overall advocacy efforts. In addition to managing policy development for the Chamber, Bradley oversees its government affairs activities, political program, and relations with other business organizations.
Thus, it seems safe to say that Bradley was in Grand Rapids to talk with GR Chamber members, small medium and large. Equally important is the fact that Bradley, “Prior to joining the Chamber, Bradley spent nearly 20 years working in the House of Representatives, including 11 years working for the House Republican leadership. He served as deputy chief of staff for then-Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) where he developed the legislative agenda for House Republicans, oversaw policy formulation in the leader’s office, and coordinated committee activity in the House. Bradley held the same position for Eric Cantor (VA) during his tenure as majority leader. Before that, he was policy director for House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (MO).”
The Chamber of Commerce, whether local or national, generally back the GOP, but lets face it, both parties are fervent defenders of Capitalism. It is also worth noting that the US Chamber of Commerce the largest lobbying 
organization in the United States, and also works to influence policy in many other countries. The Chamber of Commerce has a long history of defending business interests at the expense of working class people and eco-systems.
The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has a long history of being anti-union, pro-cop, and opposed to any regulations against the business class. GRIID has written dozens of of articles about the GR Chamber of Commerce since 2010, which you can find here.
For excellent additional sources with critical analysis of the Chamber of Commerce, see Alyssa Katz’s book, The Influence Machine: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Capture of American Life, and check out the SourceWatch page on the US Chamber of Commerce.
Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids – Segment #6: Downtown development projects are NOT made for us
One of the 10 principles of journalism is that it must serve as an independent monitor of power.
Now, I don’t claim to be a journalist, more of a media watchdog, but I do engage in movement media. Movement media is reporting and documenting what social movements are doing, which is what I have been trying to do with GRIID since 2009.
However, since I have been monitoring what I call the Grand Rapids Power Structure for nearly two decades, I thought I would start a new segment – Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids.
The Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids segments will offer brief commentary on those who have power over others in this community. These segments will not replace my regular reporting on the Grand Rapids Power Structure, since those stories will offer more in depth writing.
As we navigate a second Trump Administration it seems like a perfect opportunity to shed some light on the rich and powerful of Grand Rapids, or to frame it the way that radical media from the 60s and 70s would do regarding the Capitalist Class, using the phrase, “up against the wall motherfucker!”
GRIID has written about the group GR& Riverfront, which is essentially a platform to showcase development projects in downtown Grand Rapids, projects which have benefited from hundreds of millions in public money, but are primarily owned by members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure.
In a recent GR& Riverfront Email, they included a video with the title, August Construction Updates.
This awful video, which has a bad 80’s-like song that accompanies it – which is probably AI generated – showcases the various development projects near the Grand River. Towards the end of the song the lyrics are:
The city’s growing,
yeah, we’re growing bold.
Turning dreams into stories
that will soon be told.
From the riverwalk to the sky so blue
It’s all coming together.
And it’s made for you!
I’m not really sure who the target audience is for this video, but it really is a poorly constructed propaganda piece. The main sell from this video, and what those who will profit heavily from the development projects that have used hundreds of millions in public money, is to convince people that all of these development projects are being made for us. That’s right, the Grand Action 2.0 crowd, the DeVos family and other members of the downtown business community all want us to buy the idea that all these new projects are for us.
Ok, ok, so let me get this straight. The members of the Capitalist Class, working in partnership with Grand Rapids and Kent County officials, using hundreds of millions of our tax dollars, are building the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium, improving Canal Park, upgrading the Gillett Bridge and giving the Public Museum a facelift are all supposed to be for us? Members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure are going to make a lot of money from these project, but they public is still going to have to buy tickets to concerts, tickets which will be managed by Live Nation, which is currently facing a federal lawsuit for price fixing. This means that tickets will not be cheap, as will tickets to attend professional soccer games at the Amway Stadium.
So, I suppose that the powers that be asked us, the public, what it is that we want to see happen in Grand Rapids. No, so you didn’t get asked? Ah, maybe because those in the Grand Rapids Power Structure intuitively know what the public wants, so naturally they decided to build an Amphitheater and Soccer Stadium, using our money. Wrong!
I know a lot of people and most of the people that I know and have met over the past 45 years in Grand Rapids it that they want things like:
- Making a living wage. Recent data shows that 47% of Grand Rapidians are living paycheck to paycheck.
- Being able to live in a home or an apartment that they can actually afford.
- Not having to work two jobs just to survive.
- Not be harassed by the GRPD, especially when they come downtown.
- Live in a City that does not practice structural racism.
- Live in a City that does not welcome trans and queer people, especially those that do not embrace the entrepreneurial I can pull myself up by my bootstraps bullshit.
- Live in a City that doesn’t criminalize the unhoused.
- Live in a City that doesn’t shoot or beat Black people because they don’t comply.
- Live in a City that doesn’t criminalize those who engage in dissent.
- Live in a City that doesn’t cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and actually listens to immigrants who are demanding they stop collaborating with ICE.
- Live in a City that is more interested in attracting tourist than they are in supporting the people who actually live here.
Most people I know are tired of Grand Rapids City officials collaborating with the Capital Class to construct a a City that is essentially a playground for the Capitalist Class, a playground that will allow the rich to further expand their wealth.
What is happening in downtown Grand Rapids is not for us and it never has been, from the first incursions of Europeans settler colonialists that stole the land from the Anishinaabe, right up to the present day with Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce-endorsed criminalization of the unhoused. And this reality will not change until we are collectively organized to change it, by any means necessary.
It has been more than 22 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Israel escalates destruction of Gaza City
The world authority on food crisis officially declares famine for over 500,000 in Gaza
The Arab, the Left and Those Who Remained Silent: History Will Not Forgive You
When Genocide Denial Is the Norm
More Western Activists Are Traveling to Palestine — and Israel Is Deporting Them
Genocide in Gaza: A Stain on Us All
Analysis & History
West’s Complicity in Genocide: Q&A with Dan Steinbock
Famine Review Committee Gaza Strip
“The West Bank Is the Prize”: Israel Approves New Settlements to “Bury” Palestinian State
Image used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/deprivation-by-design/
GRIID is offering classes, workshops & trainings for people and groups doing resistance work, community organizing and movement building
The Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) has been doing workshops and classes for several decades, through what is often known as popular education.
GRIID has been involved in doing lots of media work, research, investigations, media analysis, monitoring systems of power in Grand Rapids and documenting popular movement work.
The workshops, presentations and trainings can be a one time session, but the length depends on what people are looking to do. Workshops and trainings generally range between 3 – 5 hours. Presentations are between 90 minutes to 2 hours. Classes can be modified for anywhere from 4 – 8 classes, with each class being 2 hours in length.
Presentations (90 minutes – 2 hours) no participant size limitation
A People’s History of Grand Rapids
A Grand Rapids Power Analysis
History of US Immigration Policy
Workshops & Trainings (2 – 3 hours) 10 – 30 participants
How to Interact with the local news media
Strategies, Tactics & Direct Action
Creating Movement-based media
Developing a Power Analysis
Classes (4 to 8 weeks) 10 – 25 participants
A People’s History of US Social Movements
A People’s History of Grand Rapids
A History of US Foreign Policy since WWII
A History of US Immigration Policy
A History of US Policy towards Native Americans
Investigating the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
A History of Policing in the US w/an analysis of contemporary policing
Cost of presentations, workshops, trainings and classes are negotiable. Please contact Jeff at sjeff987@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: I have been working with Fountain Street Church and looking at a substantial amount of archival materials they have. Today’s post is only possible because Fountain Street Church has provided me access to their archives and they want this information to be public and available to the community. I will be hosting the archival material on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, but also posting here on GRIID. This is the second in a series of postings from the archival material at Fountain Street Church.
Earlier this year I posted a transcript of a lecture from Kwame Ture, known as Stokely Carmichael when he spoke at Fountain Street Church in May of 1967, which you can read here.
Today, I want to post an audio file of a lecture that civil rights activist James Meredith gave in March of 1967 at Fountain Street Church.
James Meredith was known for being the first Black student to be admitted into the racially segregated University of Mississippi in 1962. Meredith decided to enroll in U Miss to pressure the Kennedy Administration into actually supporting desegregation policies in the South. A riot broke out in September of 1962, since the the University of Mississippi, white students and white alumni were opposed to desegregating the school.
In 1966, Meredith planned a solo 220-mile walk, which he called a March Against Fear. Meredith wanted to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On the second day of the march Meredith was shot at by white gunmen, and suffered several wounds. After recovering from the gunshot wounds Meredith started the march again and was joined by some 15,000 along the way.
Here is the 56 minutes talk by James Meredith on March 8th, 1967.
Image used is in this post is from https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=8&psid=4186&filepath=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/primarysources_upload/images/Meredith_Enrolls_at_Ole_Miss_LG.jpg
An interesting response to my recent post about the DeVos-owned bourbon label: Liberals acting as apologists for the DeVos family
In early August, I posted an article entitled, DeVos family always looking to expand their wealth, this time with high end bourbon and whiskey.
The article looked at the West Michigan-based CraftCo. and its JOSEPH MAGNUS, FOX & ODEN, and COPPERCRAFT brands of bourbon and whiskey that Dick and Betsy DeVos recently purchased, but it primarily talked about the DeVos family’s expansion of investments and companies that will allow them to grow them their wealth. I also talked about how they use their wealth in the political arena to buy candidates and policies that benefit their interests, which are the interests of the Capitalist Class.
Here is one response I saw to that article, a response that I found very instructive:
“Good, while you are at it don’t go to DeVos Hall, GR public museum, the symphony, the opera, the ballet, or any of dozens of institutions they have funded for fifty years. Boycotts do nothing. I’m a dyed in the wool democrat but I appreciate everything the DeVos family has done for the city and I am not naive enough to believe boycotting their commercial enterprises will do one thing to stop their political contributions. Which they have the same right to do as do we. Develop community and quit vilifying.”
I think some deconstruction of this response is in order.
First, when the person says that people should boycott the institutions that the DeVos family has funded for 50 years, that is a statement that I do not disagree with. This is why billionaires get away with so much, since there are never enough organized campaigns to challenge their economic and political power.
Second, saying that boycotts do nothing is just historically wrong. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was very effective in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. Then there was the South African Anti-Apartheid campaign that began in 1959, which included boycotting as a tactic, along with divestment and sanctions. The South African Anti-Apartheid campaign was also successful, even though it took longer than the Montgomery Bus Boycott to get the results that South Africans wanted. Boycotts are an effective tactic against systems of power and oppression, but the most effective boycotts are those that are initiated by people that are most impacted, like the boycotts that the Palestinians are calling for right now.
Third, the person who made the response said that they are, “a dyed in the wool democrat.” To me this makes sense, since there are too many people who identify as Democrats that limit their political understanding to voting and not on larger strategies and tactics that will actually make way more change than voting does.
Fourth, this Democrat then says that they “appreciate everything the DeVos family has done for the city.” And what would that be exactly? In every instance where they have purchased property in downtown Grand Rapids, especially the places that have their names on it, the public has contributed more in any of those endeavors than the DeVos family has. This means that the public, primarily through tax dollars, have done a great deal for the city, despite the fact that the public has had virtually no say in how that money is spent. The person who made this statement fails to understand that the DeVos family, like all billionaires are strategic. The DeVos family gave money to the arena, the downtown market, the Civic Theater, to the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium, just to name a few. Why? Because they will be one of the very entities that will profit from such ventures, since it means that people will stay at the hotels they own and eat in their restaurants. This is why the DeVos family has their people strategically placed on boards that make decisions about the downtown, because it mostly benefits their interests, not that of the majority of the people who live in Grand Rapids.
Fifth, this person again fails to understand how pressuring billionaires, both economically and politically, can be effective as strategies and tactics. This person also says that the DeVos family has the right to make political contributions, just like we do. Holy fucking shit! Does this person not understand that they give a crap load more money to political candidates, because they are billionaires? Does this person think that the DeVos family campaign contributions to 5 Kent County positions in the 2024 election, contributions that were $330,000 – the bulk of these Kent County candidates – is equal to what the rest of us can do?
The DeVos family is not just making political contributions to candidates, they are buying access and they are influencing public policy in ways that most of us never could. I have been tracking this shit for decades, which you can read in my 800 page document called, We’re Rich and We Do What We Want: A DeVos Family Reader. Chapter 3 is the chapter that looks at campaign financing.
Lastly, this person says develop community and stop vilifying. This is just plain ignorant. Does this person think that billionaires become billionaires purely on hard work. Fuck no! Billionaires become billionaires because they exploit people and resources, along with using a political and economic system that is designed to benefit a small percentage of the population. Sure, the DeVos family has foundations, but if you look at that stuff closely, most of their foundation contributions also go to institutions that promote and benefit from power and oppression. Besides, billionaires create foundations primarily as a way to hide some of their wealth so it will not be taxed.
Statements like the one that prompted this article make it clear there are too many people who are willing to give billionaires a free pass. Not only that, but there are people who are unknowingly doing the bidding of billionaires, like the DeVos family, by defending them and acting as apologists for their desire to dominate the economic, political, social and cultural dynamics of Grand Rapids. I for one will continue to vilify the DeVos family as long as I draw breathe.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
