here’s some tremendous observations from Jim Wallis about the political/religious climate in the US through the eyes of people overseas:
from sojomail:
“I just returned from the UK, where God’s Politics was launched last week. Because the book was written primarily for an American audience, we weren’t sure exactly what the response would be in Britain, a more secular country in which, unlike the U.S. – the subject of religion and politics is far less central.Yet from the first day, it was apparent that something new and important was happening. First, the media coverage was extensive, both from political and religious sources, especially the mainstream political media. British radio listeners and television viewers were pleasantly surprised to hear a different religious voice from America. Many people in the UK and throughout Europe suspect that most or all American Christians agree with the loudest of America’s television preachers – such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell – and that almost all Christians here probably voted for the Christian President George W. Bush.
Suddenly they heard an American religious leader (an evangelical, even) say God is neither American, nor merely a Republican who cares mainly about gay marriage and abortion. To hear an American Christian link faith to the urgent issues of poverty, HIV/AIDS, the environment, human rights, and the ethics of war seemed to the British public like a breath of fresh air. I continually said that the two greatest hungers in the world today were for spiritual integrity on the one hand and for social justice on the other – and that the connection between the two is what the world is waiting for…”
./link to sojomail.
a great article about wallis visit to the UK in the observer.
Related posts:
