Abstract

Jesus to the Rescue?

The article focuses on Christian author and political activist Jim Wallace. Can a dose of Christianity stiffen the Democrats' spine, win back Kansas and bring people power to the anemic left? In the wake of the 2004 election, quite a few powerful liberals are wondering if they can frame their politics as "faith" the way the right has so effectively done. One of the people the Democrats have invited to tell them how to go about this is the evangelical Protestant activist Jim Wallis, a founder of the antipoverty group Call to Renewal and editor of the magazine "Sojourners." Wallis draws a sharp line between the God-on-our-side Christianity responsible for countless evils and the social-justice kind he favors. The more insistently people bring Christianity into politics, the more political argument becomes a matter of Christian hermeneutics. It is interesting that in his earlier book "The Soul of Politics" Wallis cited numerous women theologians, while "God's Politics" mentions not one. That so many Christians are firmly persuaded that the Bible condemns abortion suggests that God's politics tend to be the politics of the people who claim to speak for him.