God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Hardcover)

~ Jim Wallis (Author) "MANY OF US FEEL that our faith has been stolen, and it's time to take it back..." (more)
Key Phrases: prophetic politics, faithful citizenship, secular fundamentalists, United States, Middle East, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Secular liberals and religious conservatives will find things to both comfort and alarm them in Jim Wallis's God's Politics. That combination is actually reason enough to recommend the book in a time when the national political and theological discourse is dominated by blanket descriptions and shortsightedness. But Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, offers more than just a book that's hard to categorize. What Wallis sees as the true mission of Christianity--righting social ills, working for peace--is in tune with the values of liberals who so often run screaming from the idea of religion. Meanwhile, in his estimation, religious vocabulary is co-opted by conservatives who use it to polarize. Wallis proposes a new sort of politics, the name of which serves as the title of the book, wherein these disparities are reconciled and progressive causes are paired with spiritual guidance for the betterment of society. Wallis is at his most compelling when he puts this theory into action himself, letting his own beliefs guide him through stinging criticisms of the war in Iraq. In his view, George W. Bush's flaw lies in the assumption that the United States was an unprecedented force of goodness in a fight against enemies characterized as "evil." Indeed, although both the right and left are criticized here, the idea is that the liberals, if they would get religion, are the more redeemable lot. Wallis's line between religion and public policy may be drawn a little differently than most liberals might feel comfortable with, and while he pays some lip service to other faiths most of his prescription for America seems to come from the Bible. Still, for a party having just lost a presidential election where "moral issues" are said to have factored heavily, God's Politics is a sermon worth listening to. --John Moe

From Bookmarks Magazine

God’s Politics has struck a chord with contemporary Americans who, according to bestseller lists, are buying Wallis’s book in droves. Regardless of how critics feel about the author’s religious beliefs (evangelical Christian) and political leanings (traditional on family values; progressive on issues like poverty and social justice), they are hard-pressed to argue with his central tenets: God belongs to no single political party and true faith transcends political categorization. Wallis writes that liberals and conservatives alike should work for a "new spiritual revival … that could transform our society." While at least one reviewer complains that Wallis glosses over the religious left’s failures, no one denies that he has produced a timely, thought-provoking book.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1ST edition (January 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060558288
• ISBN-13: 978-0060558284
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (226 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,846 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 128 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's about time-, January 16, 2005

By	MovedbyMusic - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I have waited for years for someone to finally write a well-written book on the balance between political secularism and faith. A book that does not go overboard on any issues. A book that does not go into guttersniping or is so full of proselytization that the fanaticism makes you want to run and hide under a blanket. This book is incredible because it puts common sense back into emotionally charged issues that skew people too far in either direction. I think what keeps happening is that people posture so much to the far left or far right espousing God as their compass they lose their perspective in what is realistic and factual. They are so hell-bent on making someone else see their point of view they leave no room for consideration of another option.

I found myself agreeing with so much this author had to say. We are not about being a religious-based society but we are about having faith, compassion and spirituality. We have never been about disassociating conscientiousness from religious freedoms.

I so highly recommend this book I wish I could give it ten stars.......

163 of 175 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Should be on EVERY campaign reading list, January 19, 2005

By	Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book is very thought-provoking. The author sees a place for religion, arguing that the exclusion of religion from the political sphere is unrealistic. It does not reflect the way which Americans have and continue to make policy.

Even liberal politicians are motivated to enter public life and work on behalf of other people because of their own religious convictions according to this book. Denying that these are moral values and their roots in religious belief damages our own standing. This denial then feeds into a stereotype that the left is bereft of any morals or opposes religious people.

At the same time. Wallis takes on the 'religious right' who have comadeered Republican Party infrastructure since the late 1970's/early 1980's. He argues their current interpretation of 'good' public policy is also counterproductive to good public policymaking; anybody not sharing their worldview instantly becomes demonized. Because there are so many different religious perspectives in America (even among Christian denominations themselves) religious right actions actually undercut the standing of religion throughout American society, as practiced by these groups religion becomes percieved as something which is harsh, judgemental, and exclusionary.

I appreciated this book's complex view of religion. It clarifies that the problem is not religion itself, but how we employ it in public life which is the real problem.

103 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging ideas from an old-fashioned Evangelical, January 25, 2005

By	DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

After the 2002 midterm elections, Jim Wallis asked a Republican political operative the following extended question:

"What would you do if you faced a candidate that took a traditional moral stance on the social and cultural issues? They would not be mean-spirited and, for example, blame gay people for the breakdown of the family, nor would they criminalize the choices of desperate women backed into difficult and dangerous corners. But the candidate would be decidedly pro-family, pro-life (meaning they really want to lower the abortion rate), strong on personal responsibility and moral values, and outspoken against the moral pollution throughout popular culture that makes raising children in America a countercultural activity. And what if that candidate was also an economic populist, pro-poor in social policy, tough on corporate corruption and power, clear in supporting middle-class and working families in health care and education, an environmentalist, and committed to a foreign policy that emphasized international law and multilateral cooperation over pre-emptive and unilateral war? What would you do?" I asked. The Republican strategist paused for a long time, and then said, "We would panic!"

That sums up the spirit, the "angel" of this book. For Wallis, there is a fourth way in politics, beyond liberal, conservative & libertarian. It is a "prophetic politics" rooted in tradition. Jim Wallis is not a radical theologian. He's not trying to overturn The Apostles' Creed & reinterpret the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to make it compatible with the laws of physics as we understand them. He does understand, as so many Christians from Paul of Tarsus to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King have understood, that just to live truly as an authentic Christian is a revolutionary act. Can you imagine a society that really does comfort the afflicted, feed the hungry, heal the sick, & bless the peacemakers?

Both the Right (who get it wrong, but not all wrong) & the Left (who don't get it, but still get some of it) have to expect & demand more, much more, from our leaders, who are shallow when they are not deceitful, absurd when they are not hypocritical, inarticulate when they are not stringing together cliches.

It's too easy to say Jim Wallis is liberal because he backs away from some "button" issues & wants the government to partner with us as an agent for helping those desperately in need of practical & emotional sustenance. The middle & wealthy classes of America are loaded with entitlements we are loathe to sacrifice, & would willingly keep at the expense of those who have little or nothing. Through his own group, Sojourners, he also wants to bring people to Christ, but in the manner of the old Jewish saying, "No bread without Torah, no Torah without bread." That is, if Christians do what Christians are supposed to do, it's a lot easy to explain just what the "Good News" really is: That God's love is for everyone, & is most visibly expressed through our love for each other in community. By the standards of popular culture, Wallis is quite old-fashioned; neither a "make your own religion" new ager nor a mega-church pastor trying to fill the coffers & the parking lot, but a visiting preacher with real world experience who is justified in wanting to make us squirm a little bit & do some thinking when the service is over.