Democracy Project asks, "Jim Wallis: The Left's own Falwell?"

From The Seventh Age comes this revelation that emperor Wallis is naked.

Apparently, Jim Wallis has discovered God's politics. It's the establishment of a Welfare State that "moderates" abortion--without ever saying what that means. In other words, everything would be fine if the Reasonable Left would become Foolable like him. Once Secular Progressives, like the ones that still wear Che Guerrera T-shirts and want to pick sugar cane in Cuba, get religion, then the Democrats will bring about God's policies here on Earth. The Democracy Project isn't buying it:

The problem is that Wallis’s third way is a far cry from Chesterton’s distributism. It’s also a far cry from anything that might appeal to any significant number of American voters. What it amounts to is a defense of the welfare state that cozies up to socialism and a call for a multilateral foreign policy that is indistinguishable from pacifism.

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Whether the subject is Vietnam or the war on poverty, Jim Wallis’s call for a prophetic new vision is stuck somewhere in the 1960s. And, by the way, it’s curious indeed that the pacifically-inclined Wallis is not at all hesitant to throw around the word “war” when it comes to class warfare, urban war zones, or anti-poverty crusades. The word only seems to stick in his craw when he has to contemplate the prospect of military conflict between nation states.

Wallis, of course, seeks to persuade us (and maybe himself) that “thoughtful” people oppose war and hold to a “consistent ethic of life.” And mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most thoughtful one of all, but Jim Wallis himself.

Meanwhile, Seventh Age made this observation of Mr. Wallis:

What really ticks me off is that Wallis often lectures Catholics on their theological responsibilities and what Catholic Social Teaching supposedly says. Frankly, Wallis doesn't know a lick about it, besides mouthing some platitudes. If he wants to spin his own interpretation of scripture on his evangelical Protestant brethren, that's his issue -- and frankly he has a good point with those folks in that there are far more biblical texts about povery than same-sex marriage or abortion for that matter (although I'm not sure why concern for the poor means expansion of the welfare state). However, for this man to start acting like some authority on CST is appalling.

Seventh Age has a point. It's one thing to observe the cultural impact or characteristics of a particular religion. It's quite another to speak about specific theology or religious doctrine of that religion. Mr. Wallis does not have the authority and understanding of even a Catholic theologian when it comes to Roman Catholic doctrine. How can he expect to be taken seriously?

Incidently, The late Pope John Paul the Great disagrees with him about the nobility of the welfare state:

In recent years the range of such intervention has vastly expanded, to the point of creating a new type of state, the so-called "Welfare State." This has happened in some countries in order to respond better to many needs and demands, by remedying forms of poverty and deprivation unworthy of the human person. However, excesses and abuses, especially in recent years, have provoked very harsh criticisms of the Welfare State, dubbed the "Social Assistance State." Malfunctions and defects in the Social Assistance State are the result of an inadequate understanding of the tasks proper to the State. Here again the principle of subsidiarity must be respected: a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.[100]

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbors to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need. One thinks of the condition of refugees, immigrants, the elderly, the sick, and all those in circumstances which call for assistance, such as drug abusers: all these people can be helped effectively only by those who offer them genuine fraternal support, in addition to the necessary care. (Pope John Paul the Great, from the encylical :Centesimus Annus:
The Hundredth Year", #48)

Mr. Wallis appears to make himself the poster child of the Foolable. That's a shame, really. Sojourners has done valuable work awakening the conscience of a materialistic society. Too often, many of us overlook the poor, much like the Rich man overlooks Lazarus.

Unfortunately, the answer is not Marxism lite. Catholic Social Teaching rejects that. So should all Fools. Hopefully, Mr. Wallis will one day as well. But I won't hold my breath waiting.