Jim Wallis, an evangelical Christian, in his book "God’s Politics: Why the Right gets it wrong and the Left does not get it" offers the Christian religious community another choice.
If you are a right-wing evangelical Christian you probably believe one or more of the following:
- God is on your side.
- You have been called by God to spread Christianity and Democracy in America and abroad.
- God is pro-war, pro-rich, pro-life and pro-Republican.
- That Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists and Catholics embody the spirit of the anti-Christ.
- Nation building and the spread of Christianity and democracy should be done by any means necessary regardless of the loss of life and the destroying of cities.
- Feminists encourage women to leave their husbands, become lesbians, kill their children, practice witchcraft and destroy capitalism.
- Pagans, abortionists, feminists, and gays helped bring about the September 11 terrorist attack.
- Wars in the Middle East are to be welcomed as the signal that Armageddon is immanent.
- Droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought on by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible.
- Environmental destruction is to be disregarded, welcomed or hastened, as it is another sign of the coming apocalypse.
- There are unlimited resources on God’s Earth for our current population.
- Jesus will soon return for the rapture and transport you to heaven from where you will watch your religious opponents suffer plagues during the tribulation.
- The Bible can only be interpreted one way—literally and by one church. For example you believe God created Adam and Eve and the Earth in six days. Other interpretations as history, parables, poetry or metaphor are wrong.
Jim Wallis, an evangelical Christian, in his book "God’s Politics: Why the Right gets it wrong and the Left does not get it" offers the Christian religious community another choice. He teaches the value of love, faith, hope, justice, reconciliation and being pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, pro-consistent ethics of life (beyond a single issue voting) and pro-family (without making scapegoats of desperate women, single mothers or gays).
He says our task is not to claim God’s Blessing and endorsement but to care whether we are on God’s side. Wallis believes that the statement "God is on our side" inevitable leads to self-righteousness, bad theology and dangerous foreign policy. When we ask if God is on our side it leads to reflection, humility, accountability and penitence.
Wallis’ book challenges us to embrace a wider world where human diversity is seen in the image of the Creator.
He expresses concern about single social issue voting where people voted against their economic self-interest. He supports middle class working families in health care, education and conservation and challenges a morality that chooses one set of lives over another. He believes America’s aggressive assertion of military superiority in the Middle East does not address the root causes of terrorism.
A number of Christians have signed a petition titled "Confessing Christ in World Violence." They have a deep concern about America’s "theology of war," referring to us as a "righteous empire" and the official claims of "divine appointment" for a nation in a "war" on terrorism. They believe that peacemaking is central to our vocation in a troubled world.
Their key concerns include:
Jesus Christ commits Christians to a strong presumption against war.
Christ knows no national boundaries.
Christ commands us to see not only the splinter in our adversary’s eye, but also the beam in our own.
Christ shows us that enemy-love is the heart of the gospel.
Christ teaches us that humility is the virtue befitting forgiven sinners.
To learn more about "Confessing Christ in a World of Violence" go to http://www.sojo.net/petition/signers
Joan Chittister, in her book "Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir" expressed concern about the religious rights notion that my truth is everybody’s truth. She questions their belief that they are being called by God to impose their life on others. She believes not a single church or tradition should measure anybody else’s attitudes as they may be witnessing another face of God. She feels we are called by God to keep Him a constant question in the human heart.
Since Jesus said "Blessed are the pacemakers" she does not believe He would want us in Iraq.
Chittister stated, "If getting rid of dictators is the criteria for preemptive war then we’re going to be in a lot of other counties in the next 12 months."
She can’t understand why abortion is a higher moral issue with many American Christians when we have killed over 100,000 Iraqis while invading and occupying Iraq. Especially when some of the Iraqi women were pregnant. She calls it military abortion.
"Are you pro-life if you oppose abortion?" Chittister asks. If you want a child born but not a child fed, educated or housed and cut tax dollars that fund these programs—that’s pro-birth.
Jesus said, "Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for justice." How do we explain exporting industry but not our Fair Labor Standard Act? Chittister asks. Children are being paid 20c an hour for a 70-hour week to make our jeans and shoes in some countries. She said there is a disconnect between our private morality and the teachings of Jesus.
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