Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
In mixed company, a general rule of thumb is to avoid talking about politics and religion. Jim Wallis, who has made a living doing both, broke all the rules in Iowa City on Sept. 13 as he lectured about politics and religion with an estimated 600 strangers. Wallis, president of Sojourners/Call to Renew and the best-selling author of “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It,” descended upon the Iowa Memorial Union to deliver his lecture, “Biblical Faith, Political Values: A New Vision for America.”
To help break the taboo of mincing religion and politics, Wallis disarmed the audience by telling political jokes that placed Democrats and Republicans on an equally-footed alter, only to make fun of them equally, yet justly. In doing so, Wallis was quick to point out that he used the jokes to illustrate the “silly notion that God is either Republican or a Democrat. God is nonpartisan,” Wallis said. “People of faith ought not to be in any political party’s pocket.”
Wallis, a preacher and an activist, used his deep, oftentimes baritone preacher voice to preach the resurrection of the next social movement in the absence of a broken political system. “Politics is broken in America, because it’s failing to address most of the moral issues of our time,” Wallis said. “And when politics is broken, what often happens is that social movements rise up and change politics, and the best movements always have spiritual foundations.”In the spirit of a revival, Wallis senses, as he crisscrosses the country and delivers lectures at colleges, that there is a change in the air and a movement building in America. He tells those gathered that he’s seeing the beginnings of a new revival, a revival for justice, and that maybe faith — which has been viewed for a long time as an obstruction — may now become the catalyst to help make social change possible. “The two big hungers in our world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice,” Wallis said. “The message between the two is the one the world is waiting for, and a new dialogue has just begun. The new generation of people of faith is coming of age. They’re stepping up to a new kind of faith that engages the world.”
Speaking metaphorically, Wallis suggests that we’re faced with a number of mountains to move in our world. “We have 3 billion of God’s children — that’s half of us — who are living on under $2 a day,” Wallis said. “We have genocide in Darfur that everyone wants to stop, but we can’t seem to do so because of politics. We are faced with terrorism and endless wars against terrorism that are making matters that much worse. We have to move some mountains,” Wallis admits. “And people of faith, historically, have been in the mountain-moving business.”
Wallis went on to illustrate that the next revival will transcend political boundaries, in particular the labels Republican and Democrat, and all of the levels defined within each one of these labels. “In the spirit of `Great Awakenings,’ revivals will change things, and it won’t be confined to our political categories,’ Wallis said. “‘Right’ and `left’ are political categories, not religious ones, and they don’t fit people of faith. Our country is not hungry for a religious right or a religious left. What they’re hungry for is a moral center, and I don’t mean a soulless centrism for a mushy middle,” Wallis continued, before imploring the audience to take another direction in how they approach the crossroads of faith and politics.
“Don’t go right, don’t go left, go deeper. We need to go below the surface of the political debates. Candidates talk and talk and talk, but they hardly ever say anything.”
“I don’t know who or what your political leanings are, or who you want to win the presidential election, but I will tell you one thing: Whoever does win will not be able to change the big things in Washington unless, or until, there’s a social movement,” Wallis argued. “Lyndon B. Johnson wasn’t a civil rights leader until Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. made him one. The best political leaders of our time need a social movement to help move the mountains.”
Wallis told the story about an encounter he had with U2′s Bono, while the two of them were raising awareness about the plight of Africans. Wallis argues we need to change the public opinion about issues in Africa such as poverty, AIDS and genocide, and feels we’ve become dependent on our celebrities to change public opinion. Before reciting scripture, “Luke 4,” Bono agreed. “If we have to depend on our celebrities to change the public’s political opinion, then we’re in some serious trouble,” Bono reportedly said to Wallis.
As Wallis approached the apex of his lecture, he slowly shifted into preacher mode in an effort to inspire younger audience members to take action and move the mountain. By making an appearance on “The Daily Show” and lecturing at college campuses across the country, Wallis hopes to ignite the next generation to alter two perceptions of reality: what is acceptable and what is possible. “Until we no longer accept what is unacceptable, can we make what is possible, possible,” said Wallis. “What has long been tolerated, will not be tolerated any more. The question tonight is what are you no longer going to tolerate or accept?”
Wallis, his voice rising, as the IMU ballroom stage metamorphosed into a pulpit, asked, “Will it be acceptable to you (the) gap of life expectancy between the world’s richest and poorest countries? The gap is now 40 years,” Wallis answered, pausing before adding a point of exclamation. “Death has become a social disease.”
To help illustrate his point about the gap between what is and is not acceptable, Wallis told a story about an education convention he attended in Dallas. A number of prominent Americans were in attendance, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates. During the convention, attendees learned that there are an estimated 800 million children worldwide who get no education at all. They calculated that it would take $20 billion a year to educate 800 million children, and while America is the richest country in the world, education experts were perplexed as to how they’ll raise the money. Sensing this as his cue, Wallis chimed in, “$20 billion is two months in Iraq. What makes us more secure — educating 800 million children or two months of war?”
Wallis finished his lecture by telling a story about a time he preached at a church in Atlanta, the same church where Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach. When he took hold of the microphone in the pulpit, he literally froze. It wasn’t until the congregation, realizing he had frozen, shouted out words of encouragement, thus freeing Wallis from his momentary paralysis, so he could preach what he perceived to be some of his best stuff.
Wallis paused to let these words sink in before ending his lecture. “I think we’ve had too much bad religion in these last few decades,” Wallis said. “I think we have some mountains to move that only faith can budge. I think it’s time for good religion, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s time for a revival of justice.”
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter