{"id":26,"date":"2010-07-02T08:42:32","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T08:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html"},"modified":"2010-07-02T08:42:32","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T08:42:32","slug":"jim-wallis-secular-humanist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html","title":{"rendered":"Jim Wallis, secular humanist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Valentinian.jpg\"<\/span>You figure that Q90-FM, a Christian radio station out of De Pere, Wis., has pretty much made Jim Wallis’ day by pulling its sponsorship<\/a> from Lifest 2010, a Christian music and preaching festival starting in Oshkosh July 7. It seems that controversy has been percolating for some time over the festival’s invitation to the head of the Sojourners<\/a> social justice ministries to join 57 other speakers at the four-day jamboree.<\/p>\n

In an essay<\/a> on its website, the radio station explains that its investigations revealed that Sojourners is “a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the
\nChurch and Government.” <\/p>\n

While we are commanded by Jesus to help the poor, Jesus said our
\ngreatest calling is in Matthew 28:19: Therefore go and make
\ndisciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
\nof the Son and of the Holy Spirit.<\/i><\/strong> Coming under federal
\ncontrol may make this impossible without legal and financial
\npersecution. The movement in our nation toward the forced
\nredistribution of wealth through taxation ensures this–when the
\ngovernment controls where the money goes, freedom to express the gospel
\nof Jesus Christ will eventually be eliminated legally, as it has with
\nevery Church and State merger since 371 AD. The state becomes god. We
\nbelieve in the biblical teaching of voluntary<\/i><\/strong>
\nredistribution of wealth through the charitable giving of God’s people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sure, the redistributive progressive income tax has been around since 1913, but I get it. Q90-FM has a problem with Wallis’ support for federal faith-based initiatives, be they Bushian or Obamaite. What perplexes me is the reference to the year 371. The Roman emperor at the time was Valentinian I<\/a>, a tough general from the Balkans who, though a staunch Christian, pursued a policy of religious toleration. He actually lightened the tax burden on the provinces, though–shades of Obamacare–he did appoint doctors to care for the Roman poor. Nothing in Valentianian’s reign, however, suggests a new church-state merger.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Q90-FM was actually thinking of the 380s, when the Roman state really got its alliance with the church going. Of course, it was the church that largely benefited–gaining exemption from taxes, exemption of clergy from public services, exemption of bishops from secular courts, rights to provide sanctuary to fugitives, and all-round powers to order society according to Christian principles. Meanwhile, emperors Gratian and Theodosius put the screws to pagans, Jews, and
\nabove all Christians who didn’t toe their own orthodox line.<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, Q90-FM might have found that world rather appealing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You figure that Q90-FM, a Christian radio station out of De Pere, Wis., has pretty much made Jim Wallis’ day by pulling its sponsorship from Lifest 2010, a Christian music and preaching festival starting in Oshkosh July 7. It seems that controversy has been percolating for some time over the festival’s invitation to the head…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nJim Wallis, secular humanist - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jim Wallis, secular humanist - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You figure that Q90-FM, a Christian radio station out of De Pere, Wis., has pretty much made Jim Wallis’ day by pulling its sponsorship from Lifest 2010, a Christian music and preaching festival starting in Oshkosh July 7. It seems that controversy has been percolating for some time over the festival’s invitation to the head…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-02T08:42:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/files\/import\/Valentinian.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jim Wallis, secular humanist - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jim Wallis, secular humanist - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","og_description":"You figure that Q90-FM, a Christian radio station out of De Pere, Wis., has pretty much made Jim Wallis’ day by pulling its sponsorship from Lifest 2010, a Christian music and preaching festival starting in Oshkosh July 7. It seems that controversy has been percolating for some time over the festival’s invitation to the head…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html","og_site_name":"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","article_published_time":"2010-07-02T08:42:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/files\/import\/Valentinian.jpg"}],"author":"Mark Silk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html","name":"Jim Wallis, secular humanist - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/files\/import\/Valentinian.jpg","datePublished":"2010-07-02T08:42:32+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-02T08:42:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/927f8b0a579506efe527e8e0967f519d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/files\/import\/Valentinian.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/files\/import\/Valentinian.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/07\/jim-wallis-secular-humanist.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jim Wallis, secular humanist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/","name":"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/927f8b0a579506efe527e8e0967f519d","name":"Mark Silk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c82\/c82eec82562775fad85f4a47e1a5fc4ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c82\/c82eec82562775fad85f4a47e1a5fc4ax96.jpg","caption":"Mark Silk"},"description":"Mark Silk graduated from Harvard College in 1972 and earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard University in 1982. After teaching at Harvard in the Department of History and Literature for three years, he became editor of the Boston Review. In 1987 he joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked variously as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist. In 1996 he became the founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and in 1998 founding editor of Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. In 2005, he was named director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values, comprising both the Greenberg Center and a new Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture directed by Barry Kosmin. In 2007, he became Professor of Religion in Public Life at the College. Professor Silk is the author of Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II and Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. He is co-editor of Religion by Region, an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States, and co-author of The American Establishment, Making Capitalism Work, and One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. In 2007 he inaugurated Spiritual Politics, a blog on religion and American political culture.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/author\/msilk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}