The Common Good

Jim Wallis Blog Entries

The War in Iraq: At What Cost?

The emotion that grips me this morning, after watching President Obama's speech last night and listening to the commentary about the "end of our combat mission in Iraq," is a deep sadness.
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Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Social Justice Christian

This coming Saturday, August 28 will mark the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream Speech." Glenn Beck has chosen this d
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Refracting America Through 9/11 Lens

"Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
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American Muslims Are Not Responsible for 9/11

For the sake of resting my soul, while I was on vacation with my wife and boys, I was sure not to watch any cable news.
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Who Wins When the U.S. Restricts Religious Freedom?

There is one thing the opponents of the Cordoba Initiative (that plans to build an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero) have in common with the Cordoba Initiative's leadership: their clear con
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A New Movement to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

The famed Chautauqua Institution devoted this entire week to the theme of nuclear disarmament. It is a sign of the times.
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Controversy in Wisconsin

It was a nice invitation, not unlike many I've received before.
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Testifying on the Gulf Coast

The captain was the first to smell it. He told us that the ocean didn't used to smell this way. Then, we all smelled it.
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Praying on the Gulf Coast

Editor's note: Jim Wallis is on a tour of the Gulf Coast with an interfaith group of leaders sponsored by the Sierra Club.
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Getting Past False Debates

Yesterday, President Barack Obama spoke on the moral issue of reforming a "broken and dangerous" immigration system, in a speech that grew
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It's Time to End This War

After his unanimous approval by the Senate Armed Services Committee as the new Afghan war commander, General David Petraeus was pictured in The Washington Post with a broad smile and thu
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Calling People to Faith

Several months ago, I was invited to speak at Lifest, a Christian festival in Wisconsin with more than 100 musicians and 50 speakers that
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It Will Take a Mission

This week, in President Barack Obama's Oval Office speech on the oil spill, he used the term "mission." That's the right word.
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We Must Respond to the Needs of the Gulf Coast

We are counting the days now: the 49th day of the oil spill, the 50th, the 51st. We now know more every day, too.
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A Time for Moral Reckoning

I am watching unbelievable pictures tonight of endless swaths of brown oil mixed with the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, of dying wetlands and marshes, of miles of contaminated coastlines, of d
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We Interrupt This Family for Baseball Season

Somebody sent that sign to my wife Joy and she promptly put it up outside right next to our front door. It's true -- our family now organizes life around baseball.
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How Christian is Tea Party Libertarianism?

The insurgent Tea Party and its Libertarian philosophy is a political phenomenon, not a religious one.
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Video: Jim Wallis Talks About the Oil Spill with Chris Matthews

Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street -- A Moral Compass for the New Economy, CEO of Sojourners and blogs at www.godspolitics.com.
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Child Care Cuts Force Parents Back on Welfare

With middle-class families mostly worrying about how they are surviving this Great Recession, and with the political leaders who want their votes aiming spins at them, there hasn't been much attent
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