Putting the Bible back together

by Muriel Porter

The dominance of the Religious Right in the sphere of political influence in the United States is over, American Evangelical minister Jim Wallis told a Melbourne seminar last month.

“The monologue is over and dialogue is now happening,” said Mr Wallis, a high-profile advocate of peace and social justice issues through the Sojourners community, a progressive Christian group he helped found in Washington DC. A best-selling author, Mr Wallis was in Australia to promote the Australian version of his latest book, Seven Ways to Change the World: Reviving Faith and Politics (HarperCollins).

In the States, the book is titled The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a post-Religious Right America, a title which reflects his overall theme of religious revival through progressive Christianity. The book is about “what to do with your faith when you’ve taken it back,” Mr Wallis told his audience.

A new generation, he said, is “putting the Bible back together again”, by restoring to the Bible the myriad verses dealing with poverty that had been overlooked by the Religious Right. “The Bible has been full of holes,” he explained, “because one out of every 16 verses in the New Testament is about poverty, and they have been ignored.” The Religious Right had restricted the language of moral values to just two issues – abortion and gay marriage – but young Evangelicals were now deserting the Religious Right “in droves”. Increasingly Christians from all traditions were concentrating on issues of poverty and economic justice, global warming, HIV/AIDS, genocide in Dafur, and the ethics of the Iraq War. And politicians were beginning to listen, he said.

Revival, however, was not just a religious experience. True revival also involved changing something important in society, and most of the really significant social movements that brought about change had spiritual foundations. Wilberforce’s campaign against slavery was a good example, he said.

Politicians, he explained, sniffed the wind before they made decisions. To influence political choices successfully, concentrate on changing the wind rather than changing the politician, he said.

Overcoming global poverty was a major challenge, but “faith was for the really big stuff”. “We are in the mountain-moving business,” he said, recalling Jesus’ teaching that faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains.

Mr Wallis’ address was followed by a presentation from Melbourne City Councillor David Wilson, who nominated seven ways to change Australia: overcoming poverty, caring from the environment, building a genuinely inclusive society, upholding the sanctity of life with broad consistency, rebuilding family and community life, tackling violence (from binge drinking to engagement in “unnecessary wars”), and restoring integrity in public life.

Cr Wilson was not confident that Australia was experiencing the same level of revival of commitment to the common good as seemed to be happening in the United States. “I perceive that Australian politics and Australian faith is still polarized and committed more to proving their own position to be the right one than to the process of learning from each other and working for the common good,” he said.

However, as World Vision Australia chief executive, the Revd Tim Costello, said in his introduction to the seminar, he and Jim Wallis had been invited to dine privately with Prime Minister Rudd during Mr Wallis’ visit. Mr Rudd had spent four hours with them, discussing faith concerns. The Church, Mr Rudd had said, quoting theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, should be “a voice for the voiceless” and “speak the truth to power”.