It takes a Movement

I’m following very closely the apparently new emphasis at Sojourner’s. What I’m seeing, and it seems but glimpsed in this post today from Jim Wallis, is a new direction or a new summons. It appears to me that Wallis will be calling his readers and his network to consider less advocacy for a party or a President, though I can’t see Jim ever backing down from speaking into the Establishment, and much more concentration on forming a movement that will begin at grassroots level.

It takes a movement to change a nation.

I’m 90% in favor of making politics local, and see the primary form of our politics in local church and faith-community efforts. I’m 100% for Christians seeing their local churches as their primary politic. The unfortunate results of our engagement in politics has led to two startling changes: first, many young adults are sick of the connection of churches to political parties (our posts about Putnam and Caldwell’s book this week show that) and, second, too many engaged young, especially progressive, adult Christians are losing connection to the church. Wallis has always stood for local church invigoration but some of that emphasis has not been as clear in the last few years as it was previously.

I’ve read (unless I missed something) every book Jim has written. I came to seminary just after Jim Wallis left that seminary, and his impact was noticeable for years after his departure. I watched his community become a church in DC and, although I don’t know the story at all, I was disappointed to hear that church disbanded. But two of Jim’s books express the heart of his mission, and I’m hoping this new summons to form a movement will move us back in the direction of those two books. They are:

Faith Works: How to Live Your Beliefs and Ignite Positive Social Change
The Call to Conversion : Why Faith Is Always Personal but Never Private

I believe our “politic” has to be local church politics. Change happens at the local level. Advocacy for a candidate and especially connection to political parties contaminates our Christian politic.

What I see in this clip from Jim’s article at Sojo.net is a statement by many in the Church that there is a better way, a different way, and that it puts our faith to work:

But if you compare 2010 exit polls to 2006, Democrats performed 14 points worse with white Protestants, 14 points worse with white Evangelicals, and 20 points worse with Catholics.  Compared to 2008, Democrats did 10 points worse with white Protestants, 14 points worse with white Evangelicals, and 20 points worse with Catholics. That is quite a swing vote.

I’m not inside at Sojourners but what I’m seeing a glimmer of in this post, and what I suspect is coming down the pike in the other posts, is a sign that leaders like Wallis are realizing the way to change is not through DC but through the heartland and through the hearts of local communities.

I love the idea: it takes a movement to change a nation. Presidents will either participate in the movement or not be elected.