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The Elusive Middle

Jim Wallis's attempt to transcend party politics in The Great Awakening never takes off.

In 2005 public opinion caught up with Jim Wallis. For decades the president and CEO of Sojourners had lobbied for social justice as the Religious Right captured headlines. But widespread liberal angst over President Bush's 2004 election roused attention for his cause.

Wallis's 2005 book, God's Politics, spent four months on The New York Times bestseller list. He became the go-to evangelical to rip the Religious Right and wag his finger at the secular Left. Wallis introduces few new ideas in The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post–Religious Right America (HarperOne). "The monologue of the Religious Right is over," Wallis says in his standard speech line. Maybe, but can Wallis prove that evangelicals have flocked to his side?

Like God's Politics, The Great Awakening alternates between criticisms of the Right and the Left. "If I were an unborn child and wanted the support of the far Right, it would be better for me to stay unborn for as long as possible, because once I was born, I'd be off its radar screen—no childcare, no health care, nothing," Wallis writes. "Nor should I expect support from the far Left, which speaks so much about human rights, because I won't have any until after my birth."

Still, it's not hard to see where Wallis's sympathies lie. When he discourages Christians from making political appeals based on "sectarian religious demands," he echoes Sen. Barack Obama's speech at the 2006 Call to Renewal conference. When he writes, "I believe that the real battle, the big struggle of our times, is the fundamental choice between cynicism and hope," he evokes Obama's The Audacity of Hope.

Unfortunately, factual mistakes further belie Wallis's claim to nonpartisanship. He suggests that the 2006 ...

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From Issue:
April 2008, Vol. 52, No. 4
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Comments

Displaying 1–3 of 21 comments

Jack

April 29, 2008  11:07pm

I was burned by the Far right and frankly find Mr. Wallis' book refreshing, and applaud his efforts to reframe the conversation between people of faith on both sides. Great Awakening in deed.

Tom Hinderliter

April 19, 2008  6:37pm

The review gives more insight into the theological understanding of the reviewer than the theological implications of Mr. Wallis' book.

ACA

April 19, 2008  12:15am

You keep conflating "Evangelical Christian" with "Republican", and that is frustrating -- even infuriating. Where do those of us who truly believe that Abortion is a moral evil, that heterosexuality is God's ideal, but who also expect our nation to have more rigorous standards about when to go to war, and who believe that taking care of our planet, and taking care of the poor and oppressed are not merely private, but public policy moral imperatives -- where do we belong? Are we to be excommunicated from Evangelical Christianity because we cannot in conscience vote Republican?

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