God's Politics after Katrina: Faith and Hope in Public Life
Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners Magazine
Date: October 17, 2005
Speaker Bio
Rev. Jim Wallis聽is the founder of the liberal evangelical Christian ministry Sojourners and the editor of聽Sojourners Magazine, as well as the author of聽God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It聽(Harper Collins, 2005).
In this lecture he describes his vision for a non-ideological, non-partisan role for faith in public life with social justice as its priority. He describes the failure of those across the political spectrum to address poverty, using as a prime example the unalleviated suffering of low-income residents of Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Event Recap
Our fifth annual Prophetic Voices of the Church Lecture (co-sponsored by the Church of the Redeemer, Newton, MA) featured Reverend Jim Wallis, founding editor of Sojourners magazine and author of the best-selling book聽God鈥檚 Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn鈥檛 Get It. Wallis paced the stage of Robsham Theatre as he passionately argued for a public conversation about faith and morality not hijacked by the political right or misunderstood, even ignored, by the political left. As he described, 鈥淩eligious fundamentalists have a stranglehold on the right,鈥� while 鈥渟ecular fundamentalists have this control on the left.鈥� Wallis spent the first portion of his October 17 talk commenting on the landscape of the religious conversation in American politics, noting that the religious right has narrowed the field of discussion to abortion and gay marriage. As a consequence, issues demanding moral assessment such as the war in Iraq and poverty in America are woefully neglected.
Wallis challenged the left to recall the achievements of progressive Christian reformers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries鈥� including the abolition movement, women鈥檚 suffrage, and the civil rights movement鈥攁s a model for left-leaning religious activism.
Wallis, however, proceeded beyond simply laying out the contours of contemporary politics and religion. He maintained, 鈥渞eligion is not supposed to be a wedge that divides us,鈥� but 鈥渁 bridge that brings us together.鈥� Drawing on the example of Abraham Lincoln鈥檚 second inaugural address, Wallis cautioned against 鈥淕od is on our side鈥� rhetoric in both domestic and international politics. Such thinking leads to hubris and unsound policy. Instead, he urged Americans鈥攂oth right and left鈥� to worry whether 鈥渨e are on God鈥檚 side.鈥�
For Wallis, the rampant poverty in America, and in the world, tests Christian devotion to 鈥淕od鈥檚 side.鈥� The scriptures, he reminded, contain more passages on poverty and serving the poor than any other issue. According to Wallis, the 鈥済ood鈥� of Hurricane Katrina is that 鈥淭he waters of Katrina washed away our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty. It washed away our reluctance to admit the still persistent connection of race and poverty in America.鈥� In one of a handful of partisan moments, he blasted the right for continually supporting tax cuts for the wealthy while cutting services to the poor. Finally, he suggested, Katrina provided America with a teachable moment鈥攁 moment for the leadership of this country and for the average citizen to face the reality of the poverty line, but, more importantly, to do something about it.
Wallis concluded his remarks with a call to action. To combat both the right鈥檚 monopoly on public God-talk and the forces of poverty in America, he implored the audience to help create a movement of committed progressives dedicated to changing the 鈥減olitical wind.鈥� Changing the wind required not the election of new politicians but ordinary voters voicing concerns about morality and poverty. If the voices grow loud enough, Wallis assured, the politicians will follow. He illustrated his point by describing politicians as the individuals walking around Washington D.C. with wet fingers thrust in the air, ever-testing to see which way the wind is blowing. As a consequence, Wallis remarked, 鈥淥ur vocation is to change the wind.鈥�