Reverend Jim Wallis (born June 4, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan) is a Christian writer and political activist, best known as the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine and of the Washington DC based Christian community of the same name. Wallis actively eschews political labels, but his advocacy tends to focus on issues of peace and social justice, earning him his primary support from the religious left. Wallis is also known for his opposition to the religious right's fiscal and foreign policies, and for his oft-repeated thematic statements such as, "The monologue of the religious right has ended, and a new dialogue has begun."

Raised in a traditional evangelical family, as a young man Wallis became active in the civil rights movement. He graduated from Michigan State University, where he was President of Students for a Democratic Society and then went on to attend Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois where he joined with other young seminarians in establishing the community that eventually became Sojourners.

His books include God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (2004), Faith Works: How Faith Based Organizations Are Changing Lives, Neighborhoods, and America (2000), and The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left" (1995). His writings are regularly published as op-eds in major media outlets, and he teaches a

Jim Wallis lives in inner-city Washington, D.C. with his wife, Joy, and their sons, Luke and Jack.

In December 2005 Wallis was arrested with over a hundred other Christian activists who were protesting a House Republican budget plan that would cut into programs designed to aid low-income families.

Quotes

"To allow political ideology to overshadow human needs and fundamental issues of life and death is to go seriously astray."

"We are the leaders we've been waiting for."

Books

• Agenda for Biblical People (1976, second edition 1984)
• The Call to Conversion (1981); republished in paperback as Recovering the Gospel for These Times (1992)
• Revive Us Again: A Sojourner's Story (1983)
• The Soul of Politics: A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change (1994)
• The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left" (1995)
• Who Speaks for God?: An Alternative to the Religious Right: A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility (1996)
• Faith Works: How Faith Based Organizations Are Changing Lives, Neighborhoods, and America (2001)
• God's Politics : Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It Hardcover: 416 pages, Harper San Francisco (2004) ISBN 0060558288

Jim Wallis

See also

• Progressive Christianity