God's Politics

I recently finished reading God's Politics by Jim Wallis. The book is a few years old, but I picked it up a few months ago for 4-5 bucks and wanted to read it before the election. Jim Wallis is passionate about the label evangelical, because the gospel is the driving force behind his endeavors to share the love, justice, and compassion of God. Although many in the "religious right" camp would label him as a liberal and even a heretic because of his involvement with social justice issues and poverty issues. God's Politics could have been about 100 pages shorter and still said everything that needed to be said, but it's still a book that is worthy of more than a passing glance. Wallis believes that aligning the work of God as manifested in Christ Jesus with one political party over another is a grave mistake.

Those are the two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way-God on our side-leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often dangerous foreign policy. The second way-asking if we are on God's side-leads to much healthier things, namely, penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and even accountability.

God is not partisan; God is not a Republican or a Democrat. When either party tries to politicize God, or co-opt religious communities, for their political agendas, they make a terrible mistake. (p. xviii)

Wallis is known for calling people of faith to the prophetic, biblical role of speaking on behalf of those who have no voice and championing the cause of the widows and orphans. The two organizations that he works through are Sojourners and Call to Renewal. The alarm that Wallis sounds will not be readily accepted by many who have entrenched themselves with the dominant political parties or with the extremes of the religious right and the lunacy left. Those who I think will most identify with Wallis are people of my generation and younger who have begun to realize that politics cannot ultimately save people only God can, however, we are called to work for those who have no voice and bring about the righteousness of God today, not just at the apocalypse.