General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The collapse of the religious left [View all]Hekate
(90,686 posts)Because of that I sent him a donation back then, and ended up getting the journal Sojourners in the mail for awhile. I never encountered any of the things you mentioned in any of the articles. He and his group have spent 40 years working for social justice -- perhaps he and they continue to evolve as the rest of society has.
In the current online issue of Sojourners http://sojo.net/ is a page 1 article titled Fewer Americans View Homosexuality as a Sin. While the author does quote the research published by LifeWay, he does so without commenting whether or not he thinks it is sinful himself, merely noting the change in society.
A search of "gay marriage" reveals Christians and Bullying: Standing with Gays and Lesbians 07/14/2011; Is Evangelical Christianity Having a Great Gay Awakening? 08/31/2011; and so on.
I am not an Evangelical -- I'm not even a Christian, but I like this man very much. I wonder if he (at least during Bush's administration) became the Liberals' favorite Evangelical much the same way Martin Buber, theologian of I and Thou, became another generation's Christians' favorite Jew.
I only offer this for your and others' consideration. Society is evolving, and that includes dedicated social justice Christians like the Rev. Wallis.
As for keeping our public political events secular, I doubt it will ever happen. Religiosity and public piety wax and wane in America, and in our lifetime we have seen a resurgence. We can and should struggle against its more vile manifestations, but we will never make it go away completely. The vast majority of Americans seem to crave the assurance of some kind of blessing on our public events, and if kept in its proper perspective (all-inclusive, nondenominational, nonconfrontational) I see little harm in it.
Hekate