Sojourners in the News

A similar cycle occurred in the political arena, which (fairly or not) shaped popular impressions of American evangelicalism more than megachurches or The Purpose Driven Life. One can thank Jerry Falwell for this. Yet without a Carter to oppose, Falwell never would have received so much air time. The political turn in modern American evangelicalism was a bipartisan phenomenon, as the electoral strategies of Barack Obama and, before him, Bill Clinton, demonstrated. Each protected his right flank by cultivating ties with progressive evangelicals, such as Tony Campolo or Jim Wallis.

Balmer presents Carter as an icon of progressive evangelicalism, a subculture that was coming into its own in the 1970s as young Christians like Jim Wallis rallied believers for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. These evangelicals traced the roots of their crusade to the abolitionists and other 19th-century moral reformers.

Groups like Nuns on a Bus, Sojourners, Red Letter Christians, The Cana Initiative, Moral Mondays, Faithful America and many others are consistently witnessing to injustice in visible -- and reportable -- ways. Now, when the mainstream media is looking for a Christian to comment on a story, they have a powerful progressive set of voices to chose from.

Midgett previously worked with Sojourners, an EIT partner, on "The Line," a documentary about poverty in America that followed a similar format, telling the stories of three families affected by poverty.

The letter was signed by the SEIU; the US Conference of Catholic Bishops; the National Immigration Forum; the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; the liberal evangelical group Sojourners; and the conservative Hispanic group the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. These groups' highest priority is broad or comprehensive immigration reform, to overhaul the immigration system as a whole — which is something only Congress can do.

"At its heart, immigration reform is about people, not politics," Jim Wallis, President and Founder of Sojourners, says in a National Journal piece. "Inspired by the teachings of our faith and deeply concerned about the suffering and degradation the current system imposes on millions of people created in God's image, evangelicals and many other people of faith have been steadfast in our support for congressional action to fix and heal this moral crisis."

Share with us the title of the last book read. God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It by Jim Wallis.

The bishops' comments follow that of Sojourners President Jim Wallis who called on House Speaker John Boehner earlier this week to make both a moral and a biblical choice on immigration reform and allow the vote before the August recess.

Washington often loses sight of the common good. Instead of considering how to best serve the public, many of our elected leaders focus on advancing the agenda of their political party or their own careers. The general welfare is sacrificed for the sake of individual gain. Immigration reform is a textbook example.