It's time to end the war in Afghanistan.
Hearts & Minds
Jim Wallis 2-01-2011
Time and again, we heard from President Obama on the campaign trail that Washington was broken and he was running for president to fix it.
Jim Wallis 1-01-2011
In politics there is always a spiritual choice to be made—a choice between hope and fear. Leaders can build movements by appealing to a vision of what our country can be or by painting a picture of what to fear. Barack Obama won in November 2008, in the midst of a recession, bank failures, and two wars, by speaking to our values as a country and by riding a movement that had reason to hope and was ready to work for change.
But the new president soon lost the narrative, and the "movement" is now on the other side of the political aisle. Sadly, this fall the vast majority of the country voted against rather than for particular candidates or policies.
Scriptures say, "Without a vision the people perish." Soon after he was elected, the president let the vision perish, and the people soon followed. A campaign of "hope and change" and "yes we can" was replaced by the politics of diminished expectations and "they won’t let us." Without a deeper vision, a vacuum formed, and into it grew a different sort of movement. The "new populism" in America is now decidedly on the Tea Party Right.
Washington politics has been frozen solid, with little movement or motivation to solve the nation’s problems. We have seen the opposition party adopt a politics of sabotage more intense than any in years. On cable TV and talk radio, honest and robust political discourse has been replaced by an ideological food fight.
Jim Wallis 11-01-2010
President Obama announced at the end of August that "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended." Watching the speech and listening to the commentary, I was gripped by a deep sadness.
Jim Wallis 9-01-2010
Soldiers are dying for a failed, arrogant, theologically unjust, and immoral war policy.
Jim Wallis 8-01-2010
An ethic of endless economic growth, powered by fossil fuels, is ultimately unsustainable.
Jim Wallis 6-01-2010
We need to behave differently, for the sake of our spiritual integrity and the health of our democracy.
Jim Wallis 5-01-2010
Glenn Beck picked a fight with the nation’s churches when he said that “social justice” is a “code word” for “communism” and “Nazism,” and that Christians should leave their churches if they preach, practice, or even have the phrase “social justice” on their Web sites. Contrary to Beck’s claim that “social justice is a perversion of the gospel,” he has now learned that Christians across the theological and political spectrum believe that social justice is central to the teachings of Jesus, and at the heart of biblical faith. Because Christians couldn’t “turn in” their pastors to “church authorities” as Beck suggested (the pope would have to turn himself in to ... himself), many have started turning themselves in to Glenn Beck as “social justice Christians”—50,000 at last count.
The news networks, the cable and radio talk shows, and even Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have reported or spoofed Beck’s attempt to discredit the whole concept of social justice, but all that seems to just make him angrier. What he doesn’t realize is that a commitment to social justice unites churches of different doctrinal and political beliefs; if Christians were to leave those churches, they would have to leave their Catholic churches, black churches, Latino churches, evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and mainline Protestant churches. Beck’s own Mormon Church’s theologians and leaders have made it clear that they too believe social justice is integral to their faith, and that they disagree with the famous talk show host and want it known that he doesn’t speak for them.
Most would agree that the term has sometimes been used to support ideologies of the Left and the Right, but a range of people from liberal ministers to Southern Baptist theologians have defended the integrity of social justice as core to Christian faith and have disagreed with Beck’s attack. In fact denominational leaders are reporting that their pastors are actually preaching more on social justice than before, just because Beck told them not to. Social justice as a personal commitment both to serve the poor and to attack the conditions that lead to poverty is one of the most passionate beliefs of a younger generation of Christians, and one of their most compelling attractions to Jesus Christ.
Jim Wallis 4-01-2010
It’s the largest federal budget in history. President Obama’s 2011 budget totals $3.8 trillion and contains a deficit of $1.3 trillion.
Jim Wallis 2-01-2010
I have written a new book—one I didn’t plan to write, but which emerged as we responded to the economic crisis that has gripped the nation and the world.
Jim Wallis 11-01-2009
In recent days, people of faith have raised their voices in the health-care reform debate and started talking about moral values.
Jim Wallis 9-01-2009
On a personal, national, and global level, the physical well-being of all God’s children is close to God’s heart and should be close to ours as well.
Jim Wallis 7-01-2009
Our Mobilization to End Poverty this spring brought together nearly 1,200 Christian leaders and grassroots activists from around the country committed to overcoming poverty.
Jim Wallis 6-01-2009
On ominous red-on-black lettering, a recent Newsweek cover carried the headline, “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.” The magazine’s cover story by editor Jon Mea