It seems so plain when one looks at Scripture as a Citizen of the World and of the Kingdom rather than as a Citizen of the U.S. first, which is the sickness that has swept up the Church in the United States, and those who do not accept this compromising and dilution and distortion of the Gospel are not speaking up because they fear the impact on their Church, or the loss of friendships. The Church has sold its soul for lack of a prophetic voice, and quickly slides into a social club status.

God’s Politics: A Better Option, Sojourners Magazine/February 2005

“God’s politics” are therefore never partisan nor ideological. But God’s politics challenge everything about our politics. God’s politics remind us of the people our politics always neglect – the poor, the vulnerable, the left behind. God’s politics challenge narrow national, ethnic, economic, or cultural self-interest, reminding us of a much wider world and the creative human diversity of all those made in the image of the creator. God’s politics remind us of the creation itself, a rich environment in which we are to be good stewards, not mere users, consumers, and exploiters. And God’s politics plead with us to resolve, as much as possible, the inevitable conflicts among us without the terrible destruction of war. God’s politics always remind us of the ancient prophetic prescription to “choose life, so that you and your children may live,” and challenge all the selective moralities that would choose one set of lives and issues over another. This challenges both the Right and the Left, offering a new vision for faith and politics in America and a new conversation of personal faith and political hope.

The Journey Outward (the not-to-be-separated half in the duality of the Christian Journey lived in the community of the Church of the Saviour since 1947, as interdependent with the Journey Inward, which is a neccessary undergirding to supply the spiritual stamina needed to keep the Outward Journey afloat. The Church of the Saviour has also found that the Inward Journey cannot sustain itself without a calling that issues forth from the accountability practiced in the membership; that EACH and EVERY person is to commit themselves to the idea that ALL of us have a CALL; that all of us have a corporate responsibility (corporate in the sense of the body of Christ as a community) to enable the calling forth of gifts from others, and that those around us have the same responsibilty to us: to enable and confirm us in the living out of our call, discovered and called forth in this community.

All of these responsibilities outlined in Wallis’ God’s Politics are a point of contact between the Church and the world’s need. The world needs a faithful Church to BE THE CHURCH. But Wallis also recognizes that the Progressive Church is not simply a “Progressive counterpart to the Conservative Movement”, but rather, representatives of an ALTERNATIVE way.

We have been buffeted by private spiritualities that have no connection to public life and a secular politics showing disdain for religion or even spiritual concerns. That leaves spirituality without social consequences and a politics with no soul.

This hits the nail on the head, and reflects the exact same consciousness of the NECCESITY for a balance of Journey Inward, Journey Outward. I have been in Churches that have a distinct social conscience, and most of the members speak openly and often about their opposition to Bush and their agreement with democratic platform values, but are missing the Journey Inward element almost entirely (that is, as a community; sharing the journey in depth), with no STRUCTURES set up for the building of community. This is left to the individuals to extract from the existing structures, but it doesn’t happen, since there is no expectation that this will require any personal work, or any in-depth sharing of journeys so that others know who we are, what we are concerned about, where we are passionate, and how and where we struggle. This has to change if there are to be Churches that live a “fourth option” (see Wallis’ article)