Reading notes

Jim Wallis, writing an op-ed in today’s Boston Globe, renews my spirit by clearly stating what real Christian faith does:

How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war, and pro-American? What has happened? How do we get back to a historic, biblical, and genuinely evangelical faith rescued from its contemporary distortions?

That rescue operation is crucial today in the face of a social crisis that cries out for prophetic religion. The problem is clear in the political arena, where strident voices claim to represent Christians when they clearly don’t speak for most of us. We hear politicians who love to say how religious they are but fail to apply the values of faith to their leadership and policies.

When we take back our faith, we will discover that faith challenges the powers that be to do justice for the poor instead of preaching a “prosperity gospel” and supporting politicians who further enrich the wealthy. We will remember that faith hates violence and tries to reduce it and exerts a fundamental presumption against war instead of justifying it in God’s name. We will see that faith creates community from racial, class, and gender divisions, prefers international community over nationalist religion and that “God bless America” is found nowhere in the Bible. …

Religious action is rooted in a much deeper place than “rights”— that [place] being the image of God in every human being.

Similarly, when the poor are defended on moral or religious grounds, it is not “class warfare,” as the rich will always charge, but rather a direct response to the overwhelming focus in the Scriptures, which claims they are regularly neglected, exploited, and oppressed by wealthy elites, political rulers, and indifferent affluent populations. Those Scriptures don’t simply endorse the social programs of liberals or conservatives but make clear that poverty is indeed a religious issue, and the failure of political leaders to help uplift those in poverty will be judged a moral failing. …

[Our theology of evil is] why we doubt the goodness of all superpowers and the righteousness of empires in any era, especially when their claims of inspiration and success invoke theology and the name of God. Given human tendencies for self-delusion and deception, is it any wonder that hardly a religious body in the world regards the ethics of unilateral and preemptive war as “just”? …

The loss of religion’s prophetic vocation is dangerous for any society. Who will uphold the dignity of economic and political outcasts? Who will question the self-righteousness of nations and their leaders? Who will question the recourse to violence and rush to wars, long before any last resort has been unequivocally proven? Who will not allow God’s name to be used to simply justify ourselves, instead of calling us to accountability?

Yes, yes, yes. This is the Christianity I know. These are words conveyed from the same Spirit who whispers to me, who has not given up on me — or on us — the One who is calling us to turn, turn, turn.

I love Melanie’s observation:

This is the voice of prophecy, speaking truth to power. [Jim] is the religious Howard Dean (“I want my country back.”)

[via Melanie via Philocrites]