A Time of Hope: an evening with Jim Wallis

Catholic New Times, June 29, 2003 by Ted Schmidt

Jim Wallis, editor in chief of Sojourners Magazine and one of the most influential evangelists in the United States made another one of his sorties across the border to Canada on June 14. Daring to venture where Billy Joel and Madonna feared to tread because of the SARS scare, Wallis served up to the large Saturday night crowd assembled in Knox College chapel, University of Toronto, a marvelous stew of hope, prophetic biblical wisdom and challenge, all flavoured by relevant, personal anecdotes of his vibrant and engaged ministry. Part of the evening's talk, billed as "A Time of Hope," was Wallis' riveting description of his dramatic and historic meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain wherein he and several American church representatives attempted to find a creative solution to the needless war in Iraq.

For many years now, Jim Wallis has been on the cutting edge of Christian ministry, breaking new ground and forging new alliances, always based on a warm personalism that constantly seeks to understand the opposition's point of view. In a long interview with CNT, Wallis shared some of his attempts to engage the Bush White House.

Although successful in meeting with Tony Blair, Wallis never did get to see George Bush about the Iraq war. Bush was acutely aware that virtually the entire Christian church had rejected his spurious reasons for attacking Iraq and a visit from Wallis and his ilk might complicate a mind already made up, basically a year ago. Soon after the end of the hopelessly one-sided venture, Bush agreed to meet with Call to Renewal, a broad coalition of religious groups, committed to tackling the growing poverty in the U.S.

"After the war, he couldn't refuse to meet us," Wallis commented. "After all, Call to Renewal included the Catholic bishops, united in this area of the common good and solidarity with the least, Catholic religious men and women ... they are always there, evangelicals of all stripes, World Vision, all the main line denominations. In its tax cuts for the rich, the White House cut off the tax credit to the poorest of the poor, the first casualties of this war. For us, it was indeed a parable of this administration's priorities. Hungry people will go without food stamps, children without health care, the elderly without medicine, school kids without textbooks so that the taxes of the wealthiest Americans can be reduced. Their budget priorities do not match the rhetorical promises of faith-based initiatives to reduce poverty. So just last week, because the story got in the New York Times and they saw they could not ignore us so they restored the cut. It is becoming clear that the faith-based initiative is a hollow program designed to force religious groups to pick up the disengagement of the state from its commitment to people's well being."

"There is still a vision. It will come."

When I mentioned that two well-respected religious figures whom I had recently interviewed, Walter Wink and Bishop John Spong, both said that they did not think the U.S. could survive another four years of George W. Bush, Wallis made a point which he later amplified in his talk in the Knox chapel.

"Make no mistake about it. The Bush White House has a vision. They do not care about the deficit (an astronomic $800 billion for the next 10 years). They want a minimal state and the deficit is to starve government and its ability to fund social programs. They're not rolling back Clinton or FDR; they want to go back to McKinley. Government, in their view, does mostly defense. The Constitution calls for 'the promotion of general welfare and common defense.' They are taking the first half out. There is no common good in their vision. So, we have the right wing of one party which has taken over three branches of government. As E.J. Dionne said in the Washington Post (June 10) the issue is not liberal vs. conservative but libertarian vs. communitarian. The Democrats now have no vision. They are like the politicians with the finger in the air checking out the way the wind is moving. Hilary Clinton, for example, positioning herself for a 2008 run at the presidency came out for the Iraq war and recently for capital punishment.

"A lot of the left and the religious left are in that position where the prophet Habakkuk (late 7th century BCE) was, up in the watch tower complaining, 'We can't survive, things are terrible.' The prophet hears the word and says 'Write the vision, make it plain ... there is still a vision. If it seems to tarry, wait for it, it will surely come.' It's simply not enough to say no, to throw blood etc. The American people don't believe that stuff. It's true we have to remove Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Bush and we can if we offer a better vision.

"Micah to me is the prophet for our times, especially on national security issues because he makes the connections between war and poverty. He tells us we will never beat our swords into ploughshares until everyone has their own 'vine and fig tree.' It was Pope Paul VI who paraphrased Micah at the UN in 1966 when he said, 'If you want peace, work for justice.' This is a clear alternative vision. The possibility of peace depends on folks having enough. This insight is both prophetic and practical for us today."