Jim Wallis
The Reverend Jim Wallis is a self-described activist preacher. In the 1960s, racial segregation in his church and community drove him to join the civil rights and the anti-Vietnam War movements, and his participation in peace protests nearly resulted in his expulsion from the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois. While he was at Trinity, Wallis founded a small Christian-based magazine which identified wealth redistribution as one of the keys to social justice. The publication was renamed Sojourners in 1971, and Wallis has served as the editor ever since. The Sojourners community has now grown into a national faith-based organization whose “mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.”
A passionate political activist, Wallis has been widely critical of Republicans for focusing solely on hot-button moral issues like abortion and of Democrats for pushing their faith aside. With former teacher Tony Campolo, Wallis helped initiate the movement “Red-Letter Christianity,” putting the emphasis on the actual words of Jesus that are printed in red letters in the Bible. The movement believes Christians should be promoting biblical values and actively working on social issues such as peace, strong families, and the elimination of poverty. Wallis contends that fighting poverty is one of the overwhelming messages of the Bible, and urges people to rethink the connection between morality, biblical teachings, and government policies. He has taught classes at Harvard’s Divinity School and the Kennedy School of Government, and he is a renowned public speaker. In 1979, Time magazine named him as one of the 50 Faces for America’s Future. Wallis has also written eight books including the recent God’s Politics:Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get it and The Great Awakening:Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America.
Wallis on his poverty-focused perspective: “whatever else the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to change about our lives—overcome our sinful habits and addictions, save our marriages and families, make us responsible people—if the gospel that we preach does not ‘bring good news to the poor,’ well then, it is simply not the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is about time that we said that.”
