The Rev. Jim Wallis has long been a voice for the religious left, calling on principles of social justice developed in the turbulent 1960s, and principles of evangelicalism inspired by his Christian faith. His most recent book is titled “The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America.” The 60-year-old Washingtonian and founder of Sojourners spent the past week hosting a conference on ending poverty, including a thousand-person prayer vigil outside the Rayburn House Office Building.
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am a Christian, but I relate to almost all of the denominations. I made a decision when I was a young activist — a student in Michigan in the middle of the civil rights and anti-war movements — to follow the radical Jesus of the New Testament. Everyone was reading Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara and Karl Marx, and I chose Jesus instead because he was more radical, and called for deeper changes.
Did anyone or any event especially shape your faith as a young person?
I remember being told by an elder in my all-white church in Detroit that racism had nothing to do with the church — that was political, this was personal. I was 14 and I was asking 14-year-old questions like “Why does white Detroit seem so different than black Detroit?” But questions weren’t welcome in my church. I think that’s the night I left. I came back to faith by reading the New Testament on my own. I didn’t have the words then, but I believe now that God is personal, but never private. I believe in a personal God who wants a relationship with you, but not a private God who doesn’t care about the world.
How might our current economic crisis affect Christians and Christianity in the nation?
I think there’s a real opportunity in this crisis. I spoke recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on a panel called “Values and Market Capitalism.” I said that every morning the news agencies there would trot out a new CEO in front of the snowy magic mountain of Davos and ask, “When will this economic crisis end?” I said that’s the wrong question. The right question is how will this change us? How will this change our habits and our decision making? There’s an opportunity to rethink our most basic assumptions and re-examine our values. The way to redeem the pain of this crisis is to be changed by the crisis.
You’ve spent this week hosting a conference on ending poverty. Does addressing our economic crisis and overcoming poverty mean becoming more comfortable with socialist principles?
It’s not just between socialism and capitalism, or left and right, but asking ourselves “Are we committed to the common good?” It’s deeply embedded in the Bible, and in our own constitutional history, that ensuring the common good is for our own good. We’ve been living in this culture where there’s never enough — it’s been all about “me,” and “I want it now.” That’s led to economic dysfunction, but also to real personal unhappiness.
Now, it’s about rethinking our values and our metrics of success and our priorities. I often use the phrase “a budget is a moral document,” and now I would say our calendars are moral documents, too. How much time do we spend with our kids? Our families? On people and issues that we care most about?
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
I believe that my faith is supposed to change the world — that it’s not just for me, or for the Lord and me, but for changing the world. I love the stories of the old antebellum revivalists who would preach the Gospel and do altar calls, and then sign people up on the spot for the anti-slavery campaign. I believe in coming for faith, and then signing up for God’s purpose in the world.
