Codex Perductum

God's Politics by Jim Wallis is an encouraging book that critiques the state of religion and politics in the U.S.

Some of the points that I drew from the book are:

• ...that the Republicans have co-opted the sincerely faithful followers of Jesus by reducing the public discussion of faith to issues of abortion and gay-rights when in fact Jesus' teachings are far broader.
• ...that this has been possible because the Democrats have run in fear from all public expressions of faith and react caustically to the suggestion that personal faith should express itself publically.
• ...that this is necessary because Jesus' full teachings would challenge the current power structure, the current disregard for the poor, the current American budget and the consumer economy machine that thrives on materialism.

The reason I found it encouraging was because throughout the book, Mr. Wallis presents a method of rejecting the false choices that are presented to us by finding a "third-way". So rather than accepting that you are either pro-choice or pro-life, you can be pro-adoption, anti-poverty, pro-family and reach many of the same goals in a non-confrontational way. Rather than being pro or anti-homosexual, you can be pro-family, pro-marriage and respect homosexuals as people created in the image of God. In both cases there is no need to give ground and say that abortion is okay, or that homosexuality is okay - I don't believe they are - but you can reject the us vs. them mentality which makes it impossible to show Christ's love to people with whom you disagree.