Whose Politics?

Today Camassia linked to this post from Rilina comparing Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics and J. H. Yoder’s Politics of Jesus. Rilina is dismayed by what s/he perceives as Wallis’ tendency to subordinate the core of Christianity to a progressive political agenda:

What’s missing is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Really. I spluttered when I finally realized what was bothering me about the book. Wallis refers often to Jesus’s teachings; the Beatitudes in particular get a good deal of play. But he never talks about how Jesus lived, why Jesus died, and what the resurrection might mean in that context. In fact, I could only find two places where Wallis even touches upon the narrative of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. The first was, ironically enough, a place where Wallis calls President Bush on misusing biblical language by using the following snippet from a hymn, “power, power, wonder-working power,” in a speech. Bush used the quote to describe the power of the American people. But that actual hymn refers to the “power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.” But Wallis doesn’t go on, unfortunately, to further dissect the significance of salvation or the crucifixion–even though Christ’s death on the cross was a hugely political act that Christians are explicitly called to imitate. Wallis just goes, “Shame on you, Bush, for coopting the language of salvation!” Later, the resurrection comes up when Wallis asserts his belief in a literal resurrection (pg 349). But the assertion isn’t followed by any discussion of the implications of that belief for his political /activist beliefs.

In contrast to the absence of the life of the Jesus, we get huge swaths of the book devoted to the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. This makes sense from some perspectives; King was an activist religious figure who led a hugely important social change movement. But what is the best thing Christianity can offer society? Martin Luther King Jr. or Jesus Christ? Progressive social change or salvation and all that salvation entails?

I still haven’t gotten around to reading my copy of GP, but when I saw Wallis speak a couple months ago I did detect what I thought was a certain ambiguity in his position:

Something that remains unclear to me (and maybe this will become clearer as I read Wallis’ book) is to what extent he is proposing a distinctively Christian political stance rather than re-casting traditional liberal/progressive politics in Christian language.

Rilina contrasts Yoder’s emphasis on faithfulness with Wallis’ emphasis on results. Whether this is fair to Wallis I will abstain from judging til after I’ve read the book. Though I definitely want to avoid any straightforward identification of Christianity with “progressivism” (or “conservatism,” or any worldly ideology).

(On an interesting side note, when I talked to Wallis briefly at the book signing he mentioned that Yoder was one of his greatest mentors.)