The Jim Wallis Podcast

Paul Rieckhoff, Founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the current morale of the Armed Forces and how to support those who have served and those who are currently serving our country through policy advocacy and in our day-to-day interactions."I think that especially the younger generation, people think leadership is about having a million followers on Instagram or a corner office or a big paycheck or about power and it's really not. "See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church about God making a way for healing and love from the painful divisions of the coronavirus and white supremacy in our country."We need our leaders to be motivated by an unselfish sacrificial way of love that truly seeks the good and well-being of the American society," Curry says, "but not just the American society, but the global community."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this bonus episode, Rev. Jim Wallis speaks about how racism is the religious issue in this election. Rev. Wallis calls for unity and a need for healing as a nation as we continue to reel from the twin pandemics of the coronavirus and racial injustice. He states that racism must be a deal breaker for white Christians in this election. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about voting rights ahead of one of the most important presidential elections in modern history.Clyburn says, "This is probably the most consequential election for African Americans and for civil rights and civil liberties since maybe the election of 1868. All elections are important, but all of them are not as consequential as others. ... It's often said that Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance.' We have to remain vigilant. And I can think of no time in our history that that's more apropos than this time."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Activist and civil rights organizer Bree Newsome Bass speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the importance of removing symbols of hate and the need for racial reckoning."One of the things that is significant about the pandemic era, it has really shown how interconnected we are. Just the way that the pandemic spreads, the way that the lack of access to PPE in one community causes it to spread to other communities, shows that there really is no such thing as individuality. Past a certain extent, it's an entirely interconnected society. A pandemic has no inherent biases. It is just a virus that is in search of lungs. It impacts communities based on who has access to resources. And it's as simple as that."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Nicole Baker Fulgham, founder and president of the Expectations Project and author of Educating All God's Children, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about what Christians can do to help improve public schools for kids in crisis, particularly amid COVID-19.  Baker Fulgham says, "Because the education disparities in our country are hundreds of years in the making and they are systemic, they follow closely along the lines of class and of course, race. There's a role for people of faith to be advocates on this issue. [We] are probably best known for our work on things like church school or synagogue, school mosque, school partnerships, you know, tutoring and backpack supplies, all of which are wonderful things. But because the problems are institutional and systemic, we can't tutor or backpack supply drive our way out of the fact that millions of kids are going to schools that are severely underfunded. Or that in many States, millions of families don't have access to high quality preschool."So let's tackle the policy and the systems change. We're going to get there faster. It's going to be a much deeper change. And that's what we believe people of faith are called to do with every system and definitely the public education systems." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how white American Christianity and white supremacy collaborate throughout our nation's history. Jones says, "[Racism is] very, very deep in [white Christian] theology and it's going to take more than a couple of potlucks with the African American church down the street. It's going to take a serious reconsideration of evangelical theology top to bottom. I liken it to something like a bone marrow transplant. It's so deep that you basically have to kill the immune system and bring someone close to death in order to finally bring them to health. I think that's the situation we're in after hundreds of years of this being built into the very DNA of white Christian identity in this country."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Eddie Glaude, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of African American Studies at Princeton University and former president of the American Academy of Religion, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the need for a profound change in America that he calls the "The Third Founding."Glaude says, "The third founding tries to disrupt this idea [of] who white Americans take themselves to be."We have to begin to build a society that will reflect the value of every individual, no matter their color, their zip code, who they love. So it's going to require policies that will ensure that the dignity of every human being is recognized by the state and by the community that undergirds the state. So it has everything to do with universal health care, has everything to do with the living wage. It has everything to do with a vibrant, robust public education system. It has something to do with a robust conception of the public good fortified by a public infrastructure of care."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How did white people justify racism for so long in this country? Heather McGhee, the co-chair of Color of Change, the country’s largest online racial justice organization, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the legacy of racism in the United States and the lies that allow America’s original sin to be perpetuated to this day. “The whitewashing and posthumous glorification of our society's agitators allows for contemporary people to pretend that they back in that time would have had a clear moral stance,” says McGhee. “And that, I think, is a temptation that allows people in the contemporary moment to justify their own ambiguity or hostility towards the agitators of today. So often in conversations with white people about Jim Crow and about slavery, they act as if, of course they would have been one of the good guys back then.... What is lost is how much the justifications for the status quo always evolve and change.”“There were reasons that good, upstanding, moral white people gave themselves and their children for why segregation made sense,” continues McGhee. “It was about crime. It was about poverty. It was about God's will. It was about the natural order of things. And when you focus on what the possible justifications could have been, as opposed to just saying, ‘old people in the past were evil,’ then you might start to recognize some of those same justifications for the status quo today.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown serves as associate pastor of the historic Twelfth Baptist church in Boston, one of the oldest African American churches in the nation. Rev Brown is also one of the architects of the Boston Miracle, a proven successful methodology that is being replicated across the country and around the world to reduce gang violence.Rev. Brown spoke with Rev. Jim Wallis about his work to save young black lives. "If you have people straining to live under the weight of a system that seeks to constantly dehumanize, then it doesn't matter how much training the police will get," said Rev. Brown. "You will always have a city who will look at communities of color as less than the other parts of the city."Brown continues, "I committed myself to this work because Black lives matter. And I really believe it's biblical. Look at the Luke 15 parables. You had a sheep and one of them is lost. The shepherd went after the one, then the 99 could cry, 'Well, what about us? Don't we matter?' But they're not the one that's in danger. And so that life mattered and in that respect, we're living in an age where people are starting to understand if a Black life doesn't matter, then my life doesn't matter. If a Black life matters, then all of our lives matter."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Right Reverend Robert Wright, the 10th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, speaks with Rev. Wallis about the original sin of racism and how we need to find empathy through proximity."George Floyd, a man was publicly asphyxiated, violently asphyxiated for the entire world to see, not unlike the public asphyxiation that happened on Calvary. We see this and we've got to speak up. If the Bible says anything, it says that God and neighbor both are irreducible. That God and neighbor [are] synonymous. It's in some ways, not a black thing. And it's certainly not a white thing. It's a neighbor thing."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Civil rights advocate Cecilia Muñoz was an eyewitness to history as she helped shape the Obama administration's immigration reform policies, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for the people many now refer to as "Dreamers."Muñoz tells Rev. Jim Wallis, "We have large numbers, 10 or 11 million undocumented people, [who] Congress has rendered deportable, but we're going to make choices about who we choose to remove. And, DACA recipients are an expression of the folks who should be the lowest priority ... We now know that legions of [Dreamers] are teachers and students and lawyers, and 29,000 of them are medical personnel on the front lines of this pandemic."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Third generation historian John Whittington Franklin discusses the history of African Americans with Rev. Jim Wallis. They discuss how Black history is integral to a larger American historical narrative. Franklin says, "As Americans, we all need to know each other's history, as well as our own. That's the only way we will be complete."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sikh American civil rights activist and lawyer Valarie Kaur talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about The Revolutionary Love Project.Kaur finds examples of revolutionary love across many faith traditions: "When we think about Jesus has called to love our neighbor as ourself; or Abraham's decision to open his tent to all; or Buddha to have compassion for all; or Mohammad's to take in the orphan; or Mirabai in the Hindu tradition to love without limit; when we love without limit, then it is revolutionary... then it becomes a force for interior and political and social and cultural and spiritual change."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the potential for a Kairos moment during the unprecedented crisis our nation is facing.Coons says, "A basic fundamental change can happen because there is the action of God in history, touching hearts, moving people ... When there is sin, when there is brokenness, when there's division, we can't be reconciled to each other until there is a confrontation with our own history, a willingness to be open to challenges or criticism of our own behavior, and our history, and our hearts, and then a willingness to repent."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do you balance the sometimes competing demands of religion and democracy? Religious and legal scholar Melissa Rogers talks with Rev. Jim Wallis on about the fine line that is sometimes hard to distinguish when examining our duty to our religion and our government.Rogers says, "You think about this pandemic and the way that government and all institutions, including religious institutions had to turn on a dime. ...We need to be both able to partner with government for good. And we need to also be prophetic interrogators ofgovernment too... So I think it's that dual role of cooperating and challenging that we need to perform when we're dealing with government.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about our need to focus our outrage on the tragic death of George Floyd and the systemic structures that caused it. She warns against being distracted by Donald Trump's brazen attempt to falsely cloak himself with spiritual authority by staging a photo op in front of St. John's, Lafayette Square."I have friends and people that you and I both know who are working so hard to keep the protest for justice engaged and focused on the outrage of George Floyd's death," Bishop Budde says. "That's the work to be done. And as several of our clergy colleagues of color have said to us, 'You know, it's not as if white supremacy was invented yesterday. You may have just come to a deeper appreciation this week, but this is what we've been dealing with for a while.'"She continues, "Think about the things that need to be done right now, that can be done because of the Kairos moment that we may be blessed with to really move, to push something forward. Every once in a while, you get a window of time and space and serendipity and grace, where you can actually push something forward."  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whitney Parnell, Founder and CEO of Service Never Sleeps, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd about systemic racism, white privilege, and the hope for our collective future.Parnell says, "White supremacy is the institutionalization of white dominance and power. And racism is the structural upholding of that[...] Being born as a white person, you are born into that system in a position of privilege."Parnell continues, "Hope is the belief that we can build a better tomorrow than today. And that just helped bring everything home for me ... Every day I can work towards tomorrow being better. And that just helps me feel like this is a manageable way for me to approach this very difficult work each day."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As we pass the horrifying milestone of 100,000 American deaths to the coronavirus, we’re using the hashtag #Lament100k to urge people to pause — to lament.Rev. Jim Wallis tells us, "We must stop. We must weep. We must mourn. We must honor. And we must lament."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robert P. Jones the CEO and Founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (https://www.prri.org/staff/robert-p-jones-ph-d/) and a leading scholar and commentator on religion, culture, and politics speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis on the impact and the importance of polling in the Presidential Election season and the impact of COVID-19 on the perceptions of people of faith.Jones says, "We've been able to see really as the pandemic has progressed and as Trump has shifted his responses is that he reached a peak of support in March. Now for Trump, peak support is actually just under 50%, 49%. But that was the highest favorability rating we had ever recorded for President Trump...but we saw this really remarkable drop across groups."PRRI reports, "Currently, two-thirds (66%) of white evangelical Protestants, nearly half (48%) of white Catholics, and 44% of white mainline Protestants hold a favorable view of Trump, a significant decline from their March 2020 ratings (77%, 60%, and 62%, respectively)." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis talks with Myungsung Church's lead pastor Rev. Hana Kim about South Korea's response to COVID-19 and the moral, ethical, and religious imperative we have to help the most vulnerable as Jesus commands, many of whom are more at-risk during this global crisis.Kim says, "We have to reclaim Jesus in this crisis. I'm trying to be a true believer and if you're a true believer, you must embrace not only teachings of Jesus Christ, but also the life of Jesus Christ: his character, his disposition, his heart, his love and his willingness to be close to the neighbors and the sick at the marginalized, the poor, ... to reclaim not only the words of Jesus Christ, but the life of Jesus Christ."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis talks with theologian and immigrant advocate Karen González about the lessons of immigration in the Bible.The metrics of the COVID-19 pandemic show how disproportionately affected our immigrant and refugee neighbors have been. González says, "The story of the Bible isn't just a story of moving from being lost to being saved, but it's one of being a foreigner and moving toward being part of the family of God to belonging. And that's a trajectory we can see throughout the scriptures from the very beginning when we meet Abraham — God is asking him to migrate, and we see he and Sarah's vulnerability in Egypt. Over and over again the scripture restates some 83 times ... that we're to treat the immigrant as ourselves, we're to love the immigrant as ourselves, we're to do justice for the immigrant. And there's judgment. There's a whole book of the Bible, Obadiah. And it's judgment for those who did not treat the refugee and immigrant well, for those who did not do justice for the immigrant."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

President-elect of Bread for the World Rev. Eugene Cho talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the need for faith leaders to speak out about politics in the time of the coronavirus."I think the word 'politics,' for lots of reasons, it's grown to become this difficult, challenging word in our culture and context. Especially I think in the evangelical context," Cho said. "... That's not the only thing that we as Christians do. But it is one way, a significant way, in which we try to live out this calling to be a good neighbor, because politics, it shapes and informs policies that impact people. And the last time I read the Bible, God really cares about people. ... I share in that prayer that more Christians would get engaged in advocacy, in speaking up and to urge our lawmakers and leaders to lead with moral courage, and to lead with empathy and compassion."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ahead of Mother's Day, New York times bestselling author and historian of Christianity at Duke Divinity School, Kate Bowler and Rev. Jim Wallis dig into a meaningful discussion about what being human looks like amid a global pandemic. From waking up in the morning to parent and raise a child to navigating the inevitable suffering life brings, Kate provides a clarifying voice and perspective for how to live through these trying times. Her scholarship in American heresies, like the fallacy of the Prosperity Gospel, make for an interesting investigation into America's unique, and sometimes upsetting, response to our current crisis. Bowler says, "In the end, bad things happen to good people because there is no cure to being human. And the world will not mete out its punishments in relationship to our faithfulness or whether we don't cheat at golf. And  if there is math, we don't get to see it. So the problem is of course, is that we're left with suffering without apparent meaning. That's scary for us because we derive a lot of purpose from meaning."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marie Dennis, senior advisor and former co-president of Pax Christi International, and Rev. Jim Wallis analyze the importance of government social programs to provide true security to our nation. Dennis says, "What we're seeing in this pandemic is the result of a distorted sense of priorities for years in our own country, and that is echoed in the rest of the world. What we're seeing is the need to rethink what we mean by security and talk about security in a different way. ... According to a new definition of security, our investment [needs to be] in health care, in the safety of children, in ending hunger, in reducing food insecurity and on and on and on."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, the founder and senior pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the need to observe the Sabbath during this time of the COVID-19 crisis.  "The emotional strain of this experience has been undeniable. The uncertainty is a beast. One day when I was feeling overwhelmed by it, all my Apple watch vibrated and when I looked at it, it simply said, breathe. All of us need to receive this message on a regular basis and particularly right now we all need to take time to breathe because as ministers we spend our lives in perpetual motion sometimes without stopping to even catch our breath." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about state and federal responses to the coronavirus."We started as part of our overall response to COVID-19, something called our community resiliency and recovery work group, which is really grounded in ensuring that we don't return back to normal and that we are centering people of color, Native Americans, immigrants and refugees, low-income folks, and people experiencing homelessness at the center of our response."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes III and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has further revealed the structural and racial inequalities embedded in our nation and in our society.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Billy Shore, founder and chairman of Share Our Strength and the architect of the No Kid Hungry campaign, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how to feed the kids who are missing nearly 34 million meals each day now that schools are shuttered because of the coronavirus."Hopefully one of our responsibilities or charges from a leadership point of view is to help people see how we can make some permanent changes, so the next time there's such a crisis, the vulnerable are not as vulnerable; we're more on an equal footing," Shore says.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Latin American theologian, missiologist, and educator Ruth Padilla DeBorst and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss the importance of social consciousness in the creation of government policy. Speaking of government priorities, Padilla DeBorst says, "If there is an awareness that the place of government is to guarantee the wellbeing of people and not just to serve the interests of a few or to line one's pockets, it makes a big difference. That's something we can be grateful for at same time as we mourn the lack of that kind of consciousness on the part of many governments in the world." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brian Gallagher, the CEO of United Way Worldwide, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on his perspective as the leader of a global network that represents organizations from 40 countries and six continents, Gallagher says, "Extreme political leaders are crushing the soul of our country right now."Addressing extremism from the political right and left, Gallagher calls for us to work together for the common good, especially in the wake of the devastation of the coronavirus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, discusses the role of faith in democracy with Rev. Jim Wallis. Pérez and Wallis examine challenges to exercising our right to vote during the pandemic. Together, they discuss the biblical precepts that require all people of faith to defend the voting rights of all Americans, especially those who are the most marginalized.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this very special Easter Sunday Sermon episode of The Soul of the Nation podcast, Fr. Richard Rohr and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss the many examples of hope and grace to be found amid the despair of the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Rohr is a Franciscan of the New Mexico Province, an academic dean and author, a spiritual teacher, and the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, N.M.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Emergency Medicine expert Dr. Mel Herbert talks with Rev Jim Wallis on the importance of spiritual healing in a time of medical crisis. Herbert is an award-winning professor, physician, and editor who serves as the attending physician and professor of emergency medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine. Herbert shares with Wallis the uplifting stories of the medical heroes battling on the front lines to keep the public safe.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Larry Brilliant, an American epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss the current administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Brilliant outlines the moral, ethical, and scientific responses needed to respond effectively to the coronavirus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the nation tries to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the nation is engaged in responsible social distancing. In this episode of our Sunday Sermon in a Pandemic series, Sojourners Executive Director Adam Taylor and Rev. Jim Wallis share their thoughts on biblical teachings that can guide us through these times when the staggering devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic ravages our nation — and the world — after months of unconscionable inaction by President Trump.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The massive $2 trillion stimulus bill will provide relief for many Americans during the financial crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. But many vulnerable people will be ineligible for much-needed financial aid. The Rev. Jim Wallis and Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, dissect the particulars of the bill, explaining how you can access the protections contained in the legislation. They also highlight the failures of the aid package that ignore the needs of the people on the margins of society whom Jesus calls us to feed, clothe, and shelter. Greenstein calls us to apply the "golden rule" in the fight ahead, so that we can expand coverage to our brothers and sisters who need it most in the next round.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the nation tries to slow the advance of the Coronavirus Pandemic, we are all engaged in responsible social distancing. In this first episode of the Sunday Sermon in a Pandemic Podcast, Bishop Michael Curry and the Reverend Jim Wallis discuss making connections to faith and worship, spirituality and justice, in the digital and social media age.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this very special episode of The Soul of the Nation, the Reverend Jim Wallis speaks with Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician, public health leader, and a passionate advocate for patient-centered health care reform.  Dr. Wen shares urgent advice for sustaining and protecting our body, as well as our mind and soul, amid the coronavirus pandemic.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this very special episode of The Soul of the Nation, the Reverend Jim Wallis sits down with the Reverend Adam Taylor, Sojourners' Executive Director, to discuss the role of the Church in politics in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.Dr. King famously said, "The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will. But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travelers at midnight." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Reverend Jim Wallis shares his thoughts and his blessings this Christmas Season.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the third episode of this new season of The Soul of the Nation, the Rev. Jim Wallis interviews Mayor Pete Buttigieg.Throughout this special season, Wallis will sit down with the 2020 presidential candidates to discuss the intersection of faith and politics. The candidates explain how personal faith has shaped their passion for public service and positive social change.  "It is my hope that discussing faith, from many different religious backgrounds, can clarify how faith will play a role in politics moving forward and further discourage this myth that the right owns religion. From unapologetically faith-forward campaigns to campaigns without a connection to faith at all, the wide spectrum of religious affiliation among the 2020 presidential candidates makes way for rich conversations about religion’s role in 2020," says Wallis. "Whether it is addressing poverty, combatting racism, or solving the climate crisis, how does faith inform the moral leadership our electorate is seeking? This special series works to answer this question and many more." In one-on-one interviews, Wallis and the 2020 candidates try to envision how an open dialogue about faith will change our country's current political landscape and potentially embolden social action among churchgoers.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the second episode of this new season of The Soul of the Nation, the Rev. Jim Wallis interviews Secretary Julian Castro.Throughout this special season, Wallis will sit down with the 2020 presidential candidates to discuss the intersection of faith and politics. The candidates explain how personal faith has shaped their passion for public service and positive social change.  "It is my hope that discussing faith, from many different religious backgrounds, can clarify how faith will play a role in politics moving forward and further discourage this myth that the right owns religion. From unapologetically faith-forward campaigns to campaigns without a connection to faith at all, the wide spectrum of religious affiliation among the 2020 presidential candidates makes way for rich conversations about religion’s role in 2020," says Wallis. "Whether it is addressing poverty, combatting racism, or solving the climate crisis, how does faith inform the moral leadership our electorate is seeking? This special series works to answer this question and many more." In one-on-one interviews, Wallis and the 2020 candidates try to envision how an open dialogue about faith will change our country's current political landscape and potentially embolden social action among churchgoers.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the first episode of this new season of The Soul of the Nation, Rev. Jim Wallis interviews Senator Cory Booker.Throughout this special season, Wallis will sit down with the 2020 presidential candidates to discuss the intersection of faith and politics. The candidates explain how personal faith has shaped their passion for public service and positive social change.  "It is my hope that discussing faith, from many different religious backgrounds, can clarify how faith will play a role in politics moving forward and further discourage this myth that the right owns religion. From unapologetically faith-forward campaigns to campaigns without a connection to faith at all, the wide spectrum of religious affiliation among the 2020 presidential candidates makes way for rich conversations about religion’s role in 2020," says Wallis. "Whether it is addressing poverty, combatting racism, or solving the climate crisis, how does faith inform the moral leadership our electorate is seeking? This special series works to answer this question and many more." In one-on-one interviews, Wallis and the 2020 candidates try to envision how an open dialogue about faith will change our country's current political landscape and potentially embolden social action among churchgoers.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's always amazing to me how — somehow, apparently, mysteriously, and even miraculously — Jesus has survived all of us Christians.And yet, it’s undeniable that the election of Donald Trump and the presidency that has followed — and the Christian response to all of it — have revealed how disconnected many American Christians have become from Jesus. In particular, the uncritical support Trump enjoys from many white evangelicals in the religious right, and the Faustian bargain they have made for power, are turning many Americans (and others) away from Christianity altogether.While we’ve long known that institutional Christianity is in decline in the United States — especially among younger generations — the bottom is starting to fall out of evangelicalism, with people identifying with “no religion” surpassing evangelicals and Catholics for the first time earlier this year as the most common answer on a religious self-identification survey of Americans. Increasing numbers of Americans are “falling away from religion because they see it as so wrapped up with Republican politics.”Here’s why I believe this is actually good news.Recently, I spoke to a group of university students who are in Washington, D.C. doing internships this semester on the Hill, at the White House, the cabinet, and other agencies around the Capitol.As I began to talk about this Jesus who we have all become disconnected from (especially in the churches), and how the questions he asked or prompted are so deeply connected to the moral and political crisis we now find ourselves in, they lit up. After I laid out some of those Jesus questions and their relevance to us today, including what they see and hear around them in the nation’s capital every day, hands came up from all over the room.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This podcast explores the themes in Jim Wallis’ new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. Pre-order at Book.Sojo.NetIn recent weeks the hashtag #antichrist trended on Twitter for nearly 24 hours in response to presidential tweets. And in response to the mass-shooting in El Paso, perpetuated by a white nationalist who invoked Christian theology, evangelical leader Beth Moore said in a tweet:  Any “Christ” that can be invoked in support of white nationalism is a false Christ of the highest, most hellish order. An anti-Christ. A wholly-opposite christ. No such christ is the Christ Jesus of Scripture who taught His followers a love that sacrifices life & limb for others.Anti-Christ is a very big word, very evocative of our deepest spiritual realities and feelings, and is seldom invoked without controversy. It’s been abused by those promoting bad “end times” and “left behind” theology. But it’s also a profoundly biblical concept, one we must take as seriously in our day as Jesus did in his. Jesus warned his followers to be on the lookout for “pseudo-christs,” those that claimed his name but were far from the true heart of God, and said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”There seems to be a clear choice, a real and stark choice, going on in this country and even in the churches, between the politics of Jesus and anti-Christ politics. I believe that the fear of the other, the hatred of the other, and violence against the other are the core of anti-Christ politics. And the love of the other, calling the other your neighbor, is at the heart of the politics of Jesus.Jesus said eight different times, “Be not afraid ...” Anti-Christ politics says, “Be afraid. I'm going to make you more afraid.” Jesus says that leadership is about service. Anti-Christ politics says it’s about wealth and power — it's about winning and losing. The Bible says we are all made in the image of God, but anti-Christ politics says, “No, some people are more valuable than other people.” In Jesus politics, how we treat the “least of these” is the test of our politics. In anti-Christ politics, the “least of these” are the least important. So this isn’t about left or right, liberal or conservative, but goes deeper — this is about “What did Jesus say?” And I think to love our neighbor, the one who is different than us, is the most key question or choice for America's future; that will most determine the soul of this nation going forward.But what we see from the White House now is merely the latest example of what has beset us as a country from the beginning. We must face the reality that anti-Christ politics have been used and manipulated by this president ever since he descended that escalator in Trump Tower, launching his presidential campaign by labeling those who God calls “beloved," murderers and rapists.When presidential narcissism turns to blasphemy, it’s time to name that as #antiChrist. And when we decide to study the gospels again and learn the politics of Jesus, it’s time to speak out and stand up for that by #ReclaimingJesus. My prayer is that this book will help in that study of Jesus and our rejection of anti-Christ politics.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In his first Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln appealed to “the better angels of our nature.” That is what our political and religious leaders should always do — appeal to our best angels. But at the other end of the moral spectrum, political and even religious leaders now often appeal to our worst demons: fear, anger, resentment, greed, prejudice, division, and hatred. And the danger we are discovering is that our demons in America have been lying just below the surface and have been aggressively brought forth in the past few years. We see white supremacists marching openly with torches aloft in Charlottesville and elsewhere, and a growing white nationalism feels emboldened by the White House. We see children in cages and families torn apart at the southern border because of policies made in the same building where they call immigrants “invaders.” We now see the worst elements of America’s history rekindled by some who see these elements as their plan for this nation’s future, often with the language of Christianity painfully deployed in defense of that.The dangerous political crisis we now find ourselves in has revealed how disconnected from Jesus many Christians in America have become. Closing the gaping distance that presently exists between Christians and the Jesus that too many Christians desperately try to avoid often seems a daunting challenge — where can we even begin? Are there fundamental truths of Jesus’s ministry that can help us find our way back to him, even and especially amid this fearful moment? Yes, I believe there are and that some of the key questions Jesus asked or provoked would help show us the way forward.That is what my new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus is all about.We are asking you to help us in two ways:1. Pre-ordering Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus ( https://book.sojo.net/) will help the book break into and even change the national conversation going on right now. You can directly help change that conversation by reading the book, sharing it, and using it as a tool and guidebook in your congregations, small groups, schools, and local communities. We have also created a 10-week study guide with videos and resources for small group and congregational and school study; and2.Inviting me and other voices to come and speak in your community, so we can go deeper into conversation together about what these questions mean in your community and our country and world more broadly. We are already in contact with diverse local leaders in many places who are going to participate in those conversations. If you build the events, we will come.The good news is that we will not be alone; we can take that journey with our brothers and sisters in our congregations, our families, and our communities; a pilgrimage — a sojourn — of prayer, study, discernment, and action.We may not all have the same answers to the questions Jesus asked and prompted, but they must be asked; and perhaps it is our conversation about them together that could help heal a broken nation. In the midst of the painful, shameful, and embarrassing examples of religion selling its soul for power, more and more of us will make clear that we are reclaiming Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Racism is a sin that has been biblically established. It was and is America’s original sin. Racism is notoriously both implicit and explicit, but covert and overt racism must be acknowledged and repented. When racism is made explicit and overt in the public arena, it must be named and called out for what it is — especially when the comments come from the president of the United States. Donald Trump’s tweeted and spoken racial assaults on four women of color, duly elected to the U.S. Congress, are a public sin that must be called out. Who will do that and who will not?Trump’s tweets and comments telling the four members of Congress — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib — to go back to the countries they came from is painfully reminiscent of what people and families of color have been told from the moment they arrived in America by far too many white people — all of whom were also immigrants at some point or were white settlers who stole the lands of Indigenous Peoples and tried to wipe them away.There is one thing from Donald Trumps’ tweets I agree with. It was when he said, “[see] you at the ballot box!” He’s right. And that asks all of us where the moral courage will come from among faith leaders, business leaders, and political leaders across the political spectrum before the ballots are cast in 2020. What will Christians say and do and how will they vote? Silence in the face of public evil is a fundamentally moral issue — and is a matter of faith.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After yet another mass shooting, this time in Virginia Beach where 12 people were killed, many of us had the same painful reactions of grief for the families, fear that this could happen to someone I love one day, anger at the gun manufacturers whose influence through the NRA makes them complicit in both the mass shootings and the daily epidemic of gun violence. As a parent, I’m heartsick and angry that our society now traumatizes even our youngest children by making them do active shooter drills at school. I’ve written about all of this many times before given the terrifying frequency of mass and daily shootings in the U.S. and the scale of the overall gun violence epidemic.I think it’s impossible to tell the story of this movement’s progress without looking at the impact of Sandy Hook where 20 6- and 7-year-old elementary school children and six adults were murdered. An oft-circulated 2015 tweet from political pundit Dan Hodges lamented, “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”But in many ways the reverse is true. Many parents of children lost at Sandy Hook rose up and came together with other gun violence victims’ fathers and mothers — and have dedicated the rest of their lives to the gun safety movement — precisely because Sandy Hook was unbearable to them. The enormous traction, energy, and funding they’ve gotten to expand that work and make steady progress is due in no small part to the fact that the senseless killing of children has become unacceptable to a whole generation of parents. I don’t believe that senseless, stupid, murderous gun violence will ultimately be accepted as normal. Rather, a new generation of parents, a new insistence for change from coming-of-age voters, and a new network of urban activists committed to making their neighborhoods safe for black and brown bodies will ultimately prevail. That must be our hope and our commitment.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Donald Trump is, and always has been, a consummate liar, an amoral human being, a completely selfish man with no concern for any others, an ultimate wealth and power-seeking megalomaniac, and the kind of leader who always has and will always want to be a tyrant and dictator. Removing him from power is, therefore, a task central to the soul of the nation — and to the integrity of faith.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.