Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Where Jim Wallis Stands

Sojourner's founder Jim Wallis answers questions in Christianity Today on abortion, gay rights, the war in Iraq, and more. And he reminds that he is not a theological liberal:

But there has never been a doubt that I am an evangelical. In fact, the Sojourners community had its fatal split many years ago when a number of people in the community, including some of my fellow elders, really wanted to change our theological orthodoxy and were attracted to people like Matthew Fox, the creation spirituality theologian. And I just said, "Matthew Fox is a heretic, and we're committed to the central lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Scriptures."

And they said, "Well, we're not. Not all of us."

I said, "Well, Sojourners is. Even if you're not, Sojourners is and it's going to remain that way." I was accused of hierarchy and patriarchy, they quit, and we split. And that was the end of the residential community in some ways. But I took a stand, as I always did, for orthodoxy.

There is a conversation in our place that is ongoing about how evangelical or ecumenical we are, and not all of our folks are as evangelical as I am. But I'm the founder and president still. I'm not dead yet. I went to Trinity because I wanted to have this discussion in the evangelical world. And then for a long time evangelicals weren't really responding to us at Sojourners. Now they are.

I find it interesting that in this same article he says that Episcopalians should not split over the issues dividing them:
But the church shouldn't divide over this. They should stay together, live with their differences, keep talking, and respect each other's opinions.
Like Wallis did at Sojourners?

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