Among current religious leaders in America, I am tempted to consider Jim Wallis the most important. His name may not yet be a household word, yet he is doing more to mobilize churches and other religious groups than just about anyone else. His Call To Action has brought together a wide range of religiously concerned congregations for joint advocacy.
In recent months he published God’s Politics, his eighth book about faith, spirituality, and our nation’s values. Already a best seller, this work presents, often eloquently, what the subtitle calls “A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America.”
Married and the father of two young sons, Jim Wallis is also a minister in the Evangelical tradition. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area, from which he travels widely, speaking to audiences about values and morality as they affect national well-being.
The magazine Sojourners, available both in print and online, claims him as parent. He also does some teaching at Harvard University, both in the government and divinity schools. I was fortunate in becoming acquainted with him when he taught in the divinity school, and I can vouch for his thoughtfulness and his skill in dealing with students.
About the current political situation in the United States, he feels regretful. Wallis thinks that both the Republican and the Democratic parties have misinterpreted and misrepresented the moral issues and the values vital to the common good. He reminds readers that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He explains “why the right gets it wrong and the left doesn’t get it.”
Contrary to what those on the right often suggest, abortion and same-sex marriage are not the only moral issues that face the nation. Poverty, war, and capital punishment also deserve attention.
Mind you, Willis believes that abortion and gay/lesbian marriage are important and need to be dealt with. But, as he points out, the Bible speaks more often about poverty than about any other moral subject, yet you would not know that, listening to some preachers.
He faults the left, as well, for leaving out of account the vital importance of spirituality. In fact, he holds that “history is most changed by social movements with a spiritual foundation.”
An outstanding example of this is the struggle for civil rights. Martin Luther King brought to that struggle a spiritual vision based on the Bible that established his leadership on a solid basis. Similarly, South Africa’s breakthrough toward racial justice happened because Nelson Mandela lived by spiritual principles of nonviolence and loving forgiveness.
The pages of God’s Politics often feature views of spirituality that conflict with those popular in present-day America. Speaking in response, Wallis says: “We are all guilty of succumbing to a diminished religiosity that is characterized by private belief systems, devoid of the prophetic and social witness of Jesus and the prophets─ultimately, nothing more than ‘small-s’ spirituality that is really only ad hoc wish fulfillment or a collection of little self-help techniques we use to take the edge off our materialistic rat-race lives.”
Throughout his writing, Jim Wallis emphasizes a prime teaching of theology. “God is personal, but never private.” That God cares about each person with a deeply felt personal love is a vital part of Wallis’s outlook. Without it, religion would lose its meaning.
At the same time, however, God in the Bible is shown to be concerned about public issues. The Prophets in particular talk about secular subjects such as war and peace, economic justice, and economic division.
When religion loses its public focus, it becomes banal and irrelevant to the real lives of people. As Wallis puts it: “Exclusively private faith degenerates into a narrow religion, excessively preoccupied with individual and sexual morality while almost oblivious to the biblical demands for public justice.”
Like a modern-day prophet himself, Jim Wallis does not shrink from speaking out about the distortions in American values. For example, he asks: “How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war, and only pro-American
My enthusiasm for Jim Wallis’ vision, however, is not shared by everyone. I have discovered that, like almost everyone else, he has his critics.
One such, the Boston College professor and political scientist Alan Wolfe, describes himself as non-religious and, despite personal respect for Wallis, does not identify with a political agenda that is based on the teachings of Jesus. “Count me out,” writes Wolfe, “because Jesus is not my God.”
Last week I asked Jim Wallis about this objection. “In the public square, the questions become moral issues, not religious,” answers this spiritual leader. “Religion must be tempered by democracy,” he adds in recognition of the intolerance and other excesses that faith often leads to. He believes that moral discourse can create common ground for those of many different religious views as well as for those who do not identify with any religion.
Richard Griffin