• God's Politics

  • Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It
  • By: Jim Wallis
  • Narrated by: Sam Freed
  • Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (198 ratings)

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God's Politics  By  cover art

God's Politics

By: Jim Wallis
Narrated by: Sam Freed
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Publisher's summary

Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and solely pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside?

God's Politics offers a clarion call to make both our religious communities and our government more accountable to key values of the prophetic religious tradition, that is, make them pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, and pro-family (without making scapegoats of single mothers or gays). Our biblical faith and religious traditions simply do not allow us as a nation to continue to ignore the poor and marginalized, deny racial justice, tolerate the ravages of war, or turn away from the human rights of those made in the image of God. These are the values of love and justice, reconciliation, and community that Jesus taught and that are at the core of what many of us believe, Christian or not. Jim Wallis inspires us to hold our political leaders and policies accountable by integrating our deepest moral convictions into our nation's public life.

©2005 Jim Wallis (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Wallis provides a refreshing alternative voice to the polarizing rhetoric currently popular." (Library Journal)

What listeners say about God's Politics

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Repetitive but profound

Yes, this book could have been cut down by eliminating much of the repetitve language and examples, but I have also discovered that my children won't listen to me unless I repeat myself over and over.

This book is a scathing indictment of the current political climate. Righties hate this book because it calls them hypocrites for professing God's support but not implementing God's policies. Lefties hate this book because it calls them to task for claiming to support the poor and the working class, but not really doing anything for either, all the while being ashamed of God.

The main premise of this book as I read it is "Don't be ashamed of God, and prove your faith by supporting policies that are in tune with ALL of God's will, not just the ones that you like."

Read it for what it is, the words of a real Christian who is frustrated with the current climate. If you allow yourself to listen to his arguments rather than to have a knee-jerk "hate it" response, you might surprise yourself by changing your mind on a few things.

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Simply Awful

This book is simply terrible. It is boring, repititous, and poorly reasoned. Though the author, Jim Wallis, decries the partisan lens through which religious right figures approach politics, the DNC could scarcely have written a more partisan screed.

Opposition to the Iraq war serves as the centerpiece of this book. Wallis is a proponent of the view that terrorism should be treated as a law-enforcement problem and as an opportunity to improve US policies by addressing terrorists? grievances. He dances around the question of what to do about sovereign states that harbor terrorism, but makes clear his strong preference for non-violence. His naivety is shocking. Rather than deposing Sadaam by war, he regrets that we did not encourage a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience within Iraq to topple him.

While Wallis consistently says that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were unjustifiable, he goes on to say that they were made possible by world reaction to American ?crimes? and policies. He is particularly incensed by US support for Israel, saying that the Jewish state?s policies (termed ?state-sponsored terrorism?) are grossly disproportionate to Palestinian actions. His grab bag of complaints spans the usual left-wing gamut, running from the support of right-wing dictators in the cold war to global inequality. Apparently, Al-Qaeda?s strikes are related to Reagan?s support of the contras.

Wallis would dispute it, but I feel this book verges on anti-American. His one-sidedly critique of American policy begs the conclusion that we brought terrorist attacks on. He analogizes the current ?American empire? to the Roman one that persecuted early Christians. And he repeatedly belittles patriotism. American citizenship seems an inconsequential affiliation to him, if not an outright embarrassment. Incredibly, he states that a Christian should care more about non-American Christians opinion than the opinion of fellow Americans.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I wanted to write this book.

How long I have been feeling just what this book proclaims. Wallis' book is the beginning of how we can re-integrate faith into politics without merging church and state.

The theme of the book is most certainly politics and how a person's personal faith plays in their life lived. Certainly if a person of faith also has integrity, their faith will be a part of their whole life. He writes that a heresy of the previous century was that faith became intensely personal. His corrrective for this is that "God is personal, but never private."

The repetative nature of the book is important, I believe, to the complexity of the subject Wallis is dealing with. He tells the reader what he's going to say, then he says it, then he tell the reader what he said. I found it to be a good book in the sense that its purpose is clear and lots of examples and support for the argument were given.

I would have liked to have written this book. Of course, I would have written it differently, but nonetheless it is a necessary voice which counters the left, the right and really the middle, too. Wallis' is on the side of the Gospel and not any political agenda.

Refreshing, to say the least.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A clear, positive and thoughtful advocate

Jim Wallis has been around for many years and he's written quite a few books, but this is the crowning achievement of his writings. Somehow you feel that Wallis was made for this moment - a time when America's religious Right has never been more powerful, but also never been further from the heart of the Christian faith.
In a debate that often collapses into name-calling, Wallis is respectful but insistent. Traditional ideologues of the Left and Right might not like it, but this is the voice of a prophet who challenges both sides of the political spectrum. Wallis speaks with warmth, hope and the wisdom of a man who has spent a lifetime answering Jesus' instruction to feed the hungry and give shelter to the homeless - but who also understands political realities.
This is a profoundly important book and it's unlikely that anyone in our generation will put together a more authoritative yet reader-friendly book on how Christian belief should influence our politics.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A truly prophetic voice

Sometime in the 1990s, a friend said to me, "Isn't there a political party that wants to get all the children born AND feed them?" Jim Wallis asks essentially the same question, quickly concludes that the answer is no, and then excoriates both major parties for failing to hear and respond to the cry of the poor. Reading this book is like an examination of conscience for political junkies and policy wonks.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent perspective on current politics

The title was intriguing which got me to order the book. I must admit that I also was a bit skeptical when I ordered the book. As I listened, this changed. I was duly impressed that the author provided the vantage point of both sides, backed it up with facts, and did not resort to ungrounded ideology.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Save your money

The author begins by declaring Christian principals, and then incongruously switches to secular politics enjoining ideals enthralled by the liberal fundamentalist agenda, (LFA). The tirade of anti-war sound bites focusing on the Iraq War is more of the same old same old. Many may truly regret purchasing this book. Beware.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Quotable

A minister I respect told me about this book. I can say two very important things. There were parts of the languge that was phrased such that I have memorized it and that other ideas from the book have stayed with me and shaped my thinking.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

God's Politics

Excellent view of the problems that face the world and the USA today with great solutions offered.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Well worth it

Great read - takes both the left and the right to task, and lays out what our priorities ought to be, based on what the Bible has to say. Explains the value of faith in public policy while discrediting single-issue evangelical screeching. I'm sure some will claim it has a liberal slant - I don't think it let the left off the hook at all.

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3 people found this helpful