A very good interview in Christianity Today should clarify to many where Jim Wallis' positions really stand. I have not read much of him, but this interview makes me want to see more. Some highlights:
But a genuine pro-life agenda will be focused on the throwaway culture. The throwaway culture is why those Down syndrome kids are being thrown away. You can't accept the throwaway culture in every other area like what we do to the environment, our consumption, and the rest, then somehow change on abortion.
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I believe in equal protection under the law in a democratic, pluralistic society. At Focus on the Family, I had this discussion with James Dobson's policy people, and they basically support equal protection under the law, too. Some would debate whether civil unions are necessary for that, or whether other legal protections are adequate. And that's a fair discussion.
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There are prudential judgments we all make, but there are principles that we should all affirm. And for too long there was a political orthodoxy that was quietly folded into theological orthodoxy that just wasn't right.
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Did the surge make security gains? Yes. Is that a lasting solution? No. There's still very little movement on the political front. Is the surge working to reduce the violence? Yes. Does that mean the war in Iraq was a good idea after all? No. But I'm not calling for immediate withdrawal. Now that we've gone in there and made such a mess of it, there has to be a responsible transition, saving and protecting as many lives as possible, and an internationalizing of the security problem.
What I like here is that he seems to have found a way to maintain the precarious balance between conviction in what he believes and the realization that not everyone will buy it. This results in a tension. It looks like he understands the big picture – that these tensions will not easily be resolved and may not even be resolved in his lifetime. But they are tensions that we must continue to work within, work with, and work in spite of to get things done for the greater good.
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