LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I am really liking this guy...

FINDING MY RELIGION
Jim Wallis on "Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It"
- David Ian Miller, Special to SF Gate
Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Click to ViewClick to View With U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton extending an olive branch to abortion opponents in a recent speech and other congressional Democrats peppering their language with faith-based phrases, it's clear that some members of the party are trying to find their religious voices.

Some might call that political pandering. But Jim Wallis, a left-wing evangelical Christian who believes Democrats need to affirm the role of faith in shaping public policy, sees these developments differently. He argues that conservative Republicans have taken control of the discussion about religion and morality in this country and have used hot-button issues like abortion and same-sex marriage to divide the electorate. Now, he says, Democrats need to get back into the conversation, and these recent moves could be an effective ice-breaker.

Wallis -- who edits a progressive Christian magazine called Sojourners and founded Call to Renewal, an evangelical ministry that reaches out to the poor -- is the author of a new best seller, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." He spoke with me recently by phone from Wichita, Kan.

You're an evangelical Christian and a liberal. Isn't that sort of an endangered species these days?

I'm what you might call a 19th-century evangelical born in the wrong century. Evangelicals in the 19th century were abolitionists who fought against the slave trade; they fought for women's suffrage and for child-labor reform. Of course, the civil rights movement led by black churches was pretty evangelical, too. So there's a long tradition of progressive -- that's the word I would use more than liberal -- thinking and action among evangelicals.

For a while now, media pundits have portrayed the country as separated politically into two groups, one religious and the other secular. What do you think about the so-called blue-state, red-state divide?

The myth is that the religious people are squeezed into the red states and the blue states are full of secular agnostics, and it simply isn't true. As Barack Obama famously explained during the Democratic convention, "We have an awesome God in the blue states." Yes, there are some religious fundamentalists on one side and some secular fundamentalists on the other side -- that's true. But the battle is not so much between religion and secularism. The battle is between different versions and visions of faith. I had two long debates on Fox this week with Jerry Falwell. Jerry Falwell and I have very different versions and visions of faith. That's the issue here: what kind of faith are we talking about?

So, what do you think it means to be a person of faith in America today?

Traveling around the country, I'm meeting all kinds of people. I'm meeting evangelicals who believe in the centrality of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible but don't want Jerry Falwell speaking for them. I'm meeting Catholics who don't want to be represented by right-wing bishops who instruct them to only vote on one issue (abortion) and ignore the whole rest of Catholic social teaching. There are mainline Protestants who feel like they've been left out of the conversation and disrespected, and people at black churches who feel like this has been pretty much a white conversation.

What does all that say to you?

It says me that the monologue that has been controlled by the religious right is over, and that it's time to have a better, broader dialogue.

You argue that the Republicans have taken over the discussion about religion in America. Doesn't it anger people on the right when you say that?

Actually, I use a stronger word -- hijacked. Yeah, I think the politicized religious right is going to come back at this hard because it really challenges their control of the conversation. That's why I invited Richard Land, the Southern Baptist leader, to my book launch to speak, because I wanted to have a dialogue. He's a principled and formidable religious conservative, but one who's capable of a civil conversation. I want to have that conversation.

Do you think George Bush believes he's doing right by his faith?

I think George Bush's faith is real. I don't doubt his piety. I challenge his theology. That's a very different thing.

What do you mean?

I think he's got bad theology on issues like poverty and the war on terrorism. I think his God is a God of charity and not a God of justice when it comes to poverty. Voluntary faith-based initiatives, which I supported, are not adequate to deal with rising poverty rates in America, the richest country in the world. They're certainly not adequate to deal with half the world's population living on less than $2 a day. The Bible, after all, speaks about justice and equity and fairness, not just charity.

And the war on terror?

If you can't see evil in the face of Sept. 11, you're suffering from some kind of postmodern relativism or something. But to say that they're evil and we're good is bad theology. Jesus said, don't see just the love in your adversary's eyes; see also the love in your own.

John Kerry didn't talk as much about religion during the presidential campaign. Why do you think that is?

He seemed uncomfortable, like he'd rather talk about something else. When you do that, you concede the entire territory to the other side. It's no accident that the two Democrats who have been successful in recent history are Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who were both very comfortable with the language of faith, and I don't think anybody ever thought Bill Clinton was imposing his religion on anyone when he would competently refer to biblical texts.

But you supported Kerry in the election, didn't you?

I voted for him -- not with much enthusiasm, I must say. I basically voted against the policies of George Bush. John Kerry was not inspiring on either domestic or foreign policy. He wasn't really inspiring about anything.

Which Bush policies are you talking about?

His utter failure to address the issues of poverty, and his stance on Iraq. I met with him before he came to Washington. I was supportive of what he said he wanted to do (with faith-based programs), but he is failing, utterly failing. And he's fighting a war that is not only a mistake but also a war that is making my children less safe, increasing the threat of terrorism in the world, and a war that was opposed by every major church body in the world except for the American Southern Baptists.

Lately, Democrats like Hillary Clinton have been arguing that their party needs to soften its position on abortion. What's your view?

I think what Sen. Clinton is saying is simply common sense. She's saying this is not ever a happy choice. It's a tragic choice. Let's do everything we can to prevent unwanted pregnancies. That's a mainstream American position of both pro-life and pro-choice people. The Democrats should make a commitment to drastically reduce the abortion rate. Supporting low-income women always lowers the abortion rate, so why can't we all do that together? There are going to be differences in the legalities, but let's talk about where the common ground is first and not just blame each other.

I'll ask you one last question. What are you praying for these days?

My primary concern is that all of us -- Democrats, Republicans, everyone -- are getting religion about the things that are closest to the heart of God, things like a silent tsunami that has taken the lives of 30,000 children each and every day from hunger and diseases related to hunger. I often ask people, "What do you think God is most preoccupied with, those 30,000 children dying every day or whether we call it civil unions or gay civil marriage? Which do you think God spends the most time worrying about?"

Jim Wallis' Bay Area Appearance Schedule

Feb. 24: Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St., SF, 8 pm
Feb. 25: First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, 7:30 pm
Feb. 27: Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, 950 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park, 7 pm
Feb. 28: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, 1 pm
Apr. 10: Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St., SF, Forum and Sunday Service, 9:30 am