Wallis: Dem Platform Drafting Committee Responsive to Religious Issues

[rucky]

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_archives&mode=current_opinion&article=CO_040630_wallis

Statement of Jim Wallis to the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee
June 18, 2004

I am Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and convener of Call to Renewal, a network of churches and faith-based organizations working to overcome poverty. Thank you for your invitation to address you this afternoon.

The media is filled these days with stories of a divided church. And it is already looking certain that highly controversial social questions will again be used during this election year as "wedge issues." Some want us to believe the only "religious issues" in this critical election year are gay marriage and abortion. Others say religion shouldn't matter at all in an election. We believe that our faith does matter in politics.

Some of us feel that our faith has been stolen; and it is time to take it back. In particular, an enormous misrepresentation of my Christian tradition has taken place. And because of an almost uniform media misperception, many people think Christian faith stands for political commitments that are almost the opposite of its true meaning. How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war, and only pro-American? It's time for a rescue operation-to get back to the historic, biblical, and a genuinely evangelical faith rescued from contemporary distortions. The good news is that the rescue operation has begun-in a time where the social crisis we face literally cries out for more progressive and prophetic religion.

Too many people still believe that faith is private and has no implications for political life. Some politicians seem almost to be saying, "Sure I have faith, but don't worry, it won't affect anything. But what kind of faith is that? Where would America be if the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had kept his faith to himself? The United States has a long history of religious faith supporting and literally driving progressive causes and movements. From the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage to civil rights, religion has led the way for social change.

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Thoughts? This Jew agrees 100% - it's time to take back religion. As long as we refuse to fight this culture war, they win.

[rucky]

1. "How a candidate deals with poverty is a religious issue"

Love that quote.

[checks-n-balances]

2. Way to go, Rev. Wallis! May your numbers increase and keep up the

"Good" work!

The Right Wing has hijacked and redefined religious issues in their own image, to serve their own needs. Time to take it back and do justice to it once again.

You can tell it's not genuine when it becomes self-serving, narcissistic, and when it merely disguises power and domination.

I remember a great prayer from a Sunday morning at church, about 20 years ago: "O God, deliver us from the illusion that You are a White Male Republican..."

Thanks for posting this!