Jim Wallis
Jim Wallis
Jim Wallisis a Christian writer and political activist. He is best known as the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine and as the founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian community of the same name. Wallis is well known for his advocacy on issues of peace and social justice. Although Wallis actively eschews political labels, he describes himself as an evangelical and is often associated with the evangelical left and the wider Christian left. He works as a spiritual advisor to...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth4 June 1948
CountryUnited States of America
I believe we could have removed Saddam Hussein from power without bombing the children of Baghdad.
But when one believes that you've been appointed by God for a particular mission in history, you have to be very careful about that, how you speak about that. Where is the self-reflection in that? Where is the humility in that?
Some people believe the alternative to bad religion is secularism, but that's wrong . . . . The answer to bad religion is better religion--prophetic rather than partisan, broad and deep instead of narrow, and based on values as opposed to ideology.
Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change.
I believe in the separation of church and state, absolutely. But I don't believe in the separation of public life from our values, our basic values, and for many of us, our religious values.
But what does it mean to be on God's side? I believe it starts with focusing on the common good - not just in politics, but in all the decisions we make in our personal, family, vocational, financial, communal, and, public lives. That old but always new ethic simply says we must care for more than just ourselves or our own group. We must care for our neighbor as well, and for the health of the life we share with one another. It echoes a very basic tenet of Christianity and other faiths - love your neighbor as yourself - still the most transformational ethic in history.
More than just a moral issue, hope is a spiritual and even religious choice. Hope is not a feeling; it is a decision. And the decision for hope is based on what you believe at the deepest levels - what your most basic convictions are about the world and what the future holds - all based on your faith. You choose hope, not as a naive wish, but as a choice, with your eyes wide open to the reality of the world - just like the cynics who have not made the decision for hope.
We have to distinguish between people we can win over and those we can have a clear public conversation with. We are winning the battle on evangelical Christian college campuses; it's just under the radar. We can't give up on everybody. We have to take back the faith.
They act like ... maybe they even own God.
On this budget, we have the starkest choice we've had in a long time -- tax cuts for the wealthiest versus food stamps and Medicaid.
We could put parking in the front yard and cut down some of the beautiful oak trees out there. I'd really hate to see it become a wall of parking. But I guess we could consider that.
We're all overcrowded, ... So it's very difficult.
I think it would be a great meeting for parents curious about what's going on to attend,
We're really landlocked. All the available space for parking would take away the athletic fields.