Activist Benjamin Chavis listens as Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant tells why black pastors are joining the Occupy movement.

A group of African-American church leaders announced Wednesday their intention to join ranks with the Occupy movement in the nation's capital, bolstering what some consider a mutual message of condemning income inequality and social injustice. The move comes against the backdrop of evictions of Occupy protesters encamped in city parks and squares across the United States, raising questions about whether the two groups can capitalize on momentum gained by the months-long movement. "We are occupying until poverty is eradicated," pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, near where a core group of activists remains encamped. The two groups plan to gather during a national "day of action" scheduled for January 16, set to coincide with the commemoration of former civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
 But could Wednesday's announcement signify that Occupy is now shifting
 toward more established forms of influence?
 "Every successful movement begins with a grievance and turns into an
 agenda," said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Washington-based
 Brookings Institution.
 By linking up with black church leaders, he said, the group can tap
 into a community with years of experience in social movements.
 Since September, activists have gathered todraw attention to corporate
 greed and the excesses of the so-called 1%, a reference to the
 nation's elite, who protesters say wield disproportionate influence
 over the rest of the country.
 Their message, though popular, has also been criticized for its lack of focus.
 But on Wednesday, church leaders outlined amore specific call to
 lawmakers, asking for amoratorium on foreclosures, an increase in
 federal Pell grants to students and added national funding for job
 training.
 In past months demonstrators have largely shunned established
 political figures, wary ofbeing co-opted by outside influence. And
 yetoutside groups have largely been involved, swelling demonstrator
 marches with union ranks in cities like New York, where activists
 first encamped in a lower Manhattan park.
 "When they had physical spaces, then the point was to be there," added
 Galston of the encampments. "But the movement has to move from
 occupation to something else."
 Last month, authorities in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia
 dismantled tents andarrested protesters who refused to leave city
 parks and squares
 
 
 Micah 3:5
 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err,
 that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not
 into their mouths, they even prepare war against him
 
 
 Micah 3:11
 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
 hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean
 upon the LORD, and say, Isnot the LORD among us? none evil can come
 upon us
 
 Zephaniah 3:4
 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have
 polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.