On the 11th April 2006, record crowds attended a packed hall in the University of Sydney, to listen to Jim Wallis the editor of Sojourners and author of ‘God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It,’ as he thundered the core message of Christ cannot be pigeonholed as a political left or right message.
He warned the dangers of secular fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism that could engulf a society. He believed secularist should get over their hesitation about church and state and bring faith into the political equation. He said faith played a huge role in people life and to simply consign it to a personal level was wrong.
Reverend Wallis was once asked to respond to why Jesus Christ was central to implementing great social reforms such as reducing poverty or restoring equality among all races. He answered saying if you looked to the past, nearly all great social reformers were Christians.
Ranging from Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Junior to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa, great social changes, which revolutionise both countries in profound ways, occurred because of the faith and hope they possessed.
On the right, he was pro-life where he supports initiative that consistently helps a person through their whole life and not just simply pro-birth. He said he was also pro-family where he believed something must be done to stop the destruction of family. Instead of blaming and treating homosexuals as the scapegoats we should look at ourselves where the primary reason why family break apart was due to a breakdown in heterosexual relationship.
He raised a hypothetical question: When was Jesus pro-war, pro-rich and pro-American? He stated Jesus agenda was hijacked by religious fundamentalist and political strategists where the morale issues were always centred on two issues abortion and homosexuality.
Reverend Wallis believed the message of Jesus was bigger than these. He said Jesus was pro-environment (take care of God’s beautiful creation), pro-peace (Matthew 5: 9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God’) and supported the poor.
Running a list of statistics, he stated 30,000 children died a day without water and over half the world lives on less than $2. Eradicating the extreme poverty, which blight the Lord’s beautiful creation was his passion. His inspiration and conversion to Christianity where he considered Jesus to be more radical than Karl Max and Ho Chi Ming was found from Matthew 25: 34-36.
This verse reads: “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
He continued on reading from Matthew 25: 40, which reads ‘The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
He issued a challenge to all Christians saying were you going to be the ‘righteous’ who turned a blind eye to all the suffering and injustice of this world and go to the Lord and plead ignorance?