Americans United for the Separation
of Church and State Have Gone Mute
By Marsha West
SCCN Columnist
The Rev. Jim Wallis is mobilizing the “Christian Left.” And he’s a force to be reckoned with. Wallis wants to be to the Left what Jerry Falwell was to the Christian Right.
The Rev. Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners, a liberal Christian magazine, and the largest network of progressive Christians in the country. On June 3-6 Pentecost 2007: Taking Vision to the Streets will be held to “call individuals, churches, and most importantly, our political leaders to commit to putting poverty at the top of our national agenda. We believe that the conversation about moral values in America has been widening and deepening, building into a movement for real change.”
Wallis has invited Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards to the candidate forum. CNN will serve as the exclusive broadcaster of the event.
CNN?!
That’s right. CNN has agreed to air a forum organized by a group of progressive Christians. And that’s not all. The Rev. Wallis invited CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien to moderate the forum, and she accepted. [1]
The following is CNN’s press release:
“CNN will serve as the exclusive broadcaster of a presidential candidate forum on faith,
values and politics during the Sojourners "Pentecost 2007" conference in Washington, D.C. The event will be held Monday, June 4, on the campus of The George Washington University, and CNN will broadcast the forum live during the 7 p.m. (ET) hour of The Situation Room.
The Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and author of the best-selling book God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, has invited
Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama to share their ideas and proposals about pressing social issues with a special emphasis on poverty. Wallis also invited CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien to moderate the forum.
Sojourners, which is the largest network of progressive Chistians in the nation, was founded in inner-city Washington, D.C., in 1971.”
Wallis says he also intends to hold a forum for Republican candidates. Which begs the question, will CNN air the Republican forum as well? Perhaps a better question is, would CNN air a Republican forum organized by Concerned Women for America?
The wily Wallis’ plan is to use “religious” language in hopes of luring evangelicals away from the Republican Party to vote Democratic. In 2005, 15 Democrat House members invited Wallis to be their guest of honor at a breakfast on Capitol Hill. What, pray tell, was the topic of discussion between clergyman and congressmen? How to turn religious voters into Democrats. .Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged that Wallis is working closely with the leadership of the Democratic Party.
Who exactly is the Rev. Jim Wallis? According to Traditional Values Coalition,
“FrontPageMagazine.org has published a lengthy expose on Jim Wallis’ far-left background, including his anti-capitalist views and his support of Communist or terrorist regimes throughout the history of Sojourners. While Wallis was in seminary, he founded an anticapitalist magazine called Post-American. In it, Wallis called for the redistribution of wealth and governmentmanaged economies. This anti-capitalist worldview is expressed in religious terms as a quest for “social justice.” In 1971, Wallis moved his Post-American operation to Washington, DC and renamed it Sojourners. Throughout the history of Sojourners, Wallis has taken a consistently left-wing and anti-American stance. He was an anti-war activist against the Vietnam War. After the fall of Vietnam to the North Vietnamese Communist tyrants, Wallis actually criticized the refugees fleeing from that nation. He claimed they were leaving Vietnam “to support their consumer habit in other lands.” In short, they were leaving Vietnam because they had become greedy capitalists who didn’t wish to live under a socialist dictatorship.” [2]
The Rev. Jim Wallis may be a man of the cloth, but watch out! He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and “No matter how well you train a wolf to say ‘Baaaaa,’ it doesn’t change an important fact—he is still a wolf.” [3]
The obvious question is, where is the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State when you need them? As Gary Bauer put it, “Those worried about the separation of church and state should be ‘up in arms’ about a candidate forum being held next week called ‘Pentecost 2007.’”
The Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have suddenly gone mute.
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Marsha West is a freelance writer and a committed Christian deeply concerned about the political and moral direction of our nation. Marsha is Founder and Editor of the E-Mail Brigaade News Report, which is a response to the highly biased reporting of ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. Marsha's aim is to encourage people to engage the culture and to thoroughly understand the issues that impact American lives.
In addition to SCCN and WEBCommentary, Marsha's articles appear regularly in NewsWithViews.com, CapitalHillCoffeeHouse.com, RWNetwork.net, Alainsnewsletter.com, and MichNews.com. Her work also appeared in Christianity.ca.com, CommonConservative.com, SierraTimes.com, NoDNC.com, and bibleteacher.org among other internet sites.
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Footnotes:
[1] CNN to Broadcast Live Sojourners’ Presidential Forum on Faith, Politics http://whatshappeningatcnn.blogspot.com/2007/05/cnn-to-broadcast-live-sojourners.html
[2] Pastor Jim Wallis:Liberalisms “Religious” Strategist By Traditional Values Coalition http://www.traditionalvalues.org/pdf_files/jim_wallis.pdf
[3] Ibid
