God's Politics by Jim Wallis

[RBHoya]

Has anyone read this book? I was intrigued when I saw Wallis promoting it on the O'Reilly Factor, the Daily Show etc. last winter, but because of classwork I had to wait until summertime to read it. I just finished it a week or two ago, and thought that Wallis had a really good take on the future of American politics, specifically the Democratic party.

He encourages the Democrats to embrace religion, rather than awkwardly shying away from it whenever it comes up. He points out that Republicans are forming a monopoly on Christians, especially evangelicals... yet he points out that much of the Republican ideology is inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus... He has some ideas for what the Democrats could do to improve their standing among religious people--not an abandonment of traditional ideas, but more or less a repackaging.

Anyway, has anyone else read it or familiar with Wallis? I'd like to hear more opinions.

[SFHoya99]

I'd agree with the hypothesis, especially as a somewhat religious person who usually ends up voting democrat.

The tough part, of course, is abortion. On most issues, Democrats tend to share a lot more in common with Christians than Republicans, except, of course, for the biggie, Abortion, Gay marraige and the fact that unfortunately many liberals tend to look down on religious belief as ignorant.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I read Wallis' book - it is really good - he makes a good point that there is a whole lot less in the Bible relating to abortion or gay marriage than there is relating to Democratic issues such as social justice, equality, and other values that are pretty strongly advocated in the New Testament. I think that this is the sort of repackaging the Democratic party needs - I don't think that Howard Dean is the party leader who will do that either - his recent comment on Face the Nation about having a democratic party that can run on the same set of issues all over the country and a motto of "we can do it better" strikes me as being the status quo that is killing the left.

[RBHoya]

Totally agree SPH. Dean's politics aren't what the Democrats need--it's really just more of the same and it hasn't been working. Instead of trying to tiptoe around issues of religion and morality, the Democrats would be well-served to meet the issues head-on and show how the Dem's policies are more consistent with scripture than the Republicans. So many people in America view the Democrats as a secular party that is none too concerned with morality, and the Dem's have to shoulder a lot of the blame for that perception as they've failed to talk about/embrace religion in most cases. Shedding that secular stigma will be the key to reaching national success again.

As for abortion, I like Wallis' take on it.... He says that a wise Democrat would come out and call themself pro-life, but would say that the best way to reduce the number of abortions is through adoption reform and increased support for poor and single-parent families so that abortion isn't the only option for many young women. The same candidate could also suggest that we not criminalize the hardest decision a person would ever have to make.... It's sort of a different spin on the whole "safe, legal, and rare" idea, I guess you could say.

[Nevada Hoya]

sfhoya99 said:

I'd agree with the hypothesis, especially as a somewhat religious person who usually ends up voting democrat.

The tough part, of course, is abortion. On most issues, Democrats tend to share a lot more in common with Christians than Republicans, except, of course, for the biggie, Abortion, Gay marraige and the fact that unfortunately many liberals tend to look down on religious belief as ignorant.

SF, that is usually my position too.

[SFHoya99]

In addition to what has been said, I think that left needs

1) to understand you can Edited off part of your consituency
2) a real leader

They both go together, and the weakness was demonstrated on the Daily Show when Dean was on.

Stewart kept pushing for specifics -- namely what the democrats would do re: Iraq if they were in power.

Dean dodged and dodged. Why? Because Democrats don't agree. A large portion of liberals think we should get out immediately. But many centrists Dems think that would be wrong, even though they disagreed with the war. Because the party ha no leadership, it never gets into this; never gets into Editeding some people off in order to attract undecideds.

People want a leader. For all his faults, Bush sticks to his aims. They are selfish aims, in the best interests of very few people, but he's got a plan for things that are important to him (and ignores things that aren't).

What's the Dem platform right now? A bunch of screaming that the Republicans aren't right.

I hate political parties.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I agree that Dean is the wrong person to be the public face of the Democratic Party, but is it possible that Hillary could force the party back to the center like her husband did with his presidential run in 1992? She has been positioning herself with centrist democrats on many issues including Iraq.

[TigerHoya]

Religion prof at Furman (who is also an adjunct at a 2 year school here) suggested it as an extra credit assignment in his classes back in the spring. I talked to him about it and wound up buying the book and reading it.

Interesting read so far but I never finished it.