In response to the anonymous comment asking for more on the JW/Cornel West event at Princeton, I have attached the article below from the Trenton Times:

My brief thoughts first are that it really does surprise me every time I have the opportunity to not just hear about a progressive faith movement from my job but to stand in a room with it; with 1500 people whi believe in it or are intrigued by it. I talked with Liam last night wondering where Sojourners is going and if they've forgotten a little of who they are in getting to this point (when they used to get arrested praying for peace in the Capitol or take trips to places like South Africa or Nicaragua to join the people in standing against injustice). But Li was right in saying that there are many movements of people that can form to do those things, but to be a mouthpiece and find a way to unify many of those groups under a message of new 'moral values' is a big deal. So I am proud to be a part of it. Any more detailed questions, Mr/Mrs. Anonymous?



Revival speakers seek a religious `non-right'
Sunday, May 01, 2005

By KRYSTAL KNAPP

Staff Writer

PRINCETON BOROUGH - The gathering had all the makings of a Christian revival meeting of sorts: The room was packed full of people hungry for change and the preachers for the evening helped the audience do plenty of soul searching.

But this revival was held in neither a church nor a tent. It took place in a lecture hall at Princeton University. And the soul that was searched most was that of a divided nation that has come to be defined in red and blue.

The preachers, Sojourners Magazine founder Jim Wallis and Princeton University professor Cornel West, made a different kind of altar call, asking people to join a faith movement for social change, a so-called religious non-right.

Wallis, the best-selling author of the recently released "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It," said people are hungry for a different kind of conversation about moral values and politics in the country.

"I've been all across the country and I have good news," he said. "When it comes to religion, the monologue is finally over. A new dialogue has just begun. If you have a faith that drives you to justice or compels you to peace, you often feel alone. Look around tonight and don't feel alone anymore."

With those words, the audience burst into applause. More than 500 people filled the university auditorium to hear Wallis and West speak Tuesday night, and hundreds more watched in an overflow room via video. Wallis also spoke earlier in the day to a packed house at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Wallis said the political right in America has hijacked the language of faith to prop up its political agenda, but the left hasn't done much better, largely ignoring faith.

When people of faith see themselves portrayed in the media, Wallis said many say to themselves, "This is not my faith. These aren't my moral values. Where's my voice?"

"Evangelicals like me don't feel we are represented by the Jerry Falwells of the world," he said. "Millions of Catholics do not feel they are represented by those who say there is only one issue you must vote on and the rest of Catholic social teachings can be ignored. Mainline Protestants have been dissed altogether, along with blacks."

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Believing in God and moral values does not make you pro-war, pro-rich and pro-Republican, Wallis said, asking, "Would Jesus' top two priorities have been a capital gains tax cut for the rich and the occupation of Iraq?"

Yet Wallis, who has struggled for more than 30 years to build a Christian movement for social change, also criticizes the Democratic Party for being hostile to faith. The worst mistake made by the Democrats has been to concede the entire territory of moral values and faith to the religious right, he said.

"It is easier to come out as gay in Boston than as religious in the Democratic Party," he said. "But I don't just want to create a new religious left as opposed to the right."

Wallis, who has drawn crowds across the country at book signings, believes the religious right is political seduction designed by Republican image makers solely to win elections.

"They use religion as a political wedge and weapon," he said. "But religion is not supposed to be a wedge that divides. It is supposed to be a bridge that brings us back together again. Do we really want to create a counterpart on the other side?"

Wallis and West said faith should give its bearer a sense of humility, penitence and accountability instead of an attitude of arrogance and triumph.

"Abraham Lincoln had it right," Wallis said. "Don't act like God is on your side. Pray and worry that you are on God's side."

The right acts as if it owns the territory when talking about God, and has falsely reduced moral values to two issues - abortion and gay marriage, Wallis said.

"But as an evangelical Christian I can't ignore the 3,000 verses of the Bible that talk about poor people," he said. "Fighting poverty is a moral value too. Saving the environment, God's creation, that's a moral value."

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On Justice Sunday a week ago, church leaders in the South called on the faithful to support the Republicans by pushing their Democratic legislators to end the filibuster on conservative court appointments, a prime example, Wallis said, of how Christianity is used by the Republicans for political gain and how the left has let the right co-opt Christianity.

"Last weekend they told us not only was God a Republican, but that good Christians vote for George W. Bush and if you do not support him, you are not a person of faith," he said. "The one side claims God is in its pocket, and the other side has a problem getting the `G' word out! No one is even talking on the other side. It's as if they have an allergy to spirituality."

Wallis said the Democrats mistakenly have believed that values can be segregated from public life, when values can and do inform public discourse and can influence the public sphere without imposing religion on others.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a civil rights movement based on his values, but there still was room at the table for people of all faiths to join in, Wallis said. His spirituality informed his work and gave him strength for the struggle.

Wallis called on those attending to move beyond a theoretical or political discussion of the issues that polarize people and join a movement to change the world for the better.

The pro-life and pro-choice movements could work together on lowering the abortion rate in the country, for example, by focusing on preventing unwanted teen pregnancies, strengthening families and helping the working poor.

Some of the students in the audience wanted to hear more about practical steps to build such a movement. Others were just happy to realize they were not alone, that others like them are struggling to understand what is going on in the country and are searching for another way.

A middle-aged man in the audience told Wallis and West he didn't expect such a big turnout for the event and that he often feels he is singing solo.

"It's hard not to be angry," he said. "How do you stay positive?"

Wallis said the choice everyone needs to make is not between belief and secularism but between cynicism and hope.

"There is a hunger for a politics of solutions, a politics of hope," he said. "And hope is a decision and a choice you make because of faith."