God's Politics : Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It

Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside?

God's Politics offers a clarion call to make both our religious communities and our government more accountable to key values of the prophetic religious tradition - that is, make them pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, pro-consistent ethic of life (beyond single issue voting), and pro-family (without making scapegoats of single mothers or gays and lesbians). These are the values of love and justice, reconciliation, and community that Jesus taught and that are at the core of what many of us believe, Christian or not.

About Jim Wallis

Jim Wallis is a Christian leader for social change. He is a speaker, author, activist, and international commentator on ethics and public life. Wallis was a founder of Sojourners - Christians for justice and peace - more than 30 years ago and continues to serve as the editor of Sojourners magazine, covering faith, politics and culture. In 1995, Wallis was instrumental in forming Call to Renewal, a national federation of churches, denominations, and faith-based organizations from across the theological and political spectrum working to overcome poverty.

Wallis speaks at more than 200 events a year and his columns appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other major newspapers. His most recent book is God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper Collins, 2005). He offers regular commentary and analysis for radio and television and teaches a course at Harvard University on "Faith, Politics, and Society."

In the last several years, Wallis has led more than 250 town meetings, bringing together pastors, civic and business leaders, and elected officials in the cause of social justice and moral politics. Under Wallis' leadership, Call to Renewal has hosted annual Roundtables on Poverty for national religious leaders and successful National Summits. Endorsed initially by a broad cross-section of Christian leaders, Call To Renewal's Covenant and Campaign to Overcome Poverty now has tens of thousands of supporters around the United States.

Jim Wallis was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice which has now grown into Sojourners whose combined print and electronic media have a readership of more than 100,000 people.

In 1979, Time magazine named Wallis one of the "50 Faces for America's Future." His books include Faith Works (2000), The Soul of Politics: A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change (1994), Who Speaks for God? A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility (1996), Call to Conversion (1981).

Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C. with his wife, Joy, and their sons, Luke and Jack.

Jim Wallis will be visiting the following cities in the coming months on behalf of Sojourners and Call to Renewal.

Book Tour: Texas Locations & Date
Feb. 1-2, 2005 Waco, TX

Mission Waco Urbanquet and Baylor University Chapel
Mission Waco and Baylor University
Contact: Jimmy Dorrell
Tel: 254-753-4900
Jimmy_Dorrell@baylor.edu

Feb. 2, 2005 Austin, TX Book Signing
BookPeople (7:00 pm)
Contact: Erin Kelly
603 Lamar Blvd. 78703
Tel: 512-472-4288, x404

Mission Statement

Sojourners, www.sojo.net, is a Christian ministry whose mission is to proclaim and practice the biblical call to integrate spiritual renewal and social justice.

In response to this call, we offer a vision for faith in public life by:

* publishing Sojourners magazine, SojoMail and other resources that address issues of faith, politics, and culture from a biblical perspective;
* preaching, teaching, organizing, and public witness;
* nurturing community by bringing together people from the various traditions and streams of the church;
* hosting an annual program of voluntary service for education, ministry, and discipleship.

In our lives and in our work, we seek to be guided by the biblical principles of justice, mercy, and humility.

History

Sojourners ministries grew out of the Sojourners Community, located in Southern Columbia Heights, an inner-city neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The community began at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, in the early 1970s when a handful of students began meeting to discuss the relationship between their faith and political issues, particularly the Vietnam War. In 1971, the group decided to create a publication that would express their convictions and test whether other people of faith had similar beliefs.

Over the years, however, Sojourners went through a variety of transitions. Slowly, the household communities gave way to an intentional community (with a common rule of life). Today, the community context has shifted away from an intentional model; rather we are a committed group of Christians who work together to live a gospel life that integrates spiritual renewal and social justice. However, the principles and values laid out in "Our Life at the Foot of the Mountain," the Sojourners Community Statement of Faith, still fuel our faith and our vision.

Contact Us
Sojourners2401 15th Street NW
Washington DC 20009
Phone: 202-328-8842 or 1-800-714-7474
Fax: 202-328-8757
E-mail: sojourners@sojo.net
Web Questions: webmaster@sojo.net