The Willson Lectureship was established in 1967 by Dr. and Mrs. J.M. Willson of Floydada, Texas. Each year, ESR Seeks to bring to campus an engaging personality who will further stimulate the community's theological reflection and pursuit of truth.

Embracing an Activist Spirituality

Jim Wallis

Jim Wallis is a commentator on ethics and public life and a spokesperson for faith-based initiatives to overcome poverty. He is the editor of Sojourners magazine, covering faith, politics and culture for thirty years. He is also the convener of Call to Renewal, a national federation of churches, denominations and faith based organizations working to overcome poverty and revitalize American politics. A frequent speaker, he travels to more than 200 events a year to preach, teach and organize. He is a prolific writer whose columns appear in the Washington Post, LA Times, MSNBC, and Beliefnet (see listings below). His most recent book is Faith Works: Lessons from the Life of an Activist Preacher (Random House, 2000). He regularly offers commentary and analysis for radio and television and teaches a course at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on "Faith, Politics and Society." Jim lives in inner city Washington DC with his wife Joy and their son Luke.

In the last several years, Rev. Wallis has led more than 250 town meetings, bringing together pastors, civic and business leaders, and elected officials in the cause of social justice and moral politics. The Call to Renewal network that he convenes brings together people from African-American, Evangelical, Catholic, Pentecostal, and mainline Protestant churches to work on poverty. Under his leadership, Call to Renewal has convened five National Roundtables on Churches and Poverty for national religious leaders and held five successful National Summits. In February 2000, sixty national Christian leaders endorsed Call to Renewal's "Covenant and Ten Year Campaign to Overcome Poverty."

Jim Wallis was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, he questioned the racial segregation in his church and community, which led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights movement and protesting the Vietnam War.

While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice. In 1975, Sojourners moved to the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. They later founded the Sojourners Neighborhood Center, which serves the children of the community through tutoring and mentoring programs, a summer Freedom School, and parents' support activities.

Time magazine named him one of the "50 Faces for America 's Future." His books include The Soul of Politics (1994) and Who Speaks for God? A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility (1996).

Schedule

MONDAY,  MARCH 11

7:30pm Spirituality and Activism
Stout Meetinghouse
Earlham College
Reception and book signing immediately following in the Wymondham Room

TUESDAY,  MARCH 12

10:00am People of Faith Overcoming Poverty
ESR Gathering Area
ESR Center

11:20am Common Meal
ESR Dining Room
ESR Center
(Those persons wishing to attend Common Meal may contact Anna Shirey at ESR for reservations and payment information.)

12:00pm A Better Way to Fight Terrorism
ESR Dining Room
ESR Center

Earlham School of Religion
228 College Avenue
Richmond, IN  47374
(765) 983-1423 or (800) 432-1ESR
Email Contact

Bibliography

Justice Is Still the Goal
Washington Post, November 14, 2001; Page A33, Section: B

"Many of us in the religious community have deep concerns about the moral, practical and political consequences of the military campaign in Afghanistan. Causing the loss of additional innocent lives, however unintentionally, will undermine what should be our only goal: bringing terrorists to justice. But the question is what to do now. People committed to nonviolence cannot simply wish away the problems. We must answer the questions that violence purports to answer: how to stop..."

A Seat at the Table: Faith-based organizations aim to make America more just
Washington Post, June 11, 1999; Page A37 Section: OP-ED

"The emergence of the term "faith-based organization" in the political discussion may signal one of the most significant new developments of American public life. Vice President Al Gore's recent speech in Atlanta on the role of faith-based organizations has raised the issue to another level. The most likely Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential race proposed a "new partnership" between the government and the pioneering efforts of faith communities that are finding..."

LET THE GOODWILL PREVAIL
Washington Post, December 25, 1996; Page A23, Section: OP/ED

"Christmas is the time when Americans worship a child born homeless to an unwed mother. We lavish gifts and food and time on shelters and soup kitchens. We sponsor gift drives and food drives, reaching out to draw people who are poor into the spirit of the season.Our hearts break for the little children reduced to eating Christmas dinner at shelters.This year the season seems particularly ironic. It comes just months after Congress passed and the president signed into law a welfare bill..."

'KILLING IN THE NAME OF GOD' (CONT'D.)
Washington Post, October 30, 1990; Page a21, Section: OP/ED

"There is a momentum toward war in the land. The war fever originates from the White House, remains fundamentally unchallenged by Congress and is fueled each day by the media.Some of us in the religious community feel compelled to raise basic moral and human considerations that have yet to be adequately addressed in this crisis but are -- we believe -- on the hearts of many of the people of this nation. The same week that Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.) asked on this page {"Killing in the..."

Commentary; UNCONVENTIONAL THOUGHTS; Amid Prosperity, Many Kinds of Poverty; The greatest moral question today is, what's our prosperity for? Both parties must address it.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Aug 15, 2000

Abstract:
The question is unanswered, but both party conventions have at least acknowledged that poverty continues side by side with prosperity. The biblical prophets say that a society's integrity is judged not by its wealth and power, but by how it treats its most vulnerable members. When one in five American children--and one in three children of color--are still poor, the moral underpinnings ...

Volunteerism: Is It, as the President Says, the True Spirit of America?; Yes: The task is not just ending welfare but ending poverty. Untested state and local schemes endanger our children.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Apr 25, 1997

Abstract:
In a participatory democracy, citizens must make the crucial difference. Citizen action on a much broader scale will be critical to overcoming the massive problems facing poor children and youth, who are the focus of the Presidents' Summit for America's Future. Summit planners persuaded me that citizen action would be portrayed as the crucial companion to, and not the private substitute for, vital ...

But What Does All the Faith Talk Mean?
An open letter to George W. Bush and Al Gore from religious leaders
Beliefnet 11/01/2000

Never has there been more “faith talk” in a presidential election campaign. And yet, with less than two weeks to go before Election Day, voters have little idea about how all those pious words shape either candidate’s policy direction.

Should Joe Lieberman Keep His Faith to Himself?
Secular fundamentalists are trying to crowd religion off the national stage
Beliefnet 09/20/2000

Some people just want Sen. Joe Lieberman to keep his faith to himself--at least in the public arena. The Democratic candidate for vice-president has been speaking directly out of his own Jewish faith all along the campaign trail and affirming the crucial role of religion in shaping values for American politics. But Lieberman’s comments have been very upsetting to those who think that faith and politics just don't mix--or shouldn't. What the senator from Connecticut has done is to spark a fascinating and important discussion about the proper roles of religion, values, and public policy that will be with us far beyond this election.


Faith Works: Lessons from the Life of an Activist Preacher
By Jim Wallis
Random House, 357 pp.
Beliefnet review

Walter Rauschenbusch would be proud of activist minister Jim Wallis, a modern-day incarnation of a Progressive-era leader, embodying the proud tradition of the Social Gospel in the American church. The founder of Call to Renewal, a coalition of churches struggling to overcome poverty through community service and political activism, Wallis has been at the forefront of efforts to build up the church as a crucial actor in the crusade for social justice. His latest book, "Faith Works," is an impassioned brief on behalf of volunteerism as a force to change American life, offering a set of values which are radically opposed to the individualistic and materialistic culture at large: "When the only purpose the culture offers is endless consumption, service fills the void by providing a mission."
The book offers many inspiring examples of church-based activism and religious service that's made a real, tangible improvement in people's lives, ranging from community service to broader political efforts like the Living Wage Campaigns, seeking to raise local minimum wages. Wallis offers a powerful example of what the church's role in political life might be--what it might really mean for Christians to live up to the Gospel that it's as easy for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle as it is for a rich man to enter heaven.

What's an FBO?
The discussion of faith-based organizations on the campaign trail is a significant development in American political life
Beliefnet 08/16/2000

FBOs are “hot” these days. The emergence of the term “faith-based organizations” (and its acronym FBO) as a topic of discussion in the media, in academia, and on the campaign trail may signal one of the most significant new developments in American political and religious life. As an inner-city pastor friend recently said to me, “We’ve been discovered!” Faith-based organizations have been the mainstay of social service in this country for a long time—why the sudden new interest from the larger society?

God and Politics, Again
How candidates treat the poor could become a new moral litmus test of politics for churches across the spectrum
Beliefnet 04/10/2000

We're missing the two biggest religion and politics stories this election year. They have nothing to do with either Bob Jones University or the influence of the religious right. The former is an utterly marginal institution that most religious people think is run by irrelevant wackos, and the latter is a story of rapidly declining significance.


interview
Our Lady of the 501(c)3
E.J. Dionne talks to Jim Wallis about God, politics, and the American experiment.
Beliefnet 02/28/2000

What an Activist Will Say to His Son
A father looks forward to telling his son who he heard speak in the first month of life...and why
Beliefnet 02/11/2000

One perfect fall day, I took my two-week-old son to Harvard Yard to see Nelson Mandela, who had walked out of prison on February 11, 1990--exactly 10 years ago today. The regal 80-year-old president of South Africa might have been the oldest person in the crowd of 25,000, while Luke Carroll Wallis, comfortable in his stroller, might well have been the youngest.

Recovering the evangel:a guide to faith, politics, and alternatives to the religious right, Jim Wallis, Bob Hulteen, Aaron Gallegos. Washington, D.C.: Sojourners, 1998.

Who speaks for God?: an alternative to the religious right--a new politics of compassion, community, and civility, New York: Delacorte Press, 1996

The soul of politics: a practical and prophetic vision for change, London: Fount, 1995 1994.

The soul of politics: beyond "Religious right" and "Secular left", San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1995 1994.

The call to conversion: recovering the gospel for these times, San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992 1981.

Cloud of witnesses, Wallis, Jim.; Hollyday, Joyce. Maryknoll, N.Y. : Washington, D.C. : Orbis Books ; Sojourners, 1991

Crucible of fire: the church confronts apartheid, Wallis, Jim.; Hollyday, Joyce. Maryknoll, N.Y. : Washington, D.C. : Orbis Books ; Sojourners, 1989.

Abortion: what does it mean to be pro-life?, Washington, D.C. : Sojourners Magazine, 1980.

The Rise of Christian conscience: the emergence of a dramatic renewal movement in the church today, San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1987.

The new radical, Tring : Lion, 1983.

Peace-makers: Christian voices from the New Abolitionist Movement, San Francisco ; London: Harper & Row, 1983.

Agenda for Biblical people, San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1984.

Peacemakers, Christian voices from the new abolitionist movement, San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1983.

The call to conversion, San Francisco, [Calif.] : Harper & Row, 1982 1981.

Revive us again: a Sojourner's story, Nashville : Abingdon Press, 1983

Waging peace: a handbook for the struggle to abolish nuclear weapons, San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1982.

New evangelicals and the demands of discipleship, Christian Century 91 (My 29 1974), p. 581-582.