Author Jim Wallis delivers inspiring insights regarding social justice
by S. Rotan Hale
We’re living in troubled times, the likes of which have not been seen in this modern age that becomes more divers every day, and no one is more conscious of this than Jim Wallis.
Wallis is an accomplished author, professor and religious commentator who saw a need early in life and answered the call that fueled his transition into the ministry and later sparked his interest in social justice.
As president and founder of Sojourners, a non-profit faith-based organization headquartered in Washington, DC, Wallis has been a soldier on the front lines of Christian-based social activism for years.
Among his numerous accomplishments and positions, Wallis, a global minister, was a spiritual advisor to president Barrack Obama. Presently he is editor of Sojourners magazine and has published an amazing body of work including 12 books.
His most recent work, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America, released January 2016, served as the basis for his presentation at the forum.
Ivies, Inc. of Roanoke Valley (subsidiary AKA local chapter) in partnership with Roanoke College Office of Community Programs and Office of Multicultural Affairs hosted an evening with the well-versed Christian intellectual on Thursday, Nov. 29 at Roanoke College.
Wallis has expressed his principled views as a guest on numerous networks as NPR, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and others. He has taught at Harvard Univ., Georgetown Univ. and several other academic institutions throughout his scholarly career. Therefore, needless to say, he was quite comfortable and often humorous, during his 90-minute address at which he elaborated on various race-based aspects relative to the human condition.
Wallis spoke about the present plight of women and their uphill battle to create more balance politically and socially.
“…Women are changing the narrative in the churches and all over the country and it’s the narrative that most needs to be changed,” he said. “In fact America’s original sin is more than about slavery– it’s about Americans and a fault that, as Bryan Stevenson says, “‘still evolves–and lingers with us today.’”
Stevenson is an African American lawyer, social justice activist and founder of Equal Justice Initiative.
Wallis also told stories of his experiences interacting with such giants as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others.
Pointing to an interesting fact, he presented data from a 2018 American Values Survey conducted by the Public Research and Religion Institute showing White evangelicals as the only religious group with more than half (54%) believing the US is becoming a majority of minorities. The group also considers racial diversity (by 2025) as being a negative.”
The ‘majority of minorities’ premise, Wallis said, is behind every decision regarding the present administration’s handling of issues such as immigration, mass incarceration, voting rights, etc.
“This is about how the suppression of one vote is an assault on the image of God,” he stated in a direct rebuke.
“There is a strategy from Washington being directed and coordinated to keep our changing demographics in America from changing our democracy in America,” he asserted.
Wallis said it was not only a Christian problem but a White problem and he had no problem pointing to Donald Trump as a major promoter of this new era of racism.
His in depth approach to the entire presentation left little need for the few questions posed by the attendees during a Q&A after his talk.
Wallis’ thought-provoking lecture provided valuable insights concerning many of the very issues presently faced not only nationally but on a global level as well. Little wonder, Time magazine named him one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.”
