Editor’s Note: The following conversation with Jim Wallis has been edited for space and clarity.
Jim Wallis is a man on a mission to expose what he believes is a narrative being spread by a large majority of white evangelicals about the gospel message of Jesus. Wallis, a professor at Georgetown University, where he hold the inaugrual Archbishop Tutu Chair of Faith and Justice, is known by many as the founder and editor of Sojourners. He is also the author of a new book, “The False White Gospel,” which he believes is his most prophetic book yet.
“I just had to write something about what we’re facing now. I’ve written lots of books as people always say, but this one is really the most timely and important book that I’ve ever done.” Wallis believes his mission is to not just speak the truth, but to also ensure his audience understands what is before them regarding the perseverance of democracy.
“We have three tests before us,” Wallis said, “one being democracy, which is the biggest test regarding democracy that I’ve seen in my lifetime, really since the Civil War.” He added, “We’re also facing a test that people don’t talk about much, which is a test of faith. What will the faith community do? What will we say? Will we stand up? Will we listen to Jesus at this moment?”
The final test, according to Wallis, asks, “What will we be leaving behind for the next generation?”
As a Georgetown professor, Wallis interacts with and is deeply concerned about Generation Z. He is especially worried about what they are seeing from people of faith.
“They’re watching and seeing what Christians are going to do with the election along with Christian Nationalism,” he observes. Wallis defines Christian Nationalism as being simply nationalism with the word “Christian” in front of it.
“Now the name spells the problem first for the most inclusive, welcoming, inviting message in the history of the world. They make it white, and they say ‘Christian,’ but they don’t mean service and sacrifice and love. They mean control domination. It’s back to the old Dominionist theology. It’s not new. It’s an old thing that’s come back now.”
Wallis wants to be a voice that rises above the noise. “I like to think of all the political noise around me these days; that’s part of my job, and there’s a lot of it. Listening to the noise around me allows me to discern the times and offer a perspective.”
Wallis’ mission and calling motivates him to share this perspective and travel as extensively as he does. Still, selling books doesn’t seem to interest him as much as the calling that God has placed on his life.
He shares examples from Jesus on living out this calling and spreading the message boldly as Jesus did. For Wallis, the times of Jesus aren’t far off from our own times.
“So, Jesus gives us an amazing example of the Good Samaritan,” he said. “The Judean audience he was speaking to didn’t think there were any good Samaritans. They were mixed race. They were dangerous. They were false worshipers. They were in cartels coming to the American border, bringing leprosy. No, that’s another group.” Wallis laughs and refocuses.
“They were ‘other,’ like immigrants today,” he said. “I write this in the book the idea of the neighbor, the Good Samaritan, could help lead us to a multiracial democracy. He [Jesus] is saying here is an example of one who is being a neighbor to one who is different than him.”
Wallis continues, “So that’s a very radical text. People know the Good Samaritan, but they often take away from it [a lesson] that they should volunteer more time to serve, which may be one point. But the Good Samaritan story should transform who our view of our neighbor is.”
Wallis wants his audience to breathe deeply the true meaning and message of Jesus, hoping it will form and shape them into the humans they were designed to be. He also hopes this will keep them from falling for the noise of the false gospel around them.
Wallis seems to be on a mission to spread this message and for those around him to know the mission he has been on himself:
“My chair at Georgetown is delightfully named the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair of Faith and Justice. Now, he was a friend and mentor. So, I love that my Chair is named after him. He taught me the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is how things look today. It’s a feeling. It’s a mood. It’s a personality type. ‘Cup half-full, cup, half-empty.’ Hope is not a feeling, he taught me. Bishop Tutu taught me that hope is a decision we make because of this thing we call Faith. So, on a given day, you’ll ask me what’s going to happen. And there are many days Desmond Tutu wasn’t optimistic as a bishop in South Africa apartheid, with all the suffering he had to deal with every single day, but he kept choosing to hope again and again and again.”
Wallis wants to embody what his mentor Tutu left him, but he also understands that time isn’t on his side. He knows he has more days behind him than in front of him. That might explain his demanding schedule, which involves being out on the road for days and weeks at a time.
“I’ll be doing fourteen cities in the next two weeks. But what matters to me most is my family. My sons. One of them who prayed for me before I left to go on tour. So that’s what I want my legacy to be and count for in this life.”
Wallis’ book “The False White Gospel” was released on April 2.
Maina Mwaura is from Orlando, Florida and a graduate of Liberty University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Communications.
