FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michael Mershon, Director of Advocacy and Communications
mmershon@sojo.net(202) 745-4654

January 20, 2016
Washington, DC - Speaking this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Reverend Jim Wallis addressed the current crisis in Flint, MI by saying “Race is in the air we breathe and in the water we drink in Flint … I don’t think if it was 8000 white kids this would’ve happened."

Rev. Wallis was in New York to discuss his latest book, released this week, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America (Brazos Press). 

If white Christians acted more Christian than white, black parents would have less to fear for their children,” says Rev. Wallis in the book.

Rev. Wallis, an evangelical, also addressed the GOP primary this week, saying on CNN’s “Newsroom” (segment begins 9:28:43) that “When he is deliberately fueling racial fear and hatred, Donald Trump is poisoning and polluting the American political landscape."

CNN polled Iowa GOP caucus-goers after the 2012 election and found that 60% identified as evangelical.

White privilege must be confronted by white people, says Rev. Wallis. He reminds his fellow Christians of the gospel command that the body of Christ be racially inclusive and not segregated. “To treat these issues as sin—which can be repented of and changed—is a deeper, more effective way to solve these problems than just seeing them as political issues in an illusory ‘post-racial’ America.” A recent study by PRRI found that among religious groups, more than seven in ten white evangelicals, Protestants, and Catholics believe that killings of African American men by police are isolated incidents and not part of a bigger pattern of injustice. 

Jim Wallis is a New York Times bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, and international commentator on ethics and public life. He is president and founder of Sojourners, where he is also editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, which has a combined print and electronic media readership of more than a quarter million people.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Rev. Wallis, please contact Michael Mershon at mmershon@sojo.net or (202) 745-4654.