Blessed Are the...

Wallis, Jim. God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get it. Pp. xxiv, 384. New York: HarperCollins Publishing, 2005. $24.95.

“Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside?”

Jim Wallis has authored one of the most profound analyses of political thinking since Dick Morris’ Power Plays. Yet, this book, in its entirety, is not intended as merely an examination of modern political thinking and strategy. It is meant to change things, to alter political discourse, as we know it. It is a much-welcomed shift from the current political ambiance.

Written in the aftermath of a bitter presidential election that witnessed “moral values” playing a cumbersome role, this book is an answer to those issues (namely: moral) that were highly overstretched and greatly misconstrued by both Democrats and Republicans, along with a debate that seemingly left the nation in a sort-of suspended state of moral clarification. In other words, the “moral issues” debate has not stopped even though the campaigns have.

The resounding theme of God’s Politics is the “values of politics” while offering a “new vision for faith and politics in America,” and yet argues that America’s separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from public dialogue (xiv, xv). Wallis challenges both the religious right and the more liberal holders to better define the “moral issues” debate. All sides (especially the Neoconservatives) will feel attacked and probably somewhat begrudged by Wallis as the book chastises hypocritical stances used solely for political gains.

Wallis, an evangelical preacher, divides the book into six Parts and 21 chapters. Each Part takes on a new theme of Biblical importance. The titles of each Part immediately grab the reader’s attention, especially the subtitles (i.e., Part III- Spiritual Values and International Relations: When Did Jesus Become Pro-War?; Part IV- Spiritual Values and Economic Justice: When Did Jesus Become Pro-Rich?; Part V- Spiritual Values and Social Justice: When Did Jesus Become a Selective Moralist?). The book, however, probably was not designed to read cover to cover. Much like the Bible, God’s Politics can be picked up and read from nearly any sentence within the hardbacks.

Wallis takes head on the issues and debates that infuriate most people to the point of non-participation in present politics. The book delivers some of the best one line innuendo for both the Left and the Right while berating both because of their inability (or refusal) to legitimately discuss and debate the “moral” issues that are so paramount in today’s world. And nowhere in the Bible are the words “God Bless America,” is a classic line that should resonate with believers and non-believers alike.

The war in Iraq is of primary importance to Wallis and it should be also to all people of faith. In the introduction, Wallis tackles one of President George W. Bush’s greatest blunders of his first term when Bush characterized that God was on America’s side in the war in Iraq. Wallis holds back none when he makes it clear that Lincoln was right when answering a near identical question during the Civil War, and Lincoln’s reply was not that if God was on our side, but if we are on God’s side. As dubious as the Lincoln quote might be, Wallis demonstrably disagrees with Bush on using God as the moral referee in war. “God on our side- leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy” (hence the war in Iraq.), (xiv). Wallis devotes the entirety of Part III to war, peace, religion and the frightening aspects of all. With the title of Chapter 8: Not a Just War: The Mistake of Iraq, Wallis’ position is clear in terms of an aggressive war against a country that posed no threat to America, and one that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

Wallis’ greatest contribution, and when he is at his best, is his focus on the poor and the crisis of poverty facing America. In this present debate about “moral values,” it is the poor that is consistently left out. “…Poverty is a spiritual and religious issue and not a ‘left-wing’ issue,” may be some of the truest words ever written. Wallis describes budgets as “moral documents” and rebukes Bush for his national budgets that unfairly hurt the poor and benefit the wealthy. Jesus had no greater compassion for anything more than he did the poor, yet in this country that is outlandishly led by the “moral” leaders of “God’s Party” the poor are more often than not blamed for their own circumstances, and in most cases completely invisible to the righteous few who lead. How can the right wing Christian faction ignore the thousands of Bible verses that deal with the poor? Selective moral arguments have no Biblical relevance whatsoever.

“’The poor you will always have with you’ gets translated into ‘There is nothing we can do about poverty, and the poor will always be there, so why bother?’ Yet that’s not what the text is saying at all. The critical difference between Jesus’s disciples and a middle-class church is precisely this: our lack of proximity to the poor.”

“Social location often determines biblical interpretation, and that truth goes a long way toward understanding why Christians from the United States and many other wealthy countries simply miss some of the most central themes of the Scriptures.”

This short review will never do justice to the importance of Wallis’ contribution to the true “crisis,”-poverty- and duplicity of the ruling majority that engulfs this country.

This book is a must read for anyone tired of the same political debate regarding whose moral authority will govern, and more importantly, who gets to pick and choose what “moral values” will be debated. God’s Politics confronts the lazy politics of purposely labeling issues without defining them simply for political gain, particularly those concerning religious beliefs. It also challenges self-labeled Christian believers to not hinge on God only being concerned with “single issue” politics (i.e., abortion, gay marriage). This is truly a bi-partisan work that simultaneously hammers the right for its outright hypocrisy and selective moral arguments, and bellows at the left for completely ignoring the Scripture's message altogether.

Do not read this book as a Democrat, a Republican, a liberal or a neocon. Read it as someone who truly cares about God, politics and how to genuinely coalesce the two. Certainly God is not Republican or Democrat.