Who Will Win the Battle for the Nation’s Soul?
WhoWhatWhy Podcast host Jeff Schlechtman speaks with the Rev. Jim Wallis of Soujourners.
Politics has become our new religion. It’s the one thing now that gives many people a tribal connection and a sense of belonging. It doesn’t seem to matter how objectively good or bad the ideas or the outcomes may be. Belonging to something larger than themselves, forging a strong connection with like-minded individuals, makes people feel safer. This is a role that used to be played by community or family or faith — before it was co-opted by the toxic mix of politics and religion known as the Christian right. The result is a nation of anger, anxiety, and despair.
My guest on this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, the Rev. Jim Wallis, has another approach to the value of religion. He is the founder and longtime editor of Sojourners — a print and online publication devoted to articulating the call to Christian social justice. He’s now taking up a new role at Georgetown University as the inaugural chair in Faith and Justice, at the McCourt School of Public Policy — a new center dedicated to the “intersection of faith, public life, and the common good.”
Wallis talks of the existential problems we face that have given rise to fear, hatred, and violence. At a time when the future of our democracy is at stake, he reminds us that the real “big lie” is racism and Christian white supremacy.
He argues that, throughout history, faith communities have been an animating core for social change. He believes that the current crises of dysfunctional democratic institutions and an inequitable justice system are essentially tests of faith, and that, seen in this light, they have the power to change hearts and minds. We are in real trouble, he says, if our future discourse only comes down to a battle between Fox News and MSNBC.