Fundamentalists' Adolescent Rebellion
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Jim Wallis is a Christian leader for social change. He is a speaker, author, activist, and international commentator on ethics and public life. Wallis was a founder of Sojourners--Christians for justice and peace--more than 30 years ago and continues to serve as the editor of Sojourners magazine, covering faith, politics and culture. In 1995, Wallis was instrumental in forming Call to Renewal, a national federation of churches, denominations, and faith-based organizations from across the theological and political spectrum working to overcome poverty. In his book: God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, he describes his adolescent rebellion against his parents' fundamentalism. He describes how he went to college and got involved in the civil rights movement. This transformed his thinking, as he readily admits. Wallis says that he later returned to the faith of his youth. It would be far more accurate to say that he came back as a self-conscious agent of the Social Gospel radicals who created the civil rights movement, in order to do evangelism work among the still-alienated children of fundamentalism.
Wallis says that he is getting invitations to be interviewed by evangelical radio talk show hosts, which he says is a new phenomenon for him. Jim Wallis speaks of the Religious Community--capitalized--but he never defines it. There is a reason for this: What he calls The Religious Community is not the enormous group that is represented by Dobson and Falwell. It is a tiny Left-wing political action group. Wallis promotes the myth that tax cuts for the rich are unfair to the poor. The fact is, the poor pay almost no taxes. Cutting taxes for the rich does not hurt the poor. Jim Wallis takes the commandment regarding taking care of our parents and turns it into a moral justification for taxing strangers to take care of our parents. Paul even forbids the church to care for widows who have relatives to pay for them. The State has no legitimate role here. For a political activist to draw a line in the sand, as Jim Wallis did on, he needs a fall-back position if the opposition politicians ignore it.
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RIght and Left are wrong, he goes for the middle!
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According to Wallis none of the politic party available are coherent, because they force the voters to choose between either personal ethics or social justice. Therefore he invented his own party the "Prophetic Politics" open to all and particularly the "members of all our denominational churches who want to put their faith into practice" . The Bible is clear on this matter "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead" , and Wallis as a public theologian is well aware of that. He consciously implies that "real" Christians should vote for his party. Did he forget about the importance of the Church and state boundary, and respecting Christians with a different political agenda? For Wallis "religion doesn't fall neatly into Right and Left categories" it falls in his new option .
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A case for political review
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This is one of the best political books on the analysis of contemporary US politics. Jim Wallis successfully opened our eyes. In God's Politics, the author dissected the problems of the gross misinterpretation of Christian Ethic by the Religious Right and the Republican party, as well as the little attachment to religious discourse by the Democratic Party. Through his fair and balanced analysis of the two parties, Wallis made a strong conclusion and came up with suggestions on several things that should be done if we want to see a new dawn in political discussions. This is a must read for Americans and the rest of the world. Also recommended: THE CASE FOR DEMOCRACY, THE USURPER AND OTHER
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Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu praises it too
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I often asked myself during the last 2004 elections: Wouldn't somebody write something deep about faith and politics from a progressive line of thinking? And then came Jim Wallis with this book, as a timely gift to America. His book is the perfect answer for those who are searching for "THE RIGHT" political leadership that is steeped in genuine Christian beliefs. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it was the leadership of the anti-war and civil rights movements led by the ideas of Rev. Martin Luther King, progressive clergy and nuns, made many of the social, moral and ethical changes possible. The religious right provided the leadership in the 1980s and today, it is the compassionate conservatives who with the religious right have virtually hijacked the Bible and made it a Republican idea. Their stand is giving The USA a bad name in the eyes of the rest of the world. In "God's politics", the author successfully presented a powerful thought-provoking book that both believers and nonbelievers should read. Its dialectical approach puts a challenge to readers of both the right and left. They would be forced to think constructively and critically about the path and effects of cotemporary US at home and abroad. To me, God is neither Republican nor Democrat, and being pro-faith means committing oneself to helping the poor and needy and those who are being discriminated upon. This is a book for those who are searching for or have found Jesus Christ. Both Democrats and Republicans qualify. While Republicans should read this book and correct their misconceptions, liberals should read it too and learn from the author, so that they can be bettered prepared for 2008. Recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, GOOD HAS A DREAM
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