God's Politics

If people have a position on something and you try to argue them into changing it, you’re going to strengthen that position. If you want to change people’s ideas, you shouldn’t try to convince them intellectually. What you need to do is get them into a situation where they’ll have to act on ideas, not…

Bush at the UN. On Darfur, “Mr. Bush urged Sudanese leaders to approve a peacekeeping force there to end what his administration has called genocide.” Red Letter Christians. Sojourners/Call to Renewal launched “Red Letter Christians,” a group of progressive Christian communicators broadening the discussion of “moral values.” Faith Based Initiative. “The Bush administration’s faith-based initiative…

Part three of a dialogue between Jim Wallis and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed on the question: “What should values voters value most?” You raise several interesting lines of thought in your response, Ralph. Let me try to address some of them. My point that the Religious Right only focuses on one or two…

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that [Jesus] laid down his life…

We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know [God] in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. – Dorothy Day + Sign…

Darfur. “A global day of action is held calling for peace in Darfur… Activists rallied in several major cities, calling on Sudan to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed.” Interrogation. “President Bush’s national security adviser signaled on Sunday that he was seeking a compromise with the Republican…

This week I welcome Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and one of the most articulate leaders of America’s Religious Right, to be my first dialogue partner on God’s Politics. We will post our comments and responses to each other, back and forth, all week long–and you can read it all right…

Part two of a dialogue between Jim Wallis and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed on the question: “What should values voters value most?” Jim, you make the point that there are many issues of moral concern beyond marriage and abortion. I don’t think there is a disagreement between liberals and conservatives of faith on…

[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? – Micah 6:8 + Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via e-mail

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club…

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