What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (Full Version)

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solomonsprayer -> What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 6:37:31 PM)

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=about_us.display_staff&staff=wallis (bio)

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/ (blog)

Supposedly a famous Christian political commentator and preacher. I've heard about him from friends mostly.

(EDIT: oops, forgot his main website: http://www.sojo.net/ )

Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, preacher, and international commentator on religion and public life, faith and politics. His latest book is The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America (HarperOne, 2008). His previous book, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper Collins, 2005), was on the New York Times bestseller list for 4 months. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sojourners; where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, whose combined print and electronic media have a readership of more than 250,000 people. Wallis speaks at more than 200 events a year and his columns appear in major newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and both Time and Newsweek online. He regularly appears on radio and television, including shows like Meet the Press, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the O'Reilly Factor, and is a frequent guest on the news programs of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and National Public Radio. He has taught at Harvard's Divinity School and Kennedy School of Government on "Faith, Politics, and Society." He has written eight books, including: Faith Works, The Soul of Politics, Who Speaks for God?, and The Call to Conversion.

Jim Wallis was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements at Michigan State University. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice which has now grown into a national faith-based organization. In 1979, Time magazine named Wallis one of the "50 Faces for America's Future."

Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C. with his wife, Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained in the Church of England and author of Beneath the Cassock: The Real-life Vicar of Dibley; and their sons, Luke (9) and Jack (4). He is a Little League baseball coach.

Visit Jim Wallis and Sojourners at their website www.Sojo.net and read his daily blog at www.GodsPolitics.com .



tinydancer2 -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 6:51:06 PM)

I think I "never" heard about him as name goes, but I may be wrong because my memory is not very good.

I like that title and may purchase the book : "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper Collins, 2005), was on the New York Times bestseller list for 4 months "[8|][:D]



solomonsprayer -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 6:55:25 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: AdrianaS

I think I "never" heard about him as name goes, but I may be wrong because my memory is not very good.

I like that title and may purchase the book : "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper Collins, 2005), was on the New York Times bestseller list for 4 months "[8|][:D]


Yeah, he's very famous. I've seen his books around a lot, but I'm not big into politics until recently...So I might check it out too. His blog and website are great too.

I like his viewpoints from everything I'm seeing! Let us know how the book is if you read it.



jfwink -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 6:57:32 PM)

I doubt most people have ever heard of Wallis. From my understanding he is an apologist for the left.



solomonsprayer -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 7:00:51 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: jfwink

I doubt most people have ever heard of Wallis. From my understanding he is an apologist for the left.


I guess it depends on who you talk to. I know people that have heard of him and not the people that are touted as experts on these forums. ....

But I do think he's a great commentator.



rabstark -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 8:22:50 PM)

"Famous" by whose definition? I'd never heard of him until you started mentioning him. From what little I've managed to gather since then, he seems to be a liberal (theological as well as political) theologian, and given that his wife is an ordained C.O.E. vicar, that presumably says most of what you need to know about the general direction their theology swings.



solomonsprayer -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/5/2008 8:28:12 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rabstark

"Famous" by whose definition? I'd never heard of him until you started mentioning him. From what little I've managed to gather since then, he seems to be a liberal (theological as well as political) theologian, and given that his wife is an ordained C.O.E. vicar, that presumably says most of what you need to know about the general direction their theology swings.


He's not a liberal (is that a bad thing even?). He's seeking after a Biblical view of political life...that's not liberal nor conservative or Rep/Dem...

See his book:

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper Collins, 2005)

He is famous to many..., but you're right, it depends on who. Like I said, I have friends who know him, but not the people that are recommended and touted here and vice versa.



ljmac -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/6/2008 2:02:14 AM)

There is no doubt this guy is a liberal. For one, he's a big proponent of protecting abortion.

I don't know him, but I have known some of his family and am familiar with the so-called racist church he broke from. And I've heard him speak on a few occassions.

At the very least he greatly exaggerates racism in the church. I think it gives him credibility among the left, which is only too anxious to believe that white evangelicals are racists. What he doesn't tell people is that his mother and father were two of the church's founders. I can tell you from personal experience that they were exceptionally good people who had no racism in them. His broadbrush accusations of racism are disgusting.

Like I've said, I've heard him talk many times, in person, on the television and on the radio. I've read some of his magazines. I've heard him talk about poverty, racism, war and so on, but I can't recall a single time hearing him talk about salvation in Christ, something you always heard when you talked to his dad.



solomonsprayer -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/6/2008 2:04:53 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ljmac

There is no doubt this guy is a liberal. For one, he's a big proponent of protecting abortion.



Is he? Can you show me the reference? I heard the opposite.



Rufas2000 -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/6/2008 2:35:27 AM)

A link from an interview of Wallis where he speaks on his abortion views:

Christianity Today Interviews Wallis

Its his own words, I mean it can't get more reliable than that.



rgod -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/6/2008 8:21:24 AM)

Rufas2000 - thanks for posting the link on Wallis. I've heard of Wallis and Sojourner too. Wallis definitely is well known, but it depends on the circles in which you travel. Many public figures are that way. For example, a lot of conservatives think that James Dobson is well known, but in actuality, outside of conservative circles, there are lots of people who don't have a clue as to who he is.



tinydancer2 -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/6/2008 10:08:26 AM)

Yes, Thanks for the link, Rufas.

"he says, theologically conservative evangelicals (especially young ones) are flocking to his message and are "deserting the Religious Right in droves" because it attempted to "restrict the language of 'moral values' to just two issues—abortion and gay marriage."

"The Great Awakening is full of prescriptions on the broader social agenda: poverty, genocide in Darfur, global warming, the Iraq war, and other issues widely covered in Wallis's Sojourners magazine and his previous books. But The Great Awakening contains public-policy positions Wallis promotes less often: abortion and gay marriage, those two pillars of the Religious Right."

"People make the mistake of defining prophetic by politically left and right categories, and that the further left or right you are, the more prophetic you are. They're not biblically prophetic; they're politically ideological. "

I desagree without a doubt with his position about Episcopal Church to not divide because of Robison's ordination though, it was a heavy international outcry from Anglican majority belongs to the 3rd world nations were members are not just conservative but biblical in the issue. To just stay together and pretend nothing going on and pretend a sister congregation is walking scripturaly by blessing same sex unions, no way will happening with the unmoved standings they embrace already reggarding what scriptures clearly says about same sex unions. Plus there is a world apart in the reality about 1st world and 3rd world congregations as poverty goes, is the surroundings majority of Anglicans in the world ( as other christians) is living and already carrying the mission reggarding: "Poverty and global inequality are the fundamental moral issues of our time." as he says.

I dont buy the Theology of Liberation, Leonardo Boff is a Brasilian, I do agree a bit with him is about the fundamentalist, extremists and terrorists agendas, particularly in religion messages comming from right or left, in the globe.

Yes, I may purchase 2 of his books now, I dont buy the two party system that goes on in US anyways and the promotion of agendas particularly regarding pro-life being owned by Republicans alone etc.



ljmac -> RE: What Do People Think of the Famous Jim Wallis? (9/7/2008 3:36:41 AM)

If he had the courage to speak clearly he would simply say "I want it to be legal to chop up little human beings," which he does.



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