by Chris White
God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It
by Jim Wallis (New York: HarperCollins, 2005)
Jim Wallis, the editor of Sojourners magazine, is a tireless American Christian advocate for the poor and marginalised. Increasingly he has become the public voice of a more holistic Christian ethics than that of the Christian right, focused as it is on personal morality. This was especially prominent in his recent Australian tour promoting his book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.
This book, focused on the place of faith in American politics, was written after the November 2004 re-election of President George W. Bush, and one might wonder about its relevance to secular Australia.
Indirectly, Wallis has a good deal to say to Australians, particularly Christians who feel marginalised by the place that faith plays (and does not play) in our national life and by the sort of faith presented to and by the media. I say this despite the obvious differences between the role of faith and politics in our two countries, because there are also similarities.
The perceived focus of right-leaning Christians on ‘personal’ moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality, contrasted with the perceived focus of left-leaning Christians on ‘social’ issues such as war and poverty, has its counterpart here – albeit a less politically significant one. But, for example, if Family First gathers strength, or if we are drawn further into the Iraq war, Wallis’s insights on the US experience will become increasingly relevant.
The focus of more than half of the book is on the public moral issues that have been Wallis’s life’s work. There is a lot worth reflecting on in what he says. He talks at length about the Iraq war and the closely related questions of terrorism and US policy in the Middle East, and in particular the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He relates his analysis effectively to a theology based in the Old Testament prophets as well as the New Testament writings.
Wallis’s diagnosis of the emergence of a “theology of empire” in the US political hierarchy is both convincing and worrying, with the abandoning of (albeit limited and fragile) international institutions, and alienation of much of the Muslim world. Here the Australian interest is obvious, with our leadership’s apparent pretensions to the role of “regional deputy sheriff”, and the implications for our long-term relations with our Muslim neighbours.
In considering how Christians might respond, individually and collectively, to our government’s foreign policies, Wallis observes:
In Christian theology, it is not nations that rid the world of evil – they are too often caught up in it in complicated webs of political power, economic interests, cultural clashes, and nationalist dreams. The confrontation with evil is a role reserved for God, using imperfect people, churches and nations as God wills (p. 145).
What seems appropriate are prayers for God to call the right (imperfect) people, Christian groups, or perhaps even our apathetic, secular nation to some task which might in some way confront evil or bring healing to the world rather than cooperation in the superpower’s objectionable theology of empire.
Wallis also talks at length about poverty in the US, and the specific issues of recent US fiscal policy (“exploding” military spending, tax cuts for the wealthy, but exclusion of the poorest families from the child tax credit). He describes the growing suspicion that the much-heralded faith-based initiative is a cover for government to walk away from funding responsibility for the underprivileged. He touches on the socially as well as financially destructive corporate scandals of recent years.
He also documents the unequal sharing of the economic gains of recent years between rich and poor, saying that the rising tide has lifted all yachts but not yet all boats. And he covers the real possibility of the international community making a big dent in world poverty in the coming decade, if only we have the will.
Social welfare and particularly medical coverage is an area where Australia has traditionally had rather more humane policies than the US. But with US-type policy prescriptions gaining support here politically, the challenge for Australian Christians is to realise that the privatisation of much of the welfare and support delivery systems, and cuts to funding, call for both increased support from churches and increased pressure on government to accept its responsibilities. The measure of a society, and of Christians (individually and collectively), is how we treat our most vulnerable citizens.
When he turns to the issues of personal morality, Wallis has criticisms and suggestions for both political right and left. For example, the right focuses on 4,000 abortion deaths per day in the US, rather than 40,000 deaths per day world wide due to AIDS, and hunger and disease amongst children. The left focuses on the woman’s right to choose, and does little to reduce the abortion rate. The political dilemma for conscientious US Christians is that
in America today, one can’t vote for a consistent ethic of life. Republicans stress some of the life issues, Democrats some of the others, while both violate the seamless garment of life on several vital matters. But the consistent life ethic still serves as an invaluable plumb line by which to evaluate all political candidates and parties (p. 301).
Also part of that “seamless garment” are such issues as euthanasia, homosexual “marriage”, capital punishment, racism and media sleaze. Wallis’s book has lessons on these for Australian Christians. His message is that Christians need to be engaged with ethical issues across the spectrum, both social and personal ethical issues and, importantly, their interaction.
The final point to note is the influence this remarkable Christian has been having in the US recently. He has appeared in all sorts of venues such as radio and TV chat shows, as well as church discussion panels, and in bookshops. In his own engaging way he has engaged in real dialogue across the secular/sacred and right/left divides. We saw something of his skills in Australia in the last week or so, when he spoke at a number of venues. I thought he was particularly thoughtful, articulate and concise on ABC TV’s Lateline.
Thank God for him.
Chris White is the former CEO for Europe of an international actuarial and human resources consulting firm. Among other things he now occasionally teaches social ethics at Whitley College, Melbourne.
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Soundings is a publication of the Centre for Christian Ethics, edited by Rod Benson. Views expressed in Soundings articles are not necessarily those of the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College or the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT. Soundings welcomes submissions of up to 1000 words that seek to facilitate debate and explore issues of religion, ethics and public policy in Australia and internationally. Previous columns give a good indication of the topical range and tone for acceptable essays. Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author of the column, Soundings, and the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, Sydney Australia.
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