God's Politics

There is new required reading for Christian Progressives, or for that matter, all progressives of faith----Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics: Why the Right is Wrong, and the Left Doesn't’t Get It. Wallis’ book is the perfect antidote for people of faith who do not subscribe to the theology of the religious right.

For too long, the national mainstream media has created a national perception that somehow, those who believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ are automatically Republicans---often sending the message that only Republicans are on God’s side. But as Wallis reminds us, the lessons of the Bible and the teachings of Christ have little in common with the current economic and foreign policies of the modern right. In fact, reality may be quite the contrary, as much of the modern progressive movement finds its roots in Judeo-Christian doctrine.

Just look at the Civil Rights movement. Our nation’s foremost Civil Rights champion, Dr. Martin Luther King used biblical teachings as the moral foundation of his crusade.

All across the South---and for that matter, across our nation, people of faith rose up against the enemies of equality. Back in my hometown of St. Augustine, it was an interracial group of Christians, led by the wife of a northern Episcopalian Bishop, who forced the integration of the all-white swimming pool at the downtown monsoon Motor Lodge, as local segregation defenders poured acid into the pool. In fact, my home church of Trinity Episcopal in St. Augustine, like so many churches in the south, was segregated until the early 1960s when a brave minister named Charles Seymour opened the doors to African-Americans to join in worship. Seymour, an amazing man who just recently passed away, told me once that he never set out to be one of the silent heroes of that era---rather, he was just doing what the bible told him was right.

Today’s progressive movement faces many new challenges, not the least of which is the growing gap between rich and poor, and the threat that poverty poses not only to our national stability. Right here in Florida, more than 30 percent of children live in poverty, with an estimated 625,000 children living with no access to decent health care. Our tax policy is patently unfair, with working and middle class families paying 3-5 times as much of their income in taxes as do the top 1 percent. Our schools, the key to our long term economic success, have seen their share of the state’s general revenue budget drop from 55.4% to just over 50 percent since 1999, a change in priorities that has cost our schools nearly $7.5 billion over the same period.

As Wallis says in his book: “Those are the two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way - God on our side - leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way - asking if we are on God’s side - leads to much healthier things, namely penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and accountability. We need much more of all those, because they are often the missing values of politics.”

Steven Schale--House Democratic Staff