Faith and Politics- Having Important Conversations

What are the two main topics that we hear so often are not appropriate for conversation with our guests, families, and friends?

Faith and politics.

Yet these are the very topics, that Jim Wallis, and other Christian progressives remind us are vitally important for us to talk about with the people we care about.

I just finished reading the recent book by Jim Wallis entitled "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it"

In the book, Wallis, while a bit redundant at times, convincingly makes the case that faith and progressive politics can and should go together. Wallis takes the Bush administration to task for policies that overlook the poor and needy, as well as a war in Iraq and fear-mongering that are off-base and have done little but damage our reputation in the world community.

He also takes liberal politicians and pundits to task for clinging to a rigid secularism, thus alienating many progressive people of faith in the process. He asserts that progressives have failed to articulate a compelling vision that includes people of faith. Wallis also observes that the great social change movements of recent human history, such as the Civil Rights Movement, have been faith-based.

Jim Wallis warns of a new type of fundamentalism that has afflicted the Left:

“Today there are new fundamentalists in the land. These are the ‘secular
fundamentalists,’ many of whom attack all political figures who dare to speak
from their religious convictions.” (69)

“Secular fundamentalists make a fundamental mistake. They believe that the separation of church and state ought to mean the separation of faith from public life... Fortunately the Constitution protects the free speech of believing and unbelieving citizens.” (70)

Wallis portrays politicians as being fickle and changing with the winds of the polls and public opinion:

The great practitioners of real social change, like Martin Luther King, jr., and Mahatma Gandhi, understood something very important. They knew that you don’t change a society by merely replacing one wet-fingered politician with another. You change society by changing the wind. (22)

He calls on progressive people of faith to join together in a movement to "change the wind." Wallis goes on to say that “...to change the wind, you have to know which direction you want it to move in. And that is about vision. Today both religion and politics have a vision problem.” He condemns the privatization of religion and calls upon people of faith to bring faith back into the public square, alongside progressive social values like justice for the poor and promoting peace, and an end not only to terrorism, but also state-sponsored terrorism that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the war in Iraq alone.

Wallis also reminds us all that protest and standing for what we believe in is good, but we also need to lift up viable alternatives to the injustice was stand against. He writes “To offer an alternative is always more challenging than just protest; it requires more work, creativity, and risk…The power of protest is not in its anger, but in its invitation.” (46).

He spells out the political dilemma for progressive people of faith with a social conscience when he writes:

“With the Republicans offering war overseas 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?” (77)

I believe that is the question of the day for us. Who will speak up for the least and the lost? Who will stand for peace and justice?? I believe the answer is that every single one of us needs to unite around these common values and stand together as part of this movement.

Politicians on either side won't do it- too risky and dangerous...

We need to stand together for peace, for social justice for the poor, equitable healthcare and education, and inclusivity of all people rather than hiding behind the false comfort of fear-mongering and in-group, out-group behavior that some of the more conservative political factions would like to see.

In one of the chapters on social change as a movement, Wallis quotes Gandhi, who when referring to peace as a path or way of life rather than merely a position said: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

May we go and do likewise.

Peace,

John