Excerpts

The topic of politics and religion is in the air; everybody is talking about it--from Reader's Digest to Rolling Stone. The central concern today is the "values crisis," or what Senator Sam Nunn described as a "deficit of the soul" at the 1996 National Prayer Breakfast. Whether they are religious or not, most Americans are hungry for a deeper connection between politics and moral values; many would say "spiritual values." That concern is always heightened during an election year, but will continue to grow beyond this electoral cycle. But for too long the so-called Religious Right has dominated that discussion in the mainstream media. The result is that many people who have religious or spiritual concerns, but don't feel represented by groups like the Christian Coalition, feel left out of the conversation. Those people must be brought back into the public discussion. We need them. We live in the most religious country in the world. Many Americans across the liberal-moderate-conservative political spectrum are deeply religious or "spiritual" people. They, too, believe that their country is losing its way. They, too, see a vital connection between values and politics. They, too, if they are religious, believe the language of faith is relevant to political life. But if they don't warm to the polemics of television preachers who sound like right-wing ideologues, where are they to turn? Those people must have somewhere else to go. Yet our problem is not just a "Christian Coalition" that claims to speak for all religious people. It is also the mostly liberal secularists who want to keep any religious or spiritual concerns out of politics altogether. Their anti-religious bias is as rigid and intolerant as the Christian fundamentalists on the other side. These have become our false choices: hollow secularism or right-wing religion. But many people are hungry for an alternative; the good news is that there is one. I want to suggest another way. A few clarifications are in order. First, the "Religious Right" does not speak for all social conservatives. Thoughtful conservatives in America are making valuable contributions to our discourse about morality and "virtue" in the public square, the sacred value of human life, the problems of bureaucracy in government, the need for taking serious personal and community responsibility, et cetera. Conservatives, even religious conservatives, are not all part of the Religious Right. Second, all those Americans who are attracted to the Religious Right should not be lumped in with every political position of groups like the Christian Coalition. Many are drawn to the Religious Right out of concern for the decline of values in the country, fear for their children's future, moral conviction about the nation's abortion rates, or reaction to what they see on their television sets no matter what time of the day they turn them on. It's a mistake to believe everyone who is part of the Religious Right wants to take over the country and impose a repressive theocratic regime on his or her neighbors. But the political views of the Religious Right's leadership are extreme and their agenda bodes danger for the country. Since they are now actively competing for political power--and getting it--their views and agenda should be made known, and they should be held politically accountable for them. Because their claim is also religious, as well as political, the Religious Right should also be scrutinized by religious and specifically biblical criteria. I want to help us attempt that task together. Many of the references and quotations I've used refer to the Christian Coalition, its president, Pat Robertson, and its executive director, Ralph Reed. That is because the Coalition is the largest, best mobilized, and most powerful Religious Right organization in the country, and indeed has become one of the most powerful political groups in the nation. Because he is the founding leader, political visionary, chief funder, principal policy-maker, and driving force behind the Christian Coalition, President Pat Robertson should be in the spotlight, and he is in this book. The more moderate-sounding and politically diplomatic Ralph Reed has been given the role of the Coalition's public spokesperson, but that does not change who is finally in charge. Robertson brought in Reed and retains ultimate authority, as Ralph Reed readily acknowledges. Business Week reports, "Thinking like business execs has helped Robertson & Co. avoid the pitfalls that stalled other loose-knit conservative religious movements like Jerry M. Falwell's Moral Majority. Robertson chairs the coalition's tightly controlled board of directors, whose other two members are longtime friends. And the soft-spoken Reed provides political cover for the controversial Robertson, whose preaching against a shadowy global banking conspiracy and the separation of church and state frightens many mainstream voters." Despite the fact that many people, including many conservatives, think Robertson's views are quite bizarre, the political power his Christian Coalition has amassed makes those views no longer fringe. It makes them important, and they ought to be made the subject of public attention, especially by the religious community. But our discussion is much less about Pat Robertson or the Christian Coalition than it is about a "new politics"--a politics with spiritual values that transcends the old categories of Left and Right, liberal and conservative. The vital question in the discussion of religion and politics today is, indeed, "Who speaks for God?" I've tried to provide some help in answering that question and in seeking to forge a more spiritual politics. When I think of "spiritual politics," I often think of Mohandas K. Gandhi. The spiritual and political leader of India's freedom struggle warned against what he called "the seven deadly sins." They were: "politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice." Clearly, Gandhi's maxims speak to the heart of our moral crisis today. The issues he raises are much deeper than the battles between the Democrats and the Republicans. Wherever I travel, the recitation of Gandhi's warnings elicits a deep response in people across the political spectrum. Perhaps it's because the West has made Gandhi's "deadly sins" into a way of life--and we are now paying the price. Together, we must search for a spiritual politics suited to our own time, a politics of compassion, community, and civility. Ultimately, we are searching for a new politics of hope. Excerpted from Who Speaks for God?: An Alternative to the Religious Right: A New Politics of Compassion, Community and Civility by Jim Wallis All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.