Although they work hard, and they have accomplished a great deal for the Kingdom, they certainly realize that they fizzle out quickly when not depending upon God, and “depending” WITH each other, keeping the gift of forgiveness available to bestow on one another. This reminded of me of several Hauerwas essays, where the miracle of forgiveness is seen as necessary Continue Reading

I still can’t figure it out Kingdom and Principalities: April 2005 Whether he likes it or not (or whether he’s trying to or not), he’s creating the atmosphere in the political arena for the reinvention of the Democratic party and the rise of a religious left. Now, regardless of the widely agreed upon fact that neither a “religious left” or Continue Reading

Seems many who count themselves among the “apolitical” Christians (which , to their credit, do so under the assumption that the Kingdoms of this world are not synonomous with the Kingdom of God. I affirm that). But to take this stance to the extreme of criticizing ones who DO gain a voice and a hearing among people in power, and Continue Reading

Over on this blog by Van I have taken to defending JIm Wallis again, against some more broad, and inaccurate perceptions of him. Van has at least a couple Hauerwas books on his list, and so I don’t believe he could really approve of the post that accused Wallis of “politicking” over and in spite of the “biblical mandate of Continue Reading

This, via Jesus Politics, lauds Wallis for being one of the few willing to speak the truth to power: THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION – Los Angeles CityBeat Jim Wallis, the left-wing evangelical preacher and peace activist, diagnosed it recently: “The Republicans virtually claim to own religion. And the Democrats still don’t seem to know how to take back the faith.” Wallis, Continue Reading

I just got back about an hour ago from Atlanta, and greeted and hugged and talked to everybody at home, and now I’m winding down and getting ready to head to bed before getting back to work in the morning. I had been in Atlanta with my Dad and two brothers at our yearly tradition of seeing the SEC Men’s Continue Reading

I had started a post (the previous one) on this, and begun by referring to the video I watched last night, and got sidetracked into a technical issue, so here I take up the original subject, Vocation and Gifts. Jim Wallis, in the aforementioned video, said: Vocation is where you discern your gifts and see where those gifts match and Continue Reading

I watched Jim Wallis do a talk from a video link provided on sojo.net (my Firefox setup would not launch Media Player from that link, but you can play it streamed from your Windows Media Player by opening Media Player, and doing file/OpenURL, and pasting in http://www.sanc.info/video_2005/02_27_05sanctuary_300k.wmv. There’s probably a way to provide a link that does this automatically (IE Continue Reading

The Christian view of human nature and of sin suggests that we are fallible creatures and thus not good at empire. We cannot be trusted with domination, becoming too easily corrupted by its power and too often succumbing to repression in defending it This is Jim Wallis, from his book God’s Politics. Not only are human beings not good at Continue Reading

Mike James offers up a list of why NO, the event of Iraqis getting to vote was unequivocally NOT WORTH IT: Maikimo.net › Weblog › Twenty-nine pieces of silver The one which stuck with me was the last one on the list of 12: not only not cared for our own poor, widows, and orphans, but instead enthusiastically created more Continue Reading

MIke James posted this during last week: Maikimo.net › Reading › Bible considered harmful (to conservative views) Zeke L observes in a comment to advisorjim — and expands on the idea elsewhere — that The bible is one of the worst offenders in terms of turning people liberal. My experience is similar.

Jesus Politics points to a Robert Parham piece on a “Separation-Fundamentalist”, Bary Lynn, lumping Jim Wallis with James Dobson, as if both constitute an equal threat to the public discourse. I think not. Welcome to Ethics Daily.com! Lynn said, “Elected officials should make decisions based on the public good, not private religious belief.” After a slight tip of his hat Continue Reading

This review by Elizabeth A. Castelli on Slate has a much better grasp of what Wallis is about. Her criticism is that Wallis is too “Christian” oriented, to which I say “How else would he express this? From what underlying belief about life does Wallis even care to write such a book? From the perpective of an evangelical Christian who Continue Reading

Richard Land, in the NYTimes article yesterday, said that Wallis “conflates” efforts to alleviating poverty with “democratic” ways. NO, he DOESN’T. Wallis has the SAME MESSAGE for Presidents and administrations of BOTH and ALL Parties, and has so for 30 plus years since Sojoutners began. Land assumes that “Republican” efforts (specifically this administration, which moves everything in the opposite direction Continue Reading