Veteran Activist Jim Wallis Recruits Evangelicals for Poverty Fight

c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Solving the problem of poverty in America requires the cooperation of leaders and activists from across the theological and political spectrum, organizers of a conference said here this week. Organized by Call to Renewal and Sojourners, two Washington-based social justice groups co-founded by the Rev. Jim Wallis, the […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Solving the problem of poverty in America requires the cooperation of leaders and activists from across the theological and political spectrum, organizers of a conference said here this week.

Organized by Call to Renewal and Sojourners, two Washington-based social justice groups co-founded by the Rev. Jim Wallis, the “Pentecost Conference” drew about 600 social activists to the nation’s capital to meet with politicians, network and unveil a new “covenant” that lays out a blueprint for eradicating poverty.


Using events like this week’s conference, Wallis and Sojourners hope to draw religious and political leaders away from divisive issues like gay marriage and abortion to a new common ground against poverty.

“In a time when political and social issues threaten to divide the church, many people of faith are coming together to affirm that justice for those who live in poverty is a deeply held religious commitment on which we are all firmly united,” the Sojourners’ “Covenant for a New America” reads.

At the same time, religious progressives hope that targeting one topic _ in this case, poverty _ will help unite the various factions of the religious left into a cohesive political force.

“You focus on one thing,” said Harold Dungan, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastor from Rockville, Md. “What we’re focusing on is raising the minimum wage.”

The conference drew an A-list of Washington insiders, including Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.; Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.; Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.

But even for a worthy goal like eliminating poverty, it will take time to build trust across political divides, said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., one of the conference’s keynote speakers.

“We can affirm the importance of poverty in the Bible and discuss the religious call to environmental stewardship all we want, but it won’t have an impact if we don’t tackle head-on the mutual suspicion that sometimes exists between religious America and secular America,” he said.


With some conservative leaders “happy to exploit this gap,” between believers and secularists, Obama said, it is imperative that America have a “serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.”

Too often, Obama said, Democratic politicians assume that all religious Americans are “fanatical” and “only care about issues like abortion and gay marriage.”

That way of thinking could push aside evangelical Christians like Wallis, a preacher, author and activist who has fought poverty in Washington for three decades.

That thinking also ignores the fact that a string of American reformers, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Frederick Douglass, drew deeply from their faith, Obama said.

If progressives shed biases against religious Americans, “we might recognize the overlapping values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. … And we might realize that we have the ability to reach out to the evangelical community and engage millions of Americans in the larger project of America’s renewal,” the senator said.

After Obama’s speech, Wallis had just one thing to add: “You’ve been informed and inspired and people have heard your voice. Now go home and go back to work.”


_ Peter Sachs contributed to this report.

KRE/PH END BURKE

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