Wallis, Jim (1948–)

The Reverend Jim Wallis is the founder of Sojourners, a Christian community in Washington, D.C., as well as editor of a magazine of the same title that covers social justice issues. He is also the convener of Call to Renewal, a religious ecumenical organization committed to, according to their mission statement, overcoming poverty, dismantling racism, affirming life, and rebuilding family and community. A charismatic speaker and prolific writer about religion and politics, he is often hailed as the voice of the religious left.

Wallis grew up in a white middle-class suburb of Detroit. He became socially active against the Vietnam War and for civil rights at Michigan State University, before attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and fellow seminarians founded the Sojourners community in Chicago, in 1971. In 1975, the [Page 1448]community moved to Washington, D.C., where they lived together, worshipped together, and were active in neighborhood and national activism ranging from after-school programs to protests for peace and against poverty.

The Sojourners community has since dispersed from shared households to an international community of believers associated with the Sojourners magazine and its stated mission to integrate spiritual renewal and social justice. Recent issues of the magazine include articles about fighting poverty in Africa, raising children in the United States, profiles of activist churches, poverty in America, and combating child prostitution. Wallis writes regular editorials about topics such as religion in U.S. politics, global and domestic poverty, the immorality of war, the need to protect the environment, the need to maintain a consistent ethic of the sanctity of life, and the importance of sustaining family relationships. In 1979, Wallis was named one of 50 faces for America's future by Time magazine. In 1995, he and other religious leaders founded Call for Renewal, based on a document called Cry for Renewal, which called for nonpartisan political action to eradicate poverty.

A sample of Wallis's books show their range of topics: Abortion: What Does It Mean to Be Pro-Life? (1980), Waging Peace: A Handbook for the Struggle to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (1982), Soul of Politics: A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change (1994), Who Speaks for God? An Alternative to the Religious Right: A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility (1996), Faith Works: Lessons from the Life of an Activist Preacher (2000), and God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (2005).

Wallis refers to himself as a 19th-century evangelical, affiliating himself with progressive religious activists of that time period, including the abolitionists. He often cites biblical passages such as Matthew 25 and James 2—“faith without works is dead”—and prophets such as Micah and Amos, as well as modern activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Desmond Tutu.

In December of 2005, Wallis and members of Sojourners and Call for Renewal were arrested by Capitol police for their protest of what they believed to be an immoral national budget. Wallis has appeared on National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System's Frontline, and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and his writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is admired by those who agree with his activist message and powerful rhetoric and criticized by those who believe his solutions for entrenched social problems are simplistic.

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