Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host

Jim Wallis joins Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III for a discussion about “A Pastoral Response to the Economic Crisis.”

Lloyd begins with a query: “Is there something theological and spiritual going on amidst this economic meltdown?” Wallis describes the crisis as “a moment of opportunity to clarify our mission.” He believes that the public, and especially people of faith, should ask, “How will this change us?” and examine our ways of thinking, our values.

Wallis points out changes in the gap between corporate leaders and the average worker. Thirty years ago, he says, CEO pay was thirty times that of the average worker. Now the top executive receives 415 times the average worker’s pay. “That inequality ... is a sin of biblical proportions, and until we start talking biblically about it, we’re not going to get very far,” Wallis believes.

“The impact of the crisis on the culture has yet to be seen,” Wallis observes. “I want this to end as soon as it can. But if it ends too easily or too quickly, and we go back to things as usual, without changing the culture that led to it, we will have lost an opportunity.” He contrasts the perceptions of people who lived through the Great Depression with today’s viewpoints about prosperity and the right use of wealth.

Wallis notes one change: the poor are now seen less as “the other.” He compares the poor (who are mentioned in some two thousand verses of the Bible) to canaries in a coal mine. As more Americans lose their financial security, they pay more attention to the vulnerability of the poor. However, in difficult times, the public might be tempted to marginalize specific groups. Some have blamed illegal immigrants for causing the current crisis.

Wallis is an internationally recognized author, activist, public theologian, and founder of Sojourners. He is a sought-after commentator on the intersection of faith and public life, whose columns have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other publications. His most recent book is Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America.

About The Rev. Jim Wallis

The Rev. Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, preacher, and international commentator on religion and public life, faith and politics. His latest book is The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America (HarperOne, 2008). His previous book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It (Harper Collins, 2005), was on the New York Times bestseller list for 4 months. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sojourners; where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, whose combined print and electronic media have a readership of more than 250,000 people. Wallis speaks at more than 200 events a year and his columns appear in major newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and both Time and Newsweek online. He regularly appears on radio and television, including shows like “Meet the Press,” the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” the “O’Reilly Factor,” and is a frequent guest on the news programs of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and National Public Radio. He has taught at Harvard’s Divinity School and Kennedy School of Government on “Faith, Politics, and Society.” He has written eight books, including: Faith Works, The Soul of Politics, Who Speaks for God?, and The Call to Conversion.

Jim Wallis was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements at Michigan State University. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice which has now grown into a national faith-based organization. In 1979, Time magazine named Wallis one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.”

Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C. with his wife, Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained in the Church of England and author of Beneath the Cassock: The Real-life Vicar of Dibley; and their sons, Luke and Jack. He is a Little League baseball coach.