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NEW: Order the Living God's Politics companion guide at these links, and a portion of your purchase supports Sojourners: »Order at Powells.com »Order at Amazon.com

Featured Links

	The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Jim joins Jon in the tradition of Hebrew prophets who use humor and truth-telling to make their point. »WindowsMedia »RealPlayer »Read Jim's behind-the- scenes comments
	Jim Wallis on Philly Feed Jim Wallis on the Philadelphia Daily News podcast. »WindowsMedia »RealPlayer »mp3 download
	Weekend Edition Jim talks with Scott Simon about politics, religion, and the U.S. government. »Listen
	Democrats Learn Lessons on Religion Jim Wallis on NPR's Morning Edition with Barbara Bradley Hagerty. »Listen
	Streaming audio: Jim Wallis on the radio On Minnesota Public Radio, Jim talks about how faith should inform politics in a way that benefits the poor. »Listen
	Graduation day inspiration Jim Wallis delivers the commencement address at John Carroll University: 'Faith is for changing the big things.' »Hear streaming audio
	Politics in the Pulpit On the CBS Evening News, Jim Wallis comments on a North Carolina pastor's expulsion of Kerry voters. »See the video
	Faith and Freedom See streaming video of Jim Wallis speaking in Louisville on the day of the Religious Right's "Justice Sunday" event. »RealPlayer »Windows Media Player
	Jim Wallis on Democracy Now! Jim talks with Amy Goodman about Senator Frist and "Justice Sunday." »Get audio, video, and transcript
	Meet the Press on Faith in America Jim Wallis joins Reza Aslan, Rev. Robert Drinan, Dr. Richard Land, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and Jon Meacham on the Easter Sunday broadcast. »Read the transcript
	God's Politics Audio Download Listen to Jim Wallis reading from the introduction and chapter one. »Introduction »Chapter 1 (part 1) »Chapter 1 (part 2) »Chapter 1 (part 3)
	Streaming Audio: Jim Wallis at Grace Cathedral Jim talks about his journey of faith and politics with the Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. »Hear the audio
	Talk of the Nation Jim Wallis speaks on the role of religion in American public life. (Jim's segment starts at 12:45/47:22). »Listen to the audio
	Read Chapter One The book's first chapter, "Take Back the Faith: Co-opted by the Right, Dismissed by the Left," is now available as a free download. »Download Chapter One
	Fresh Air with Terry Gross On Inauguration Day, Jim talks with Terry about starting a new coversation about faith and politics in America. »Listen to the audio
	Brookings Institution book launch God's Politics is launched with a panel discussion moderated by Brookings fellow and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. »Read the transcript

Praise for God's Politics

"The Left mocks the Right. The Right knows it's right. Two ugly traits. How far should we go to try to understand each other's point of view? Maybe the distance grace covered on the cross is a clue."

- BONO, lead singer of U2

"Jim Wallis is an inspiration to me - for his witness of faith, his generous heart, his way of life, and his engagement with politics."

- BILL MOYERS

"Jim Wallis is compelling, provocative, and inspirational, with the kind of faith that can move mountains and can certainly move people and communities. God be praised for Jim Wallis."

- Archbishop DESMOND TUTU

Long before Democrats and progressives started thinking about the electoral importance of getting right with God - that is to say, on or about November 3, 2004 - Jim Wallis was trying to remind liberals of the contributions people of faith have made to the struggles for social justice, civil rights, and peace. This is Wallis at his usual passionate and brilliant self: he's eloquent and intellectually honest, and he will move you to examine your conscience and search your soul."

- E.J. DIONNE JR., author of Stand Up, Fight Back
and Why Americans Hate Politics

"Jim Wallis is the major prophetic evangelical Christian voice in the country. He refuses to allow the religious Right to have a monopoly on morality and spirituality; he also calls for the secular Left to speak to the crucial issues of personal meaning and individual values. His major message is faith, hope, and love - yet it is put forward with a sense of urgency and insight rarely seen in our cynical time. I hope and pray his voice resounds across this land - and that we pay heed to it."

- CORNEL WEST, author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters

Reviews

"It's Wallis's critique of the secular left as well as the religious right that makes this such an important book. After toiling as an anti-poverty crusader and magazine editor for many years, Wallis hit his stride in the 2004 campaign by challenging the religious conservative monopoly on political God-talk. Now there is a debate over the nature and role of the religious left, and God's Politics is a seminal contribution to the timely discussion."

»Read the full review in The Washington Post

"Many liberals admonish President Bush for his use of religious language. Wallis is one of the few on the left to question the accuracy of Bush's biblical allusions, which he maintains 'are too often either taken out of context or, worse yet, employed in ways quite different from their original meaning.' And instead of attacking conservatives for bringing religion into the public square, Wallis attacks conservatives for reducing the Christian policy agenda to abortion and gay marriage. After all, the Bible has far more to say about poverty, economics and war than it does about the right's two favorite wedge issues."

»Read the full review in The New York Times

As a long-time advocate for the poor who was leading faith-based organizations decades before George W. Bush ever heard the phrase, Wallis has the street cred and moral authority to make his case. To liberals who believe that religion has no place in public life, Wallis argues that "God is personal, but never private," citing Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, and other moral crusaders whose names warm the hearts of good lefties. To conservatives, Wallis says that their attempts to apply religious solutions to policy problems—from terrorism to Iraq to the economy to abortion—have betrayed Christian principles of justice, mercy, and humility. Both sides, he charges, have done wrong by religion. Republicans have hijacked faith in the name of divisive causes that fail to help the neediest, and Democrats have largely avoided discussion of religion altogether.

»Read the full review in Washington Monthly

Mr. Wallis advocates a nonpartisan God and desires to retake a faith that has been "co-opted by the right" and "dismissed by the left." He contends that "the best public contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable or a loyal partisan." Instead, raising moral issues "will challenge both left- and right-wing governments that put power above principles."

»Read the full review in The Washington Times

"If left and right re-examine their assumptions that way, maybe we can have a positive, productive discussion about religion and politics. We won't just see the log in the other person's eye. That's Mr. Wallis' hope, and he's not the only one. We don't need a cultural war. We need a new vision for faith and politics, as Mr. Wallis suggests. We'll get one if we move beyond left and right."

»Read the full review in The Dallas Morning News

»Read the full review in National Catholic Reporter

"While Wallis...is being hailed as the left's answer to Jerry Fallwell, he himself emphasizes that he is seeking out a politics of common ground and doesn't see himself as the Democrat's preacher."

»Read the full review in Forward

"Wallis criticizes both the political right and left for having not taken the visions of justice articulated by the Hebrew prophets and the gospel writers sufficiently seriously. Framing the impasse of "religion and politics" as one that pits "religious fundamentalism" against "secular fundamentalism," Wallis presents "God's politics" as a politically nonaligned and non-ideological third way."

»Read the full review in Slate

"[Jim Wallis] has...delivered a book that asks the political Left in America to rethink its aversion to faith and for the so-called Religious Right to get back to basics and pay closer attention to the teachings it claims to base itself in. God, Wallis argues, is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, though there is room for Him in both parties. Yet the Left has become seemingly less comfortable with faith since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the point that its leaders often seem embarrassed to fully embrace faith and the faith community. And, worse yet, Wallis argues, when they finally get around to it, they can do it poorly, clumsily."

»Read the full review in F5

In an attempt to identify a unifying Christian response to the current political situation, Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners magazine, argues that the Left has ignored and dismissed the value of religion in politics, while the Right has interpreted it too narrowly. Both sides, he maintains, have lost awareness of the unifying social aspects that biblical religion once provided for American culture: "Religious people must refuse the ideological categorization and actually build bridges between people of good will in both liberal and conservative camps." Wallis outlines his own understanding of a middle way that would be traditional or conservative on issues of family values and personal responsibility but liberal on issues like poverty, racial justice, and ecology. He seeks to forge a link between personal ethics and social justice, arguing that "God is personal but never private." Wallis provides a refreshing alternative voice to the polarizing rhetoric currently popular. Those who find themselves uncomfortable in either camp will welcome his approach, even if they disagree with some aspects of his solution.

- Library Journal

About Jim Wallis

Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, preacher, speaker, activist, and international commentator on ethics and public life. His latest book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It (HarperCollins, 2005), was on The New York Times bestseller list for four months. He is president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine—whose print and electronic publication reaches more than 250,000 people—and also convenes a national network of churches, faith-based organizations, and individuals working to overcome poverty in America. Jim Wallis speaks at more than 200 events each year and his columns have appeared in major newspapers such The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe, among others. He appears regularly on radio and television programs, including Meet the Press, Hardball, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The O’Reilly Factor, and National Public Radio. In addition, Jim Wallis teaches a course at Harvard University on “Faith, Politics, and Society,” and is the author of eight books, including Faith Works; The Soul of Politics: A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change; Who Speaks for God? A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility; and Call to Conversion.

Jim Wallis was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice that has grown into a national faith-based organization and network. In 1979, Time magazine named  Jim Wallis one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.”  

Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C., with his wife, Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained in the Church of England and author of Beneath the Cassock: The Real-life Vicar of Dibley, and their sons, Luke (8) and Jack (3). He is a Little League baseball coach.

(September 2006)

For interview requests, contact Jack Pannell:
jpannell@sojo.net
tel. 202-328-8842

An Excerpt from God's Politics

A Better Option

Why can’t we talk about religion and politics? These are the two topics you are not supposed to discuss in polite company. Don’t break up the dinner party by bringing up either of these subjects! That’s the conventional wisdom. Why? Perhaps it’s because these topics are too important and too potentially divisive, or because they raise issues of core values and ultimate concerns that make us uncomfortable.

All over the country I feel the hunger for a fuller, deeper, and richer conversation about religion in public life, about faith and politics. It’s a discussion that we don’t always hear in America today. Sometimes the most strident and narrow voices are the loudest, and more progressive, prophetic, and healing religion often gets missed. But the good news is about how all that is changing.

Abraham Lincoln had it right. Our task should not be to invoke religion and the name of God by claiming God’s blessing and endorsement for all our national policies and practices - saying, in effect, that God is on our side. Rather, as Lincoln put it, we should worry earnestly whether we are on God’s side.

Those are the two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way - God on our side - leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way - asking if we are on God’s side - leads to much healthier things, namely penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and accountability. We need much more of all those, because they are often the missing values of politics.

Martin Luther King Jr. did it best. With his Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other, King persuaded, not just pronounced. He reminded us all of God’s purposes for justice, for peace, and for the "beloved community" where those who have been left out and left behind get a front-row seat. And he brought religion into public life in a way that was always welcoming, inclusive, and inviting to all who cared about moral, spiritual, or religious values. Nobody felt left out of the conversation.

The values of politics are my primary concern. Of course, God is not partisan. God is not a Republican or a Democrat. When either party tries to politicize God or co-opt religious communities to further political agendas, it makes a terrible mistake. The best contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable nor loyally partisan. Both parties, and the nation, must let the prophetic voice of religion be heard. Faith must be free to challenge both the Right and the Left from a consistent moral ground.

"God’s politics" are therefore never partisan nor ideological. But God’s politics challenge everything about our politics. God’s politics remind us of the people our politics always neglect - the poor, the vulnerable, the left behind. God’s politics challenge narrow national, ethnic, economic, or cultural self-interest, reminding us of a much wider world and the creative human diversity of all those made in the image of the creator. God’s politics remind us of the creation itself, a rich environment in which we are to be good stewards, not mere users, consumers, and exploiters. And God’s politics plead with us to resolve, as much as possible, the inevitable conflicts among us without the terrible destruction of war. God’s politics always remind us of the ancient prophetic prescription to "choose life, so that you and your children may live," and challenge all the selective moralities that would choose one set of lives and issues over another. This challenges both the Right and the Left, offering a new vision for faith and politics in America and a new conversation of personal faith and political hope.

People concerned about social change and hungry for spiritual values can actually combine those two quests. Too often politics and spirituality have been separated, polarized, and even put into competition with one another. We have been buffeted by private spiritualities that have no connection to public life and a secular politics showing disdain for religion or even spiritual concerns. That leaves spirituality without social consequences and a politics with no soul. Political discourse that is disconnected from moral values quickly degenerates. How might we change our public life with the values that many of us hold most dear? How can we connect a genuinely "prophetic" spirituality to the urgent need for social justice? This is the connection the world is waiting for.

Prophecy is not future telling, but articulating moral truth. The prophets diagnose the present and point the way to a just solution. The "prophetic tradition," in all of the world’s great religions, is just what we need to open up our contemporary political options, which are, honestly, grossly failing to solve our most pressing social problems. The competing ideological options, from which we are forced to choose, are perhaps at their lowest ebb in compelling the involvement of ordinary citizens in public life. It is not that people just don’t care, but that they feel un-represented and unable to vote for anything that expresses their best values. That is a serious political crisis, and we need better options.

What would it mean to evaluate the leading current political options by the values of the prophets? Most importantly, what would happen if we asserted that values are the most important subject for the future of politics? What if we proposed a "prophetic politics"?

After the 2002 mid-term elections, I attended a private dinner for Harvard Fellows in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our speaker was a Republican political strategist who had just won all the major senatorial and gubernatorial election campaigns in which he was involved. Needless to say, he was full of his success and eager to tell us about it. This very smart political operative said that Republicans won middle-class and even working-class people on the "social" issues, those moral and cultural issues that Democrats don’t seem to understand or appreciate. He even suggested that passion on the social issues can cause people to vote against their economic self-interest. Since the rich are already with us, he said, we win elections.

I raised my hand and asked the following question. "What would you do if you faced a candidate that took a traditional moral stance on the social and cultural issues? They would not be mean-spirited and, for example, blame gay people for the breakdown of the family, nor would they criminalize the choices of desperate women backed into difficult and dangerous corners. But the candidate would be decidedly pro-family, pro-life (meaning they really want to lower the abortion rate), strong on personal responsibility and moral values, and outspoken against the moral pollution throughout popular culture that makes raising children in America a countercultural activity. And what if that candidate was also an economic populist, pro-poor in social policy, tough on corporate corruption and power, clear in supporting middle-class and working families in health care and education, an environmentalist, and committed to a foreign policy that emphasized international law and multilateral cooperation over pre-emptive and unilateral war? What would you do?" I asked. The Republican strategist paused for a long time, and then said, "We would panic!"

Virtually every time I’m out speaking on "prophetic politics" during any election season, somebody asks the question, "How can I vote for what I’ve just heard?" Some very interesting polling in the last few years shows how increasingly important voters’ perceptions of "values" are to their electoral behavior. And most voters feel they can’t really vote for their values. In the polling, the values question now goes beyond traditional family and sexual matters to also include matters such as "caring for the poor." The problem is that politics is still run by ideological polarities that leave many people feeling left out.

THERE ARE NOW three major political options in our public life. The first political option in America today is conservative on everything - from cultural, moral, and family concerns to economic, environmental, and foreign policy issues. Differences emerge between aggressive nationalists and cautious isolationists, between corporate apologists and principled fiscal conservatives, but this is the political option clearly on the ascendancy in America, with most of the dominant ideas in the public square coming from the political Right.

The second political option in contemporary America is liberal on everything - both family/sexual/cultural questions and economic, environmental, and foreign policy matters. There are certainly differences among the liberals (from pragmatic centrists to green leftists), but the intellectual and ideological roots come from the Left side of the cultural and political spectrum - and today most from the liberal/left find themselves on the defensive.

The third option in American politics is libertarian - meaning liberal on cultural/moral issues and conservative on fiscal/economic and foreign policy. The "just leave me alone and don’t spend my money option" is growing quickly in American life.

I believe there is a "fourth option" for American politics, which follows from the prophetic religious tradition we have described. It is "traditional" or "conservative" on issues of family values, sexual integrity and personal responsibility, while being very "progressive," "populist," or even "radical" on issues like poverty and racial justice. It affirms good stewardship of the earth and its resources, supports gender equality, and is more internationally minded than nationalist - looking first to peacemaking and conflict resolution when it come to foreign policy questions. The people it appeals to (many religious, but others not) are very strong on issues such as marriage, raising kids, and individual ethics, but without being "right-wing," reactionary, mean-spirited, or scapegoating against any group of people, including gays and lesbians. They can be pro-life, pro-family and pro-feminist, all at the same time. They think issues of "moral character" are very important, both in a politician’s personal life and in his or her policy choices. Yet they are decidedly pro-poor, pro-racial reconciliation, critical of purely military solutions, and defenders of the environment.

At the heart of the fourth option is the integral link between personal ethics and social justice. And it appeals to people who refuse to make the false choice between the two.

Who are these people? Many are religious: Catholics, black and Latino Christians, evangelicals who don’t identify with the Religious Right, and members of all our denominational churches who want to put their faith into practice. They are Jews and Muslims who are guided by an active faith and not just a personal background. They are people who do not consider themselves "religious," but rather "spiritual," and would be drawn to a fourth option in politics. And they are people - religious, spiritual, or not - who consider themselves shaped by a strong sense of moral values and long for a political commitment that reflects those values.

AS I TRAVEL the country, I find many people who share this perspective. Still, it is not yet a viable political option. It should be. As one who has called for a new "moral politics" that transcends the old categories of both the secular Left and the Religious Right, I believe it is time to assert a clear "fourth" political option. In a recent conversation, columnist E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post said there was a huge constituency of "non-right wing Christians" and other morally concerned people in the country who need to get organized. Like E.J., they are moderate to conservative on personal moral questions while very progressive on social justice.

Recent polling shows that the more religious voters are, the more likely they are to vote for conservatives. Given how negatively much of the political Left seems to regard religion and spirituality, this is not surprising. But what if a new political option regarded personal ethics as important as social justice and saw faith as a positive force in society - for progressive social change. I think the fourth option could be a real winning vision and believe that many are very hungry for it. While the political elites and many special interest groups resist the "personal ethics/social justice" combination (perhaps because it threatens many special interests), countless ordinary people would welcome it.

What we need is nothing less than "prophetic politics." We must find a new moral and political language that transcends old divisions and seeks the common good. Prophetic politics finds its center in fundamental "moral issues" such as children, diversity, family, community, citizenship, and ethics (others could be added such as nonviolence, tolerance, fairness, etc.) and tries to construct national directions to which many people across the political spectrum could agree. It would speak directly to the proverb "Without a vision, the people perish," and would offer genuine political vision that rises out of biblical passages from prophetic texts. Our own ancient prophetic religious traditions could offer a way forward beyond our polarized and paralyzed national politics and be the foundation for a fourth political option to provide the new ideas politics always needs.

Simply put, the two traditional options in America (Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative) have failed to capture the imagination, commitment, and trust of a majority of people in this country. Neither has found ways to solve our deepest and most entrenched social problems. Record prosperity hasn’t cured child poverty. Family breakdown is occurring across all class and racial lines. Public education remains a disaster for millions of families. Millions more still don’t have health insurance, or can’t find affordable housing. The environment suffers from unresolved debates, while our popular culture becomes more and more polluted by debased and violent "entertainment." In local communities, people are more and more isolated, busy, and disconnected. Our foreign policy has become an aggressive assertion of military superiority in a defensive and reactive mode, seeking to protect us against growing and invisible threats, instead of addressing the root causes of those threats. The political Right and Left continue at war with each other, but the truth is that these false ideological choices themselves have run their course and become dysfunctional.

Prophetic politics would not be an endless argument between personal and social responsibility, but a weaving of the two together in search of the common good. The current options are deadlocked. Prophetic politics wouldn’t assign all the answers to the government, the market, or the churches and charities; but rather patiently and creatively forge new civic partnerships where everyone does their share and everybody does what they do best. Prophetic politics wouldn’t debate whether our strategies should be cultural, political, or economic; but show how they must be all three, led by a moral compass.

Perhaps most important, prophetic politics won’t be led just by elected officials, lawyers, and their financial backers. Look for community organizers, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, faith-based communities, and parents to help show the way forward. Pay particular attention to a whole generation of young people forged in community service. They may be cynical about politics but are vitally concerned with public life. The politics we need now will arise more from building social and spiritual movements than merely lobbying at party conventions. And ultimately it will influence the party conventions, as successful movements always do.

THE PROPHETIC role that churches are undertaking is illustrative of the larger public vocation that may now be required. That role may become more clear in the wake of the election. Without a vision, Democrats had nothing to offer the American people as an alternative to the vision of the Bush administration.

With the Republicans offering war overseas and corporate dominance at home, and the Democrats failing to offer any real alternatives, who will raise a prophetic voice for social and economic justice and for peace? Never has there been a clearer role for the churches and religious community. We can push both parties toward moral consistency and their best-stated values, over the unprincipled pragmatism and negative campaigning that both sides too often engaged in during the recent election.

The courage many church leaders showed in opposing the war in Iraq is an early sign of that prophetic role. So is the growing unity across the spectrum of the churches on the issue of poverty. The truth is that there are more churches committed to justice and peace than churches that belong to the Religious Right. It’s time the voice of those congregations be heard and their activism be mobilized to become the conscience of American politics in a time of crisis.

We’ve seen other moments in recent history when the churches emerged as the leading voice of political conscience and opposition. Certainly there were key times in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, in El Salvador during the 1980s, in the people power revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, and in the opposition to communist rule in Poland when the churches became the critical public voice for both political challenge and change.

Even in democracies, churches have responded to that same prophetic vocation. In New Zealand during the 1990s, when conservative forces ripped that society’s long-standing social safety net to pieces, it was the churches - in partnership with the indigenous Maori people - who led marches, ignited public protest, and helped restore key programs in health care, housing, and social services. During the Thatcher years in Britain, it was again church leadership that reminded the nation of its responsibilities to impoverished urban communities, to the ethics of the common good over private gain, to social justice, and to peace. And, of course, in the United States, black churches provided the moral foundation and social infrastructure for the powerful civil rights movement that changed our society.

In a bitterly divided nation, we face historic challenges. But the political "tie" that the nation is caught in might be a moment of opportunity. It shows that the old options and debates have created a deadlock. This very crisis could open the way for some new and creative thinking and organizing. And that could be very good news indeed. Our political leaders must learn the wisdom that the way to reach common ground is to move to higher ground. And we citizens should start by showing the way.

PERHAPS THE most mistaken media perception of our time is that religious influence in political life only equates to the politics of the Religious Right. The biggest story that the mainstream media has yet to discover is how much that reality is changing. My prediction is that moderate and progressive religious voices will shape politics in the coming decades far more significantly than will the Religious Right.

History teaches us that the most effective social movements are also spiritual ones - movements that change people’s thinking and attitudes by an appeal to moral and religious values. Those movements change the cultural and political climate, which then makes policy changes more possible, palatable, and, yes, democratic. Perhaps the best example of doing it right, as we have said, is the American civil rights movement, which was led by ministers who appealed directly to biblical faith. I believe that will be the more-likely pattern for future movements that combine faith and politics, replacing the more politically conformist model of the Religious Right.

To move away from the bifurcating politics of liberal and conservative, Left and Right, would be an enormously positive change and would open up a new "politics of solutions." Right now, Washington responds to a problem or crisis in two ways. First, politicians try to make us afraid of the problem, and, second, they look for somebody to blame for it. Then they watch to see whose political spin succeeded, either in the next poll or the next election. But they seldom get around to actually solving the problem. The media make everything worse by assuming that every political issue has only two sides instead of multiple angles to view and solve the problem. Addicted to conflict as their methodology, the media always seem to want to pitch a fight between polarized views instead of convening a public discussion to find serious answers.

The answer is to put values at the center of political discourse and, in every public debate, ask what kind of country and people we really want to be. We would find new agreements across old political boundaries and new common ground among people who agree on values and are ready to challenge the special interests on all sides who are obstructing the solutions most Americans would support. Ideologies have failed us; values can unite us, especially around our most common democratic visions.

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners. This article is excerpted from God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It: A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America (Harper SanFrancisco)