I don’t get it.

Jim Wallis of Sojourners has declared “The monologue of the Religious Right is over and a new conversation has begun!” I don’t see any signs of a new conversation but I do see signs of a new monologue. Specifically, Constantinianism of the Left.

That very subject was addressed by Brian McLaren in an article of the same name February 7, 2007.

“This critique is made against progressives on the basis of the claim that to participate in the political process in such a way as to attempt to solve social problems through legislation, we have succumbed to seeing the state as our hope, rather than the church.  In fact, we progressives offer this critique, with some regularity, to those on the religious right.  Are we, then, simply being hypocritical?  Engaging the very thing we condemn with the only real difference being that we support a different political agenda?”

Very astute questions indeed. His answer:

“Well, I think we have to begin our response to this charge by admitting that far too often, at least more often than followers of Jesus should like, we are guilty as charged.” 

He goes on to defend progressive Christian leaders saying “I sincerely believe that the folks I know who are active in progressive politics are firmly committed to the Gospel of Jesus and I believe that their political activism grows out of their faith.”

While this may be and should be true, when I read or listen to Jim Wallis I get just the opposite message i.e. he arrived at a political position and attempts to mold the Gospels to support and further it. His Bio tends to support this:

“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.”

So it appears that the politics did come first. It was after this that he attended Divinity School and started Sojourners with some other ‘60’s era Leftists.

Wallis accuses the Religious Right of being a two trick pony, abortion and homosexual issues. This is of course not true and may become fodder for another article another time. But what about this Great Awakening movement (cleverly shrouding a book tour as revivals)? It seems that his pony also has a limited number of tricks, specifically one; Socialism.  Of course he doesn’t call it that he uses the term Social Justice but it means the same thing and is in effect the Gospel according to Karl Marx. Marx at least being more honest in that he was an atheist. These people are the ideological cousins of MoveOn.org.

Here are some things Wallis has said that I take great umbrage with:

They say these books (God’s Politics and The Great Awakening) are helping to "re-brand" Christian commitment away from the divisive, partisan, political, and top-down agenda of the Religious Right to a new image of faith that is much more welcoming, open, inclusive, and focused on both compassion and social justice. I really hope that is true and that's part of the reason I write these books.
What makes him think that his “brand” of Christianity is any less divisive, partisan, political and top-down that the Right which he decries? It is in fact more so because he wants to use the power of the state to further and enforce his theology while we on the Right want to stop that by overturning Roe and a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as one man and one woman.

“Religion does not have a monopoly on morals.”
If God does not set the standard of truth and morals, who does? And by that I mean the God of the Old Testament, the one true God who told the end from the beginning. There is none other.

The primary message of Jesus is directed at poverty.
He is fond of saying there are over 300 verses in the Bible relating to poverty. What he doesn’t mention is that the vast majority of those passages, particularly in the New Testament are speaking to a poverty of spirit not financial poverty. Jesus was not into redistribution of wealth; his message was that of eternal salvation by faith not works.

The Religious Right is concerned with only two issues; abortion and homosexuality.
This is blatantly false. They may be the top two political issues but we on the Right did not bring them into the political arena, they are the issues being advanced by the followers of Jim Wallis. Further, they could not advance their issues constitutionally through the legislative process so they used the courts to thwart the will of the people.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been spread worldwide by those he calls the Religious Right while his brand of Christianity spreads the gospel of equal misery.

Ezekiel 13:3 (KJV)
3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
Matthew 7:15 (KJV)
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Matthew 24:11-12 (KJV)
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

His ministry should have a sign over the door, “Enter at your own risk!”