Patrick Walls is the Communications Assistant at Sojourners. Patrick considers himself both a Chicagoan and a Hoosier, having lived in the Windy City and grown up south of the Circle City, Indianapolis. He attended North Park University in Chicago where he earned a degree in Business and Economics with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Music.
Prior to Sojourners, Patrick gained experience advocating on Capitol Hill for comprehensive immigration reform, policing reform, and renewal of the child nutrition programs, as well as working in the marketing and communications department at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. While at North Park, he became involved with the University Ministries office, leading a multicultural worship team at campus worship services, organizing an advocacy trip to Washington, D.C., and participated in the Sankofa program learning about racism and civil rights history in the United States. Patrick is also an avid percussionist and bassist and has performed regularly in several orchestras, concert bands, and chamber ensembles throughout his career. He is passionate about issues of racism, poverty, discussing the place of music in our lives, and hopes to see less politicized division in the Church.
While not catching the latest news, Patrick enjoys memorizing useless facts, making obscure movie references, and long walks through the city. His favorite band is Gungor, his favorite TV show is The West Wing, and his favorite movie series is Star Wars (Thank you, J.J. Abrams).
Posts By This Author
One Unexpected Feature of the VP Debate: Religion
Image via Heather A Phillips/Shutterstock.com
Indiana Governor Mike Pence and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine faced off in the 2016 Vice Presidential Debate on Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. The 90-minute showdown was moderated by CBS reporter Elaine Quijano, the first Asian American reporter to moderate a national debate. Along with the now-expected characteristics of national debates — attacks on the presidential candidate of either ticket, substance versus style, and, for this election cycle, repeated interruptions — one distinguishing factor of last night was the religious nature of both candidates.
Crossing Boundaries to Find the 'Spirit'
Image via Gungor Music.
"I'd say this album touches more on political issues. People are taking sides and drawing lines, tension is growing in all of the areas you mentioned and music has a unique way of speaking to those issues.
It can be natural to want to pull the reigns back or go back to what we know when things get tense, but we must keep moving forward; hold on to wisdom from our roots but know there is wisdom ahead as well."
House and Senate Avoid Shutdown, Approve $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill
The House of Representatives voted 316-113 this morning to fund the government through September 2016. The Senate quickly followed suit, sending the legislation to the President’s desk. The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill was passed with support from Republicans and Democrats and included — and excluded — priorities from both parties. Republicans included several riders to advance their party priorities, including ending a ban on oil exports that has stood for 40 years. But not all of the GOP’s goals were met in the legislation — the bill did not include language stripping funding from Planned Parenthood or blocking refugees from Syria, pleasing Democrats.
'Faith is Always Personal, But Never Private'
Image via Maya Kruchankova/Shutterstock.com
Sojourners founder and president Jim Wallis appeared Nov. 7 on the Drew Marshall Show, a spiritual talk show that broadcasts on radio stations all over Canada. In the interview, Rev. Wallis discussed a range of topics from baseball and his love of coaching his sons, to Sojourners’ push for immigration reform, Pope Francis’ recent visit, and his upcoming book America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America.
Rev. Wallis also talked about his faith journey, from his experience at a revival as a child, to his leaving his home church to join the student movements in the 1960s and 1970s. He discussed the encounter with an elder in his church where an elder said that they had “nothing to do with racism. That’s political. Our faith is private.”
This exchange, Wallis noted, is what led him to eventually leave his church, only to come back to his faith after reading in Matthew 25 about how followers of Christ should treat the “least of these,” and what leads him to say that “Faith is always personal, but never private.”
Jim Wallis Discusses His New Book, 'America's Original Sin,' on NPR
Image via Brazos Press.
“When Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, I felt - you might call it the lament of a white father. I knew and the whole country knew that my son Luke — six-foot-tall baseball athlete, going to college next year — had been walking and doing the same thing, same time that Trayvon was doing in Sanford, Fla., everyone knows he would've come back. But Trayvon didn't come back, and so it was a parable. Jesus talked about parables. They teach us things. Michael Brown — Ferguson — was a parable. Charleston was a parable. The parable about where we are as a nation — we have to see our original sin and how it still lingers in our criminal justice system.”