By Jim Wallis
HarperCollins Publishers, 416pp, 2005
Reviewed by Mark Biskeborn
Although Christ’s teachings focus almost entirely on moral questions, great spiritual and philosophical leaders have considered the questions of good and bad (or evil, depending on the belief system) long before Christianity. The Roman state condemned Christ to death as an insurrectionist, an unconventional thinker who taught, among other ethical principles, peace, charity, equality, and love. His sermons frightened the status quo who thrived on inequality, elitism, graft, and military force.
Wallis is a voice of hope in our wilderness. In the fervor of America’s revival of fundamentalism, Wallis includes a strong dose of reasonable, sober thinking with his deep faith in God. His voice delivers hope where the ragtag merchants of war rattle their extremely expensive sabers in the name of God as they pursue a witch hunt for “evil dictators bent of the destruction of Western Civilization and the American way of life,” as G. W. Bush stated in a 2001 speech to rally support of his blind invasion of Iraq. Wallis’s voice calms the nerves when the neo-conservative, zealot Reverend Pat Robertson calls for the assassination and regime change for Venezuelan President Chavez, while babbling on about “the uninterrupted flow of oil.”
Wallis takes a clear look at the ethical principles that Christ taught and challenges all Americans to reconsider the priorities.
Jim Wallis, an evangelical, is a leading figure at the crossroads of religion and politics in America. A theologian, renowned preacher, and faith-based activist, Wallis founded Sojourners Magazine, associated with a nationwide network of progressive Christians working for justice and peace.
In his much touted book, Wallis exposes how American politics has slipped down a slope of embarrassing confusion. He shows how American culture and religious understanding has lost its grip on reality.
“With the Republicans offering war oversees and corporate dominance at home, and the Democrats failing to offer any real alternatives, who will raise a prophetic voice for social and economic justice and for peace? Never has there been a clearer role for the churches and religious community. We can push both parties toward moral consistency and their best-stated values and away from the unprincipled pragmatism and negative campaigning that both sides too often engaged in during the recent election.”
The Founding Fathers clearly and wisely called for a separation between church and state. Nevertheless, certain demagogues, like G. W. Bush, mix the two and do so all too often for personal political power and support for policies that contradict moral principles of most any religion. If we credulously listened to some of our political leaders, we might believe many strange notions:
• We are a chosen nation by God.
• Our calling is to judge who in the world is evil.
• With God’s blessings, we must use unilateral military force against evil dictators even when they pose no threat to us.
• Abortion -- pro-life -- is the most important ethical issue in our society (even though we might wage highly questionable wars and kill hundreds of thousands of people).
• Gay rights is the second most important moral question we face.
Wallis provides a more rational way for religious Americans to reevaluate their ethical priorities in light of what Jesus Christ teaches and contrary to what a politician might use in a speech to sway the credulous masses.
The author speaks as a Christian and thus assumes that everyone has read the teaching of Christ. Although he speaks from his Christian point of view, he at least does so in a way to show that ethics, religious or otherwise, does not begin and end with the issues neo-conservatives kindle into smoke screens to blur priorities and to cloud real social problems.
In a refreshing and reasonable voice in America’s cultural wilderness, Wallis characterizes the “Religious Right-wing” as “pro-rich, pro-war, and only pro-American.” In the hands of the extremely right-wing neo-conservatives, politicians misuse Christian ethics in order to mislead many Americans to believe that the notions listed above represent the essence of religious morality.
In his book, the author shows that nothing could degrade our culture and institutions more. The Founding Fathers knew about the dangers of devious politicians who might use religion for dishonest purposes. That’s why they pushed to reduce the presence of religious dogma and demagoguery in state affaires.
Wallis takes jabs at the right-wing and the Bush administration, but he also argues that the left fails by allowing the right to hold a monologue about religious issues. He also attacks the superficial, consumerist culture in America for its self-indulgent ignorance of anything beyond esthetic surgery and luxury foreign cars.
“Rather than suggesting that we not talk about ‘God,’ Democrats should be arguing -- on moral and even religious grounds -- that all Americans should have economic security, health care, and educational opportunities and that faith results in a compassionate concern for those on the margins.”
In this vacuous consumer culture that twists religious ethics to fit with political and big-money agendas, one that prefers to worship the Golden Cow, Wallis lights a lantern at our feet by showing us how to reevaluate our directions and priorities in a way that benefits the greatest welfare of the nation. Ironically, the solutions Wallis advocates resemble those Christ taught millennia ago before the elitists Pharisees and the Roman state sent him back to his maker.
Mark Biskeborn is a writer.
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