God's Politics

[alessandro]

Anybody want to read through God's Politics, by Jim Wallis, with me?

It seems a propos to the current presidential race.

[pippin]

That looks interesting. I'm going to order it. I'll read it with you.

[alessandro]

Originally Posted by pippin

That looks interesting. I'm going to order it. I'll read it with you.

Great! A few others let me know by private message that they'll be reading God's Politics, too. Let's wait for a few more and start the discussion. How about we start discussion on January 15... It's okay to read ahead!

By the way... There's is also available a reader's guide / workbook called Living God's Politics, for those who are interested.

Both available from Amazon.com and other booksellers:
Book: God's Politics
Reader's guide: Living God's Politics

About the book:

Secular liberals and religious conservatives will find things to both comfort and alarm them in Jim Wallis's God's Politics. That combination is actually reason enough to recommend the book in a time when the national political and theological discourse is dominated by blanket descriptions and shortsightedness. But Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, offers more than just a book that's hard to categorize. What Wallis sees as the true mission of Christianity--righting social ills, working for peace--is in tune with the values of liberals who so often run screaming from the idea of religion. Meanwhile, in his estimation, religious vocabulary is co-opted by conservatives who use it to polarize. Wallis proposes a new sort of politics, the name of which serves as the title of the book, wherein these disparities are reconciled and progressive causes are paired with spiritual guidance for the betterment of society. Wallis is at his most compelling when he puts this theory into action himself, letting his own beliefs guide him through stinging criticisms of the war in Iraq. In his view, George W. Bush's flaw lies in the assumption that the United States was an unprecedented force of goodness in a fight against enemies characterized as "evil." Indeed, although both the right and left are criticized here, the idea is that the liberals, if they would get religion, are the more redeemable lot. Wallis's line between religion and public policy may be drawn a little differently than most liberals might feel comfortable with, and while he pays some lip service to other faiths most of his prescription for America seems to come from the Bible. Still, for a party having just lost a presidential election where "moral issues" are said to have factored heavily, God's Politics is a sermon worth listening to. --John Moe (Amazon.com)

God’s Politics has struck a chord with contemporary Americans who, according to bestseller lists, are buying Wallis’s book in droves. Regardless of how critics feel about the author’s religious beliefs (evangelical Christian) and political leanings (traditional on family values; progressive on issues like poverty and social justice), they are hard-pressed to argue with his central tenets: God belongs to no single political party and true faith transcends political categorization. Wallis writes that liberals and conservatives alike should work for a "new spiritual revival … that could transform our society." While at least one reviewer complains that Wallis glosses over the religious left’s failures, no one denies that he has produced a timely, thought-provoking book. (Bookmarks Magazine)

[pippin]

It sounds very interesting. I'll let you know when I get mine.

[alessandro]

Let's aim to start discussion around Jan 15, or so.

[pippin]

I got the book yesterday, but haven't been able to start it yet.

[alessandro]

I got the book yesterday, but haven't been able to start it yet.

No problem. How about Sunday?


There are several ways to approach the book. The reader's guide, Living God's Politics, actually describes studying the issues theme-by-theme, as follows:

• Faith & politics (chapters 1-3, 5-6)
• War & peace (ch. 7-12)
• Economic justice (ch. 12, 13, 16-17)
• Poverty (ch. 13-15)
• A consistent ethic of life (ch. 18)
• Racism (ch. 19)
• Strengthening family & community values (ch. 20)
• Hope for the future (ch. 4, 6 and 21)

The book itself is organized as follows:

• Part I: Changing the Wind
  • Take back the Faith: Co-opted by the Right; dismissed by the Left
  • A lack of vision: Too narrow, or none at all
  • Is there a politics of God?
• Part II: Moving beyond Politics of Complaint
  • Protest is good; alternatives are better
  • How should Faith influence your politics?
  • Prophetic politics
• Part III: Spiritual Values & International Relations (When did Jesus become pro-war?)
  
  • Be not afraid: A moral response to terrorism
  • Not a just war: The mistake of Iraq
  • Dangerous religion: Theology of Empire
  • Blessed are the peacemakers: Winning without war
  • Against impossible odds: Peace in the Middle East
  • Micah's vision for National & global security: Cure causes, not just symptoms
• Part IV: Spiritual Values & Economic Justice (When did Jesus become pro-rich?)
  • The poor you will always have with you
  • Poor people are trapped -- in the debate about poverty: Breaking the Left/Right impasse
  • Isaiah's platform: Budgets are moral documents
  • Amos and Enron: What scandalizes God?
  • The tipping point: Faith & global poverty
• Part V: Spiritual Values & Social Issues (When did Jesus become a selective moralist?)
  • A consistent ethic on life: Abortion & capital punishment
  • Truth telling about race
  • The ties that bond: Family & community values
• Part VI: Spiritual Values & Social Change
  • The critical choice: Hope vs. cynicism
  • Epilogue: We are the ones we've been waiting for

Since none of us have read the book before, I think it makes sense to read the book as it was written, beginning with Part I: Changing the Wind (ch. 1-3).

Each week, we can complete a section and discuss the chapters in that section. We can tackle the sections like the reader's guide does, exploring each chapter/theme by introducing the topic, considering the evidence, reading the Bible, describing the Christian tradition, giving living examples in the contemporary Church, and discussing methods of putting Faith into Action.

Looking forward to the discussion!!

[pippin]

I like the idea of starting with chapter one and doing a section a week. Now, I just have to get the book away from my husband.

[pippin]

Maybe one section a week was a bit ambitious. I finished section 1 last night. I liked what he said about the need for a vision consistent with Christ's teaching. So far, I agree with what he has to say.

[Dale_M]

I agree that he has interesting things to say. I am not ready to commit agreement with him, but am looking forward to reading more.

Say, what exactly is the first section? I read the first three chapters... do I need to go on to chapter 5 and 6?

[alessandro]

Originally Posted by Dale_M

Say, what exactly is the first section? I read the first three chapters... do I need to go on to chapter 5 and 6?

The first section is the Intro and chapters 1-3. I'll be posting my thoughts tonight, but please feel free to start the discussion if you like ;-) We'll be playing it by ear for the next few sections, based on how the discussion is going. The reader's guide recommends 8 weeks to go through the book. I think 4-6 weeks sounds about right for a pretty good discussion.

[alessandro]

Below are a summary of and highlights from the Introduction to God's Politics: Why Can't We Talk about Religion and Politics?

Summary: "Since politics is ultimately about ordering our communal life together, it is far too important an aspect of human life to be considered outside of God's care and attention. God has a 'political perspective,' one might say, rooted in God's identity as Creator and expressed in the Bible. However, God's politics always challenges our politics. We too easily pursue ideological agendas that serve our own interest. God's politics is never ideological, but always intends to benefit human well-being. In particular, God reminds us of our obligations to the persons we often neglect -- the poor, the vulnerable, and those otherwise on the margins. God's politics challenges both the political Left and the political Right to offer a new vision of faith and politics, a vision more in line with God's intentions and the common good." (Living God's Politics, p.1)

Favorite passages:

"Why can't we talk about religion and politics? These are the two topics you are not supposed to discuss in polite company" (p. xvii).

"There are two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way -- God on our side -- leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way -- asking if we are on God's side -- leads to much healthier things, namely, penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and even accountability. We need much more of all these, because these are often the missing values of politics" (p. xviii)

"God is not partisan; God is not a Republican or a Democrat" (p. xviii).

"... too many Democrats still wanted to restrict religion to the private sphere and were very uncomfortable with the language of faith and values even when applied to their own agenda. And ... Republicans wanted to narrowly restrict religion to a short list of hot-button social issues and obstruct its application to other matters that would threaten their agenda. ... While some Democrats are now realizing the importance of faith, values, and cultural issues, a strong group of secular fundamentalists still fights to keep moral and spiritual language out of the liberal discussion. And while some Republicans would like to see an expanded application of faith, the religious fundamentalists still want to restrict religious values to gay marraige and abortion" (p. xxii).

"If there were ever candidates running with a strong set of personal moral values and a commitment to social justice and peace, they could build many bridges to the other side. Personal and social responsibility are both at the heart of religion, and the two together could make a very powerful and compelling political vision for the future of our bitterly divided nation" (p. xxiii).

"God is personal, but never private" (p. xxv).

"... budgets are moral documents, revealing our true priorities, and must be judged morally, not just economically" (p. xxv).

[alessandro]

Summary of Chapter 1: Take Back the Faith:
"Many people feel that there is no political option that does justice to their understanding of the Christian faith. They feel that Christian language has been co-opted by the Right and used to accomplish ends that are not consistent with a full expression of the faith they hold. Likewise, they feel that the Left has tended to treat them as if their faith were irrelevant for political life. These folks long for a return to a genuine faith that transcends these options. They embrace a faith that unapologetically engages the public political discourse while insisting upon a moral vision consistent with that taught and lived by Jesus and the biblical prophets" (Living God's Politics, p. 1).

Favorite quotes from chapter 1:

• "An enormous public misrepresentation of Christianity has taken place. And because of an almost uniform media misperception, many people around the world now think Christian faith stands for political commitments that are almost the opposite of its true meaning" (p. 3).
• "The religious and political Right gets the public meaning of religion mostly wrong -- preferring to focus only on sexual and cultural issues while ignoring the weightier matters of justice. And the secular Left doesn't seem to get the meaning and promise of faith for politics at all -- mistakenly dismissing spirituality as irrelevant to social change" (pp. 3-4).
• "But recovering the faith of the biblical prophets and Jesus is not just about politics; it also shapes the way we live our personal and communal lives. How do we live a faith whose social manifestation is compassion and whose public expression is justice? And how do we raise our children by those values. ... Our religious congregations are not meant to be social organizations that merely reflect the wider culture's values, but dynamic countercultural communities whose purpose is to reshape both lives and societies" (pp. 6-7).
• "We must insist on the deep connections between spirituality and politics while defending the proper boundaries between church and state that protect religious and nonreligious minorities and keep us all safe from state-controlled religion. We can demonstrate our commitment to pluralistic democracy and support the rightful separation of church and state without segregating moral and spiritual values from our political life" (p. 7).
• "... endorsing political candidates is a fine thing, but ordaining them is not" (p. 8).
• "In any election we choose between very imperfect choices. Yet it is always important to examine what is at stake prayerfully and theologically" (p. 17). "[A]ll candidates should be examined by measuring their policies against the complete range of Christian ethics and values. On that wider and deeper list of religious and moral values were poverty, the environment, war, truth-telling, human rights, our response to terrorism, and a 'consistent ethic of human life' that included abortion, but also capital punishment, euthanasia, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, and genocide around the world" (pp. 8-9).
• "The words of Jesus are either authoritative for Christians, or they are not" (p. 17).
• "In politics, the best interest of the country is served when the prophetic voice of religion is heard -- challenging both Right and Left from consistent moral ground" (p.18).

[alessandro]

Summary of Chapter 2: A Lack of Vision; Too Narrow or None at All:
"'Without vision the people perish' (Proverbs 29:18). This ancient biblical proverb actually makes one point, but it implies an equally important second point. On the first, it is clear from history that where ambiguity and confusion are evident and there is an absence of vision, the people suffer. Without vision, there is no 'road map' to a better tomorrow. On the second point, the people also suffer where there is wrong or misguided vision. When you are going in the wrong direction, 'making progress' is not a virtue. Now is the time to develop an alternative vision for the intersection of religious and public life and to call public institutions to accountability for how well they serve the common good, rather than the good of special interest groups" (Living God's Politics, pp. 1-2).

Favorite passages from chapter 2:

• "It was one of those warm spring days in the nation's capital when the fresh promise of new possibilities seems, just for a moment, to defy the entrenched ways of Washington" (p. 20). (I imagine this is what many young and newly elected politicians must feel when they are just starting out. How is it that most lose their way?)
• "The political leaders are really very good at figuring out the direction of the wind, and are quite used to quickly moving in that direction. It's not a matter of malice for most of them. ... [M]any came to Washington because they truly wanted to do the right thing. But after a while, they get entrenched in Washington's ways, and change seems ever more distant. Power and wealth are the real governors here, and people adjust to those realities. Even the ones who still really want to make a difference will tell you they can't without public backing, and they don't often find it" (p. 21).
• "You change a society by changing the wind. Change the wind, transform the debate, recast the discussion, alter the context in which political decisions are being made, and you will change the outcomes" (p. 22).
• "Powerful interests argue, point fingers at one another, and vie for greater position and influence, while far less powerful people suffer and are forgotten. ... [T]hose left out and behind are always the ones whom Jesus referred to as 'the least of these.' But really, we all suffer when there is no vision, no guiding moral compass that steers our public life. We become bereft of meaning and purpose in our social relationships, we lose all sense of the common good or our shared humanity, and the bonds of society themselves become so frayed that each individual feels forced to just fend for themselves. The poorest and weakest among us who are the least able to do that pay the greatest price; but we all are diminished when our social life is reduced to survival of the fittest" (p. 25).
• "The lack of vision in public life and the emptying out of values that visionless leadership creates lead to a politics of complaint. ... Moral cohesion unravels, social values crumble, public policies lose their connection to the common good, families lose stability, neighborhoods lose community, leadership loses integrity, poor families and children begin losing everything -- and complaint becomes our dominant political discourse" (p. 26).
• "But the other [vision problem is not lack of vision, but rather] is when political leaders have a clear vision -- but the wrong one. When politics is being shaped by visions that defend wealth and power, rather than opening up more opportunity; that are more exclusionary than inclusive; that pursue policies that destabilize families and communities; that exalt private interests over the common good; that simply leave too many people behind; that seek national or corporate self-interest over international peace and justice; or that increase conflict rather than reducing it -- then such political vision can be as destructive as having no vision at all" (p. 29).

[alessandro]

Summary of Chapter 3: Is There a Politics of God?
"To suggest that God is concerned only with our private lives implies a 'household god'-- a god who watches over our private piety but cares little about public life. Such a god is not the God of the Judeo-Christian heritage. God is deeply personal and is clearly concerned about our personal morality. However, even a quick read through the Bible reveals a God who is also very interested in the shape of our social values and public life. In particular, God is concerned that public institutions prevent the exploitation of society's most marginalized persons. God gives commands aimed at preventing such exploitation, and those passages dealing with divine judgment make it clear that God takes very seriously the extent to which our public life includes those concerns for justice" (Living God's Politics, p. 2).

Favorite quotes from chapter 3:

• "Dare we search for the politics of God? It's much easier to just use God to justify our politics. Yet, if we look, really look into our biblical and other holy texts, we find a God who speaks about 'politics' all the time, about what believing in God means in this world (not just the next one), about faith and 'public life' (not just private piety), about our responsibilities for the common good (not just for our own religious experience). And here's the big news: the politics of God calls all the rest of our politics into question" (p. 32).
• "What [are the] subjects [of God's politics]? Quite secular topics really -- land, labor, capital, wages, debt, taxes, equity, fairness, courts, prisons, immigrants, other races and peoples, economic divisions, social justice, war, and peace" (p. 32). (So much more than 'just' sexual morality.)
• "Is God into class warfare? No, God wants the 'common good,' but speaking for the common good can get one accused of calling for class warfare -- usually by the elites who control the political discussion and do not want too much conversation about what God thinks of our political priorities" (p. 32).
• "God is personal, but never private" (p. 31). "Restricting God to private space was the great heresy of the twentieth-century American evangelism. Denying the public God is a denial of biblical faith itself, a rejection ... of Jesus [H]imself. Exclusively private faith degenerates into a narrow religion, excessively preoccupied with individual and sexual morality while almost oblivious to the biblical demands for public justice. In the end, private faith becomes a merely cultural religion providing the assurance of righteousness for people just like us. Such righteousness can quickly become slef-righteousness" (p. 35).
• "People now very commonly say they aren't 'religious,' just spiritual... and never with any challenge from any quarter" (p.37).
• "Whether conservative or liberal Christians, or members of other faith groups, or just spiritual seekers, we are all guilty of succumbing to a diminished religiosity that is characterized by privatized belief systems, devoid of the prophetic and social witness of Jesus and the prophets -- ultimately, nothing more than 'small-s' spirituality that is really only ad hoc wish fulfillment or a collection of little self-help techniques we use to take the edge off our materialistic rat-race lives" (p. 36).
• "Our private religions have failed, but we must not lose a personal God" (p. 40).
• "Instead of trying to strike an elusive 'balance' between private piety and the social gospel, we must go to the heart of prophetic religion itself, in which a personal God demands public justice as an act of worship" (p. 40).