Shhh, Don’t Talk About Morality or Ethics in…

I’m about half way through a book by Jim Wallis, On God’s Side. I would describe Wallis as a progressive conservative and I think he would be comfortable with that description. His background is conservative and he remains identified with that group. He also pushes his fellow conservatives intensely towards a progressive agenda. Perhaps his writing is best described as taking the story of the Good Samaritan and pushing it as far as he can.

His is a political book urging a merger of the conservatives and liberals to work together pushing government to work for the common good. I applaud and support such an endeavor. Wouldn’t it be great to see the Tea Party and the MoveOn organization pushing our governmental and business leaders to be more ethical and applying religious values to their work.

He recognizes the problems politicians face in that they have to spend the majority of their time raising money to get elected or re-elected and thus are highly influenced by those who have the most money to support their candidacies. The voice of the people gets lost and we have a plutocracy instead.

I find Wallis remarkably well and widely read and an important voice that needs to be heard. He sees that great strength of conservatives as being their emphasis personal responsibility and the strength of liberals is their call to social responsibility. The use of both of these values needs to be more prominent in our society and its decision makers.

He uses the Abraham Lincoln quote, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side.” And here is where conservatives and liberals should unite on the teachings of Jesus. We should be working together and we fail when we use our religion to enforce our own codes or beliefs to control others. Or, saying God is on our side, and not on those we don’t agree with. He believes we need to take seriously when we pray the Lord’s Prayer “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” As citizens of God’s kingdom we have the responsibility to make this world more like God’s kingdom.

Wallis speaks to groups all over the country. He talks about conversations he has with business leaders that are sympathetic to long term morality in business, but say they can’t talk about it in their board meetings. Sad.

His is a call to repentance; meaning to change, take a new and better direction. I hope he gets more specific at the end of the book on how to get there as a new amendment to the constitution reining in how we fund political elections.

So far, I highly recommend this book and a good touchstone for conservatives and liberals.

I’m all for finding common ground to work for the common God.