Book review on GOD'S POLITICS by Stephen V. Riley
In the book God's Politics, Reverend Jim Wallis challengers American Christianity to a new vision for America, a prophetic vision powerful enough to change our national direction. It is a vision of hope that can be embraced by all faiths because it meets an increasing national hunger for a fuller, deeper, and richer conversation about religion in public life, about faith and politics.
In God's Politics, Jim Wallis provides many thoughts that are worth extracting.
"God's politics is never partisan or ideological, but it challengers everything about politics. God's politics reminds us of the people our politics always neglects-the poor, the vulnerable, the left behind. ...Gods politics challenges narrow national, ethnic, economic, or cultural self-interest. ....God's politics reminds us to be good stewards of a rich environment, not mere users, consumers, and exploiters. .....The values debate should be a more complete debate about the future of our bitterly divided nation. ........The deepening injustice of America's domestic priorities is increasingly impossible to justify. It is becoming a religious issue".
Jim Wallis speaks of "a political and media culture that squeezes everything into only two options of left and right, religious people must refuse the ideological categorization and actually build bridges between people of goodwill in both liberal and conservative camps. We must insist on the deep connections between spirituality and politics while defending the proper boundaries between church and state that protect religious and nonreligious minorities and keep us all safe from state controlled religion. We can demonstrate our commitment to pluralistic democracy and support the rightful separation of church and state without segregating moral and spiritual values from our political life."
........."Neither religious nor secular fundamentalism can save us, but a new spiritual revival that ignites deep social conscience could transform our society, Movements do change history, and the strongest ones are those with a spiritual foundation. Most important of all is the spiritual power of hope, which may be the only thing that can finally overcome our too characteristic cynicism. Hope versus cynicism is the key moral and political choice of our time. This book is about the politics of hope."
Jim Wallis refers to Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi as the great practitioners of real social change. "They knew that you don't change a society by merely replacing one wet-fingered politician with another. You change a society by changing the wind".
"Change the wind, transform the debate, recast the discussion, alter the context in which political decisions are being made, and you will change the outcomes. Move the conversation around a crucial issue to a whole new place, and you will open up possibilities for change never dreamed of before, And you will be surprised at how fast the politicians adjust to the change in the wind. ........that's what people of faith and conscience are supposed to be: wind changers"
Jim Wallis states there are "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-rightiousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way, as Abraham Lincoln did, asking if we are on God's side -leads to much healthier things, namely,......humility, reflection, and even accountability. We need much more of these, because these are often the missing values of politics."
Jim Wallis raises some serious questions. "How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro war, and only pro American? What has happened here? And how do we get back to a historic, biblical, and genuinely evangelical faith recurred from its contemporary distortions? How do we live a faith whose social manifestation is compassion and whose public expression is justice?"
........."Is fear the best foundation for foreign policy, or is there a better response, even a moral response, to terrorism? How do we judge matters of war and peace by theology and faith, and not by just politics? Is there a theology of empire emerging in America, and how dangerous is that?"?
In an era aflame with war, Wallis emphasizes that "the gospel vocation for peacemaking has never been more important. Jesus says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God". The hardest saying of Jesus and perhaps the most controversial is "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you". Let's be honest Wallis exclaims! "How many churches have heard sermons preached from either of these Jesus texts in the years since September 11th? Shouldn't we at least have a debate about what the words of Jesus mean in the new world of terrorist threats and pre-emptive wars?"
In reference to the war on terrorism, Jim Wallis reminds the reader that "Christ commands us to not only see the splinter in our adversary's eyes but also the beam in our own, which often obstructs our own vision. .......To name the face of evil in the brutality of terrorist attacks is good theology, but to say they are evil and we are good is bad theology that can lead to dangerous foreign policy. ......Self-reflection should provide no excuses for terrorist violence, but it is crucial to defeating the terrorists' agenda. Christ instructs us to love our enemies, which does not mean a submission to their hostile agendas or domination, but does mean treating them as human beings also created in the image of God and respecting their human rights as adversaries and even as prisoners"
........"The words of Jesus are either authoritative for Christians, or they are not. And they are not set aside by the very real threats of terrorism. They do not easily lend themselves to the missions of nation-states that would usurp the prerogatives of God. The threat of terrorism does not overturn Christian ethics".
Jim Wallis asks, "Whatever became of the common good?" He answers that common good must be a constant religious refrain directed to political partisans whose relentless quest for power and wealth makes them forget the "Commonwealth" again and again. That common good should always be constructed from the deepest wells of our personal and social responsibility and the absolute insistence to never separate the two".
Jim Wallis pleads for a new vision in America. "When we move toward our prophetic and democratic visions, slaveries are ended, civil rights achieved, freedom established, and peace made. When we neglect the vision, greed triumphs, selfishness erodes common life, our divisions increase, our weapons expand, and our conflicts proliferate".
"When we come closer to the vision, our practice of citizenship is always enlivened; when we move away from it, apathy and withdrawal grow like a cancer in the body politic. Perhaps most importantly, when we embrace our best spiritual and political visions, the renewal of hope is the result. When we forget the moral visions that nourish our public life, cynicism abounds".
Jim Wallis raises the current distinction between the Republicans and Democrats as an opportunity for an alternative prophetic voice. "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? 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 courage many church leaders showed in opposing the war with Iraq is an early sign of that prophetic role. So is the growing unity across the spectrum of the churches on the issue of poverty. The truth is that there are more churches committed to justice and peace than belong to the religious Right. It's time the voice of those congregations be heard and their activism be mobilized to become the conscience of American politics in a time of crisis".
........"In a bitterly divided nation, we face historic challenges. But the political "Tie" that the nation is caught in might be a moment of opportunity. It shows that the old options and debates have created a deadlock. This very crisis could open the way for some new creative thinking and organizing. And that could be very good news indeed. Our political leaders must learn the wisdom that the way to reach common ground is to move to higher ground. And we citizens should start by showing the way".
Jim Wallis also speaks of the blasphemy of theology being used to bolster an ideology of U.S. moral supremacy. "The Bush theology that is emerging deserves to be examined on biblical grounds. Is it really Christian, or merely American? Does it take a global view of God's world, or does it just assert the newest incarnation of American nationalism in an update of "manifest destiny? How does the rest of the world view America's imperial ambition? Most important, how does the rest of the church worldwide see it? For when the White House waxes theological, its theology will be viewed as representative of the church".
I believe God's Politics can be best summarized in Jim Wallis' words: "Who will sound the call to justice?"
"What if the calls for economic justice were made in the name of Jesus- or Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah-instead of from more ideological sources and causes? What if a more "religious populism" began to emerge? What if behavior in the economic spheres of our lives became the substance of adult Sunday school curriculums and Bible study groups? And what if the hard political questions about corporate responsibility, tax benefits, trade policies, budget priorities, and campaign financing were coming from religious congregations that political leaders couldn't afford to ignore?"
Yes, I believe more Christians should be reading and discussing "God's Politics".
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