Obama - A historic moment

I should be getting down to writing up my notes from Nick Clegg's speech today, but I keep finding myself distracted. One such distraction was reading this post by Jim Wallis. Having heard Jim speak about his involvement in the Civil Rights movement last week, I found his words particularly heartfelt and moving, so am sitting with tears rolling down my face! He finishes by reflecting on the election of Obama as the Democratic candidate as being truly historic:

"But it is more than historic; it is very personal for many of my generation. A new generation just sees this as natural -- he’s an inspirational leader who happens to be black, which matters little to them. But for my generation -- I’m dating myself now -- this is a transformational moment, one we didn't think would come in our lifetimes. Race was the issue that changed us, shaped us, determined our path, and even defined the meaning of our faith. Now a black man is running for president of the United States. Amazing grace."

Taking on the Religous Right

There is no doubt that the religious right in the States were pivotal not only in Bush's election but also in the development of his foreign policy, particularly in relation to Israel/Palestine. So I have been delighted to hear how the movement headed by Jim Wallis is beginning to wield so much more influence.

Sunday night I went to hear him speak (hat tip to Paul Burgin of Mars Hill for telling me about this). He has been a strong voice against the war in Iraq from the beginning, telling us of his visit to Blair pre the war to try and persuade him not to support it and having a previous book "God's Politics" endorsed by Gordon Brown. Jim is married to Joy Carroll, the inspiration for the Vicar of Dibley and was back in the UK for a family event so had taken some time out for a book tour to promote his book on faith and politics "Seven Ways to Change the World".

His call for a change of emphasis in the church is clearly touching a chord in the States and is likely to have an impact in the upcoming elections. He is attracting a swathe of particularly young Christians to a message that is based on social justice, human rights, equality, concern for the environment and community. He is vilified in some quarters as a progressive liberal, but sees himself in the tradition of the likes of Wilberforce and Finney.

Now, by bringing up the subject of the relationship between faith and politics I am no doubt going to get the likes of Laurence B into a lather. But so be it. As Jim Wallis pointed out, many of the great movements that have changed the world and changed politics have their roots in religion. Yes, religion can rightly on occasions be be blamed for conflict and evil, but it has also been a force for good. The same may be said about atheistic belief systems such as Communism, though no doubt there would be some debate about the Communist contribution for good. Arguments that religion and politics don't mix are meaningless to those who believe they do, which is why I applaud the work Jim and others are doing to challenge the religious right in the States. As Desmond Tutu says "I wonder which bible people are reading when they say religion and politics don't mix". I have no truck with those of faith who think it is purely personal and should have no impact on what they do to try to make a difference to the lives of others.

Jim Wallis believes that the obsession with abortion and gay marriage by the religious right has totally skewed the message of the gospel. As he says, Jesus said nothing at all about homosexuality but an awful lot about poverty and justice. Similarly he criticises the position on abortion, as he points out, despite the rhetoric, abortion rates have remained steady, dropping slightly under Clinton and actually rising slightly under Bush. He argues that is the result of social policy and that the emphasis should be on reducing the number of abortions, not on criminalising abortion. He decries the polarisation of the debate between pro life and pro choice - a topic to which I will return (having not had time to join in the abortion debate last week).

His challenge to the church is about taking the issues of poverty and justice seriously and asserts that politics is groping to find solutions to some of these great world issues. His position is that faith has been and can be a catalyst for action, reminding us of former campaigns against slavery, child labour, the Civil Rights movement in the US and Jubilee 2000. He told us that the origin of the "alter call" popular in so many evangelical churches, was the call to sign up for the anti-slavery campaign.

I applaud him for what he is doing and his contribution to changing things in US politics, to quote from his book "We have now entered the post Religious-Right era. That doesn't mean the Religious Right is dead, or won't still be an influence in Republican party politics. But its "era", the peak of its influence and its monopoly over faith and politics are now gone. Although religion has been given a negative image in the last few decades, the years ahead may be surprisingly shaped by a dynamic and more progressive faith that helps make needed social change possible. I have always been a progressive evangelical. "Progressive evangelical" has seemed to be a misnomer in recent years, but now it is becoming a movement."