Reviews, Interviews, News, Commentaries, Excerpts, My Top 5 Books, Wilson's Bookmarks, Book AwardsWhere Jim Wallis Stands
Jim Wallis wants you to know he's not a liberal. Yes, he's been a chief critic of the Religious Right since its inception, gave the Democratic weekly radio address after the 2006 midterm elections, and has been an often-controversial voice for social justice since his early-'70s days at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. But, he says, his chief critics these days are liberals, not conservatives. "There is a Religious Left in this country, and I'm not a part of it," Wallis said when he stopped by Christianity Today's offices during his February tour for his latest book, The Great Awakening. Meanwhile, he says, theologically conservative evangelicals (especially young ones) are flocking to his message and are "deserting the Religious Right in droves" because it attempted to "restrict the language of 'moral values' to just two issues—abortion and gay marriage."
"For years I have been called a progressive evangelical, but people said that was a misnomer," says Wallis, who turns 60 in June. "The misnomer is becoming a movement."
The Great Awakening is full of prescriptions on the broader social agenda: poverty, genocide in Darfur, global warming, the Iraq war, and other issues widely covered in Wallis's Sojourners magazine and his previous books. But The Great Awakening contains public-policy positions Wallis promotes less often: abortion and gay marriage, those two pillars of the Religious Right. He discussed these issues, and others, in further detail with CT's editors.
You repeatedly cite William Wilberforce as someone who did Christian political engagement right. But aren't your views on abortion—"protecting unborn life in every possible way, but without criminalizing abortion"—fundamentally at odds with Wilberforce's ...
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Sallie
I am new to Jim Wallis' and the Sojourners' thinking, but I was thrilled to find someone who ariticulates so well so much of what I have been feeling and thinking about the Iraq war, same-sex unions, the pro-life position, justice, poverty, the environment, the broken US political system, and other issues that concern me greatly. As a born-again, Bible-believing, charismatic Christian and currently a member of an Anglican (formerly Episcopal) church, I have felt like I was between a rock and a hard place, with nowhere to go. The interview with Jim Wallis in Christianity Today has given me encouragement to not give up on the things I feel strongly about.
Andy
I was disappointed that Wallis evaded CT's probing questions, responding not what we should do, but only what, in his estimation, we can do. Wallis sacrifices a truly prophetic stance at the altars of cold pragmatism and political expediency, revealing his lack of prophetic imagination. How could calling for abortion reduction be prophetic when no one is calling for an increase? (His "prophetic" call for dialogue on gay marriage is similarly toothless.) He ignores the central issue of abortion and does not go nearly far enough. The one sure way to reduce abortions is to make them illegal. In contrast, Stan Guthrie's clear, unequivocal call takes seriously the fundamental issue at stake: whether abortion takes the life of a human. The fight against the disgrace of legalized abortion must continue.
Pete
We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. What is the gospel if not love and acceptance? Not that we condone sin, but we all know that when we look inside ourselves, we see areas we do not let Christ reach, dirty secrets and things we are not ready to let go of. Christ still loves us, he reminds us that there is a better way, but he does not bar us from his heart. The "proud religious right" needs to think about "pride" and how deeply it has permeated our relationships with the non-christian world. Sadly, the "Proud Christian Right" has elevated themselves to the Throne of Judgment and pre-damned all who are unacceptable in their sight. That is not our job, we are called to love, and love will change peoples lives. How can people know the love of Christ if we who are in Christ don't exhibit it...pass it around, let it out...outside the Church. Get off your judgment throne, lest you be judged.