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A few months ago, there was a great buzz about Jim Wallis’ book “Gods Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.” Jim Wallis is a Christian liberal and evangelical, the head of Sojourners, a left wing, er, “progressive” Christian activist group. He purports to provide a response from the Christian left to Christians of the center and right who support GW Bush.

While the book purports to critique both the left and the right, it actually spends most of its time opposing the right, and noting that the left just needs a little tweaking.

The book is divided into six parts, each dealing with a particular point. The three primary thrusts are found in the last three parts, and describe his distaste for the Iraq war, his support of broad coercive social programs, and a very odd not-quite-equivocation about abortion. The first three parts lay the foundation for his translation of his theology into coercive political action.

In the first section, Wallis begins by building the straw men that will provide the bases for the rest of the book. For instance, in the introduction, he asserts that the Republicans of the Christian right view Christianity only in terms of gay marriage and abortion. Christian liberals, in contrast, care about poverty, the envioronment, truth, human rights, and terrorism, which Wallis seems to think that Christian conservatives find uninteresting. Straw man number one.

Unfortunately, even from this introduction, Mr Wallis begins with a lie, and creates his foundation on lies even bigger than those he accuses the right of. He repeats, first in the introduction and at least twice in the book, the claim of 100,000 civilian casualties in the early Iraq war, based on the infamous Hopkins report that showed nothing of the sort (it said there was somewhere between 8000 and 194000) .

In his claim that “God is not a Republican. Or a Democrat,” Wallis is quick to quote Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson in their endorsements of Bush, followed by a blistering critique of the claim that God has took the side of Bush in the election, casting stones at the right. Oddly, he does not mention Hillary Clinton’s claim that a person cannot be both a Republican and a Christian. For some reason, he only criticizes one side of this discussion, a pattern that is consistent in the rest of his text.

Wallis then embarks on a liturgy of complaints against the Bush Adminstration that is cookie cutter from the DNC, with the exception of lukewarm opposition of abortion, but adds a thin patina of “God said it.” It’s almost funny; he spends so much time railing against conservatives who justify their opinions in terms of faith, and then spends the rest of the introduction doing exactly that to the DNC platform. I won’t go into these now, since they form the basis of the later chapters, but the hypocrisy is amusing.

Wallis’ next chapter “Lack of Vision” shortly excoriates society for not having a coherent moral vision. However, he spends more of the chapter excoriating President Bush for having one — the wrong one, according to Wallis. To quote:

Today we face two related vision problems. One is the lack of vision in public life, as we have already described. But the other is when political leaders have a clear vision — the wrong one. When politics is being shaped by visions that defend wealth and power, rather than opening up more opportunity; that are more exclusionary than inclusive; that pursue policies that destabilize families and communities; that exalt private interests over the common good; that simply leave too many people behind; that seen national or corporate self-interest over international peace and justice; or that increase conflict rather than reducing it — then such political vision can be as destructive as having no vision at all.”

Well, that’s a long sentence, but it says it all. It is also the great disappointment of the book. Rather than address the actual vision of Bush, rather than address the actual motives of Christian conservatives, rather than discuss the actual *reasons* for what Christian conservatives believe, Wallis chooses instead to write a book that accepts the fundamental lies of the left about the right and address those straw men as fact. Wallis has decided to preach to the choir, and has locked the door of his church to the rest of us.

Wallis’ book is a profound insult to the Christian right, not because it condemns us, but instead because it does not do us the basic courtesy of taking us seriously. Rather than address our actual positions, he lies about them and addresses his lies. His book is, as one might expect, a big hit among leftists who want to apply a patina of faith to their positions. But as a way of establishing some sort of real theological dialogue, it fails miserably.

As I read the entire book, I searched in vain to find some faint recognition of the theology that drives me or any of my conservative fellow believers — some mention of what I believe. I could not. I could only find caricatures directly out of MoveOn.org.

However, since it *was* such a hit, his points need to be addressed individually.

In the next post, Wallis on poverty and class warfare.

billo