Be the change you want to see for the world
Jim Wallis, evangelical social justice activist, friend of Barack Obama and author of the bestselling God’s Politics, was in Australia last month to promote his new book, Seven Ways to Change the World – Reviving Faith and Politics. He spoke to Roland Ashby.
Jim Wallis was once asked by a journalist, “Is George W Bush your brother in Christ?”, to which he replied, “Yes he is, but he’s also the most dangerous president in American History.”
He believes Bush’s faith is real, but his theology is “very bad.” “Not to see the face of evil in 9/11 is probably to be some kind of post-modern relativist, but to say ‘they’re evil and we’re good’ is bad theology and bad foreign policy. The war in Iraq, and the torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, have really made us far less safe, and have compromised the image of the moral standing of the US around the world.
“The Iraq war was a war of choice, not a war of necessity. I believe it was based on false pretences and misinformation – in other words, lies. The human cost has been so devastating – both to service men and women, but also to untold numbers of Iraqis.”
Bush’s religion he says is much more about “American triumphalism” than a reflective Christian faith, “where Jesus says don’t just see the speck in your enemy’s eye but plank in your own. That lack of reflection in President Bush has been very dangerous for our country and for the world.”
There are two kinds of religion, he adds, one that leads to an easy certainty, and the other to a deeper reflection. “We’ve had too much of the former in recent America and not enough of the latter. Abraham Lincoln said ‘don’t ever say God is on your side’. If Bush is the worst president, Lincoln might be the best. He said, rather, worry and pray that we be on God’s side. It’s a very different kind of message. American religion and foreign policy need a bit of humility. Humility is something that Bush has never been known for.”
What does he feel about Barrak Obama and John McCain? “I’ve known Barrak Obama for 10 years – we would call each other friends; he has a very articulate explicit Christian faith much like Kevin Rudd’s; he talks about his faith as your Prime Minister does; we talk about theology in the same way I did with Rudd about Dietrich Bonhoeffer recently.
“He is well-read and is almost in some ways a public theologian but he knows that he’s not theologian-in-chief, and he believes, as Rudd and I do, about the separation of church and state. His moral compass is what we should look for in a politician, not a doctrine or a denomination. His compass is shaped in part by his faith, which is a less triumphalistic faith and more focused on issues like poverty, the environment and the common good, and being, as he says, our ‘brother’s keeper.’ I think there would be a different kind of ethos in the Whitehouse with Obama in charge.”
John McCain is not as forthright or up front about his Christian faith, he says, but adds, “he shouldn’t be blamed for that.” “David Brooks of the New York Times said McCain has a kind of pre-Christian morality and honour code, which comes from his military experience. He’s very committed to honour, duty and obligation and those are his moral compass points, but he’s never particularly been a church-goer or comfortable in a church setting. Again, I don’t think that should be held against him as president. You shouldn’t vote for a president because he’s a Christian or not or a Jew or not, but by their moral compass. Both have moral compasses, but you wouldn’t see a lot of Christian or theology talk from McCain.”
He believes that a new spiritual awakening or revival is upon us, and that the two great hungers of the world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice. “The connection between the two is what the world is waiting for. The new generation really want their faith to matter, and their lives to make a difference in the world. They have a much broader agenda than the old dual agenda (of abortion and gay marriage), they care about the environment and climate change – they call it Creation Care. And they care about global poverty as a Gospel issue. I was at Melbourne University recently and one of them said to me, “Some people just say to me what can’t be changed, but we say what can be changed?” I love that kind of phrase, it sounds like Desmond Tutu, who says that ‘as Christians we are prisoners of hope’. Ghandhi’s ‘be the change you want for the world,’ is also very popular among young people. They want to be the change, not just talk about the change.”
He doesn’t believe social change will come about just through education or finding the right policy ideas. Faith is vital, he believes, if we’re to see real change. “There are times when faith comes alive and changes big things: the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, child labour law reform, civil rights. Why is it that many social reform movements are connected to a revival of faith? I think because you need a sustaining power, a motivation, a willingness to sacrifice a time and energy and even your own life for the sake of what you believe. Just having an analysis of what’s wrong isn’t enough, to be educated about the problem isn’t enough, or just having political strategy isn’t enough – you need some kind of energy and power and motivating force to really fire and spark a movement.”
Evidence for this revival can also be seen in what he calls a “new monasticism.” “In the book I talk about Shane Claiborne and his ‘Simple Way Community.’ He was a young evangelical leader who started this community, and there are a number of such communities around the country: young, radical Christians living a very simple lifestyle – indeed, a monastic lifestyle – in poor neighbourhoods, and serving the poor. It’s very much encouraging to me – a very hopeful sign.”
He believes that you can’t be an activist for a long time “without becoming also a contemplative.” “You can’t sustain a life of social justice without spiritual resources. I’m seeing a real concern among activists to ground the struggle for justice in a life of spiritual discipline. What is also interesting is that many of them probably refer more to catholic sources than evangelical ones – such people as Benedictine Thomas Keating, the Catholic spiritual writer Henry Nouwen and the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr. Richard is one of my closest and dearest friends. We’ve been to Assisi together on pilgrimage.”
He draws great strength and inspiration from the Scriptures. “A particular favourite is from Isaiah 58, a stock-in-trade for the social activist – ‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke; is it not to break bread with the hungry and bring the homeless into your house?’ Then later, it adds, ‘If you share your bread with the hungry then will your light rise like the dawn and your healing come quickly.’
“For years when preaching on social justice I really missed the significance of the second part of that text. It’s really about wholeness and healing. Isaiah’s vision isn’t about the healing of the poor, it’s about everyone getting healed in a new relationship between those who have and those who have not.”
In the book he writes, ‘that to meet and come to know the poorest of God’s children changes us and could ultimately change the facts of poverty.’ A personal experience of the poor can also be part of the healing and make an important contribution, he believes, to Christians making radical changes to their consumer and lifestyle choices.
But he says we shouldn’t be overawed by the enormity of the challenges of global poverty and global warming, and believes that one step at a time can begin to make a difference. “Wilberforce was finally successful in ending the slave trade, but the movement which made this possible consisted of millions of small steps – including the decisions by individuals not to put sugar in their coffee or tea because it was produced by slaves.”
Whenever he’s feeling frustrated about the pace of change he recalls the words of Mary Glover, a poor, illiterate, black woman he once knew in Washington DC. “Whenever I got frustrated and impatient she’d say, ‘You’re doin’ it again… you’re worried about the reapin’, and God wants you to just worry about the sowin’. Reapin’ time will come, but just keep sowin’.”