Free Republic

When you breach the sacrosanct wall between church and state, and use religion to promote policy, bad things happen. At least, that's what the left has been telling us for years. But Rev. Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine and author of "Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street," sees it differently. Wallis used his interpretation of religion, particularly the Bible, to play the populist card and categorize portions of the American private sector as greedy on MSNBC's Jan. 21 "Morning Joe." "These bank bonuses, I would say, are a sin of Biblical proportions," Wallis said. "But...

68 Protestant Leaders Applaud Encyclical Call on All Christians to Respond to "Caritas in Veritate" WASHINGTON, D.C., AUG. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's latest encyclical was lauded by 68 Evangelical Protestant community leaders from the United States, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In a message released last month, titled "Doing the Truth in Love," a group of university leaders and professors, press editors and presidents of various institutions signed a message to "applaud" the Pope's encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate." The message called on Christians everywhere to "read, wrestle with, and respond to 'Caritas in Veritate' and...

My favorite Christian radio station, KLTY in North Texas, has turned to politics. It has begun to advertise a Conference on Social Justice sponsored by Soujorners and Jim Wallis. Jim Wallis stands behind a facade of christian activism to further the aims of the democrat party and particularly, Barak Obama. I have written KLTY an email: "I am concerned with the advertising that you have been playing for the social justice conference in November. I have found, in the past, that anything that Jim Wallis and Sojourners’ have sponsored have been loose disguises for the furtherance of a progressive (if...

President Obama has switched tactics in pushing health care reform -- he's now urging faith leaders to support health care reform as a moral and ethical duty. The religious left has, of course, fallen in behind him. Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a leftist Christian advocacy group, visited Lou Dobbs Tonight on Monday. He said of health care: "...right now, we have a system that is fundamentally broken. So many people are hurting, they're left out, left behind, even if they have insurance, they can't afford good health. The system, the broken has to be fixed. How to best...

First this: Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll (Obama down big time) Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New Low http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/august_2009/support_for_congressional_health_care_reform_falls_to_new_low Obama's getting desperate. Now he's calling out another one of his 60's radical "Big Dogs", aka "God's Democrat", Jim Wallis. I just heard from him yesterday morning. I'm on that Big Dog's mailing list - (so that I can keep track of what he's up to at all times without having to go to his left-wing "Sojourners" web site) - and just received this urgent message from him yesterday morning. I've copied and pasted his message to me...

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), then based in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, vigorously lobbied for Nicaragua's Sandinista regime, the Cuban-style Marxist regime that shot its way to power in 1979. Today, WOLA pretends it is concerned about the rule of law in Honduras after the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court supported removing the leftist president for defying its constitution. WOLA and Jim Wallis' publication Sojourners have teamed up to spin Honduras' defense of its democracy as another example of a U.S.-supported, imperialist military coup. The constitutional coup in Honduras was...

President Obama, formerly of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, is looking for a new spiritual home. In the meantime, he is reportedly taking religious counsel from several pastors, including the Rev. Jim Wallis. How much counsel the president is taking from the president and chief executive of Sojourners magazine and key player in a Washington-based activist network with the same name remains to be seen. But we can only hope that Obama is listening to Wallis on the question of how the United States should proceed in Afghanistan. After noting last week on the sixth anniversary of the Iraq...

Barack Obama is under fire after replacing his estranged pastor Jeremiah Wright with a new circle of religious confidantes whose views are dramatically at odds with some of his political goals. The president is now taking spiritual guidance from no less than five different pastors, whom he phones for advice at moments of stress or when making big decisions. But a year after the incendiary rantings of Rev Wright threatened to derail Mr Obama's presidential campaign, revelation of the "dial-a-prayer" sessions has prompted critics to declare that he has a new "pastor problem". Four of the president's inner circle of...

Barack Obama’s Newest Spiritual Advisor   By DiscoverTheNetworks.orgFrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Now that he no longer draws spiritual succor from Jeremiah Wright—the America-hating, racist demagogue who served as his pastor and spiritual mentor for twenty years—Barack Obama has turned elsewhere for guidance in the task of carrying out his political duties while remaining true to his religious values. The most notable of his spiritual advisors today is his friend of many years, Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of the Sojourners organization. Says Wallis, “We’ve [he and Obama] been talking faith and politics for a long time.” Who is...

The New York Times published an article on the pastors to whom Barack Obama has reached out. Having thrown his longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright, Junior under the bus during the campaign, when his radical views became a political problem, he is in need of spiritual counsel or a least cover. The disturbing point is that of the 5 pastors listed, Jim Wallis is the only one credited with influencing Obama on policy issues. Why might this be a cause of concern? The New York Times reports: The pastor in the circle who has known Mr. Obama the longest is Mr....

President Obama has been without a pastor or a home church ever since he cut his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in the heat of the presidential campaign. But he has quietly cultivated a handful of evangelical pastors for private prayer sessions on the telephone and for discussions on the role of religion in politics.

President Obama's own Religious Left constituency is now flaking for their man. Of course, advocating their religious agenda (Global Warming, larger welfare state, disarmament and subordination to the United Nations, multiculturalism) is not theocratic, but timeless and universal pleas for justice and global harmony. "Emerging" church maestro Brian McLaren, who is a columnist for Jim Wallis's Sojourners, has been a leading cheerleader for Obama among liberal evangelicals. ("Emergent" evangelicals emphasize post-modernity and stress community over doctrine.) McLaren and other Evangelical Left organizers celebrate that strong majority evangelical support for John McCain last year fell somewhat from the historic tide for...

Warren consistently used the language of a religious pluralist. He spoke of "mosques, temples and churches" as central to the life of villages in the developing world. He underscored the fact that there are huge numbers of people of faith in the world, and huge numbers of houses of worship in places where clinics, banks and schools don't exist. Those people of faith can be trained to be the arms and legs of any development plan, and those houses of worship can double as clinics, banks and schools. This is a big deal, because it signals an important turn in...

Letter To the Editor in today's Boston Globe from L. David Alinsky, son of Obama and Hillary radical mentor Saul Alinsky. ALL THE elements were present: the individual stories told by real people of their situations and hardships, the packed-to-the rafters crowd, the crowd's chanting of key phrases and names, the action on the spot of texting and phoning to show instant support and commitment to jump into the political battle, the rallying selections of music, the setting of the agenda by the power people. The Democratic National Convention had all the elements of the perfectly organized event, Saul Alinsky...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Every four years Americans elect a president and both political parties hold conventions to coronate their nominee and build up excitement in advance of the November elections. They also review and approve party platforms and one top pro-abortion is ready to get involved.NARAL president Nancy Keenan informed her supporters on Tuesday that she is headed to Pittsburgh this Thursday to participate in the Democratic Party's platform committee meetings.When she's there, she promises to keep the party's position in support of unlimited abortions paid for at taxpayer expense in place."On Thursday, I have the privilege of...

In an era of broken politics and bad religion, faith is making a serious comeback as a force for social change, says Christian author and speaker Jim Wallis.Mon, May. 26, 2008 Posted: 08:58:18 AM EST LONDON – In an era of broken politics and bad religion, faith is making a serious comeback as a force for social change, says Christian author and speaker Jim Wallis. Speaking at the U.K. launch of his new book, “Seven Ways to Change the World,” in central London Sunday night, Wallis said Christianity is reviving and that it is time for Christians to answer the...

But will we all get free wooden shoes? Barack Obama didn't say. But he does have a plan to give people jobs. Put them to work . . . building windmills. His idea came in response to a question at last night's Compassion Forum on CNN from Jim Wallis, a leading member of the religious left whose focus is "social justice." Wallis wanted Obama to commit to a new War on Poverty. JIM WALLIS: As you reminded us a week or two ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed 40 years ago, he wasn't just speaking about civil...

Have evangelicals abandoned the Religious Right for a more moderate center? Some say yes. ... Mr. McLaren says global poverty, destruction of the environment and increasing violence in the world must be addressed and calls for the church to "change its framing story" and to start trying to change public opinion in these areas. He launched a tour called "Everything Must Change" and is currently traveling throughout the country rallying support. ... Well-known liberal evangelical Jim Wallis called evangelicals the swing voters in '08. Not everybody agrees with his statement, but political analysts do a note a shift. Some religious...

The following statement is being issued by over a dozen Christian leaders to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. We invite you to join us in adding your name as a gesture of lamentation and repentance. »See the full statement and signers This season of Lent, we are truly living "in darkness and in the shadow of death" as we mark, on March 19, 2008, the fifth anniversary of the war with Iraq. It is a war that is being waged by our country, financed by our taxes, and fought by our sisters and brothers. As U.S....

Hundreds of Christian leaders marched to Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives and convey their message of social justice and peace to cap off a large annual ecumenical gathering Monday. Tue, Mar. 11, 2008 Posted: 16:20:04 PM EST Hundreds of Christian leaders marched to Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives and convey their message of social justice and peace to cap off a large annual ecumenical gathering Monday. The President of the National Council of Churches USA, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, in preparation for Monday’s advocacy told participants of the Ecumenical Advocacy Days that Christians have a biblical responsibility...

An increasingly influential religious leader explains why evangelicals should worry less about abortion and gay marriage, and more about the poor.... Among the most prominent champions of a new evangelical agenda is Jim Wallis, the chief executive of Sojourners, a Washington-based organization that advocates for a Christian approach to social justice issues. Wallis began his activism in the civil rights and anti-war movements, and has long been a critic of the religious right, writing books, giving speeches, and publishing the Sojourners magazine to exhort Christians to pay more attention to the poor. But his profile increased dramatically with the publication...

Another category of Christian, however, is rapidly losing its traditional identity in our culture: Evangelical. While it never made distinctions on theological grounds, that term could always be counted upon to identify those Christians who are conservative, Protestant, culturally influential and outspoken about their faith. With recent developments, however, the defining elements of Evangelical may soon go the way of the much-encompassing Christian. Why? Because some who purport to speak for all evangelicals are being sucked into marginal issues that are usually harped on by America-hating liberals. And because conservative Christians are allegedly being divided, the mainstream media is eating...

The “Religious Right” lost its religion when it began to identify with first being a “conservative” movement within one Political Party.

“Evangelicals are going to vote this year in part on climate change, on Darfur, on poverty,” said Jim Wallis, the author of a new book, “The Great Awakening,” which argues that the age of the religious right has passed and that issues of social justice are rising to the top of the agenda. Mr. Wallis says that about half of white evangelical votes will be in play this year. ... Look, I don’t agree with evangelicals on theology or on their typically conservative views on taxes, health care or Iraq. Self-righteous zealots like Pat Robertson have been a plague upon...

Begging forgiveness of Islam? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: November 27, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern It was predictable in this age of wishful thinking. After 138 Muslim leaders last month wrote an open letter to Christendom calling ostensibly for peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding, self-proclaimed Christian leaders and other celebrity Christians took the bait. The appropriate response would have been to search their own Scriptures, to get down on their knees to beseech God to give them wisdom, to seek the counsel of others, particularly those expert on Islam, history and the persecution of the church in Muslim lands. Instead, some get-along-with-the-world Christians...

Christian leaders ask for Muslim forgiveness The signers are a veritable who's who of Christian leaders in the United States. And there's nothing essentially wrong with such a gesture: no community has a monopoly on evil, or is entirely free from it. But it is singularly unfortunate in this instance, since Muslim groups worldwide have never, in any context, offered a similar gesture. Where are the apologies for the jihad conquests and dhimmitude? They will, most assuredly, not be forthcoming. From the Khaleej Times (thanks to all who sent this in): ABU DHABI—Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as...

I believe that Dick Cheney is a liar; that Donald Rumsfeld is also a liar; and that George W. Bush was, and is, clueless about how to be the president of the United States. ...They have shamed our beloved nation in the world by this war and the shameful way they have fought it. Almost 4,000 young Americans are dead because of the lies of this administration, tens of thousands more wounded and maimed for life, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also dead, and 400 billion dollars wasted—because of their lies, incompetence, and corruption. But I don’t favor impeachment, as...

A Different Dialogue for 'Values Voters' (by Jim Wallis) I'm preparing for a dialogue with Richard Land at the FRC Action's Values Voter Summit tomorrow. This has caused me to reflect on how the definition of "moral values" has changed. Evangelical activism to protect God's creation is now publicly visible in a new way, including Christian concern over global warming. A host of other issues are now part of a broadened and deepened evangelical agenda—most connected to poverty, human rights, and social justice. Even American military and foreign policy has begun to come under critique by Christian scholars (including evangelicals),...

NOT ALL OF Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's encounters in New York during his recent trip were testy. The Shiite theocrat had what the New York Times called a "warm, even friendly exchange" with 150 church officials at the United Methodist Women's Church Center for the United Nations. One sponsor, the Mennonite Central Committee, called the gathering a "time of dialogue and prayerful reflection among the children of Abraham." A Mennonite official further explained that "mutual respect and graciousness in this conversation blunts the demonization which is part of the current rhetoric of both governments." The meeting is the third between...

 Living under the rule of Hamas in Gaza cannot be a joy for anybody.  But Gaza's 2,000 Christians are especially apprehensive under the Islamist regime.Meanwhile, a columnist for Jim Wallis's "Religious Left" journal, Sojourners, excoriates the U.S. and the opponents of Hamas as ultimately responsible for ascendant Islamic radicalism in Gaza. During the recent battles between Hamas and Fatah, a Catholic convent and school were ransacked.  According to the Associated Press, attackers "burned crosses, damaged a statue of Jesus, and ruined prayer books." Hamas denied any responsibility for damage to properties of their Christian "brothers," instead blaming Islamist groups that supposedly are even more...

With the predictability of a John McCain temper tantrum (or a John Edwards $200-haircut), every two year the Democrats announce that they're going to fight like hell for the religious vote - a vow duly reported by the media in the hushed tones of revelation. Thus, a story on the recent CNN Democratic presidential forum began with the following observation: "After barring their souls in a live television confessional, top Democratic White House hopefuls have put Republicans on notice that religious voters are up for grabs." At the forum, sponsored by Jim (Hugo-Chavez-Is-My- Shepard) Wallis and his Sojourners collective, Hillary...

Once she wrested control of the Senate’s Environmental and Public Works Committee from conservative stalwart Sen. Jim Inhofe (R.-Okla.), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.) was expected to aggressively pursue legislation to combat global warming. What wasn’t expected was that she would do it with blessings from the Church. Last Thursday, Boxer held a hearing that highlighted the growing role of religion in liberal political campaigns--particularly in the name of “environmental justice.” There, a coalition of 35 religious denominations called for an 80 percent reduction in global warming emissions by the year 2050, and bill S.309, sponsored by Boxer and avowed socialist...

By David Noebel Posted: 03/01/2007 Tony Campolo: The Marxist Delusion and a Christian Evangelist By David A. Noebel           I have just finished reading Tony Campolo’s book Letters to a Young Evangelical.  Published by Basic Books and copyrighted by Campolo in 2006, this work gives the reader an amazing look into the mind and heart of a radical sociologist on a mission—to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.  The cannon fodder for establishing this Kingdom is the poor, the wretched, the oppressed, the naked, the downtrodden, and the proletariat.  The chief tool to bring about this Kingdom is “progressive politics”...

Hillary Clinton: Faith Saved My Marriage Tuesday, June 05, 2007 WASHINGTON — In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God. Clinton stood by her actions in the aftermath of former President Clinton's admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage. "I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right,...

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought," Clinton said during a forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith and values. "I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith," she said in response to a question about how she dealt with the infidelity. The forum, sponsored by the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal evangelical organization, provided an uncommon glimpse into the most personal beliefs of Clinton and rivals John...

Thursday, May 17, 2007 Jim Wallis: Falwell's Legacy I watched much of the cable television coverage of Jerry Falwell’s death and legacy. And I did a lot of grimacing, both from the uncritical adulations of his allies (who just passed over the divisive character of much of Falwell’s rhetoric), and also from the ugly vitriol from some of Falwell’s enemies (who attacked both his character and his faith). And there were even some who attacked all people of faith. I ended up being glad that I passed up all the invitations to be on those shows. On the day...

The "peace and justice" Christians are insistent in telling us they don't wish to move away from issues such as the protection of unborn Christian life. They simply seek to "expand" Christian social witness away from a truncated "Religious Right" focus on abortion and marriage. We're not pro-abortion, groups such as Sojourners and leaders such as Jim Wallis assure us. It's just that we believe that life doesn't begin at conception and end at birth. We believe, they say, that global warming and quality day care and an increased minimum wage are pro-life issues too! Next time you hear this...

Left-wing evangelist Tony Campolo and leftist Jewish activist Michael Lerner are organizing a new manifesto calling for the U.S. to “repent” and “apologize” for the Iraq war, eagerly collecting funds to publish the appeal in major newspapers across the nation. Called “An Ethical Way to End the War in Iraq,” Campolo and Lerner want America to give up in Iraq immediately and pay reparations for her crimes. So far, they have collected the signatures of such enlightened luminaries as Harvard's Cornel West, radical nun Joan Chittester, Glen Stassen at Fuller Seminary, and former Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) moderator Rick Ufford Chase....

Jim Wallis: Polarizer or UnifierBy Janice Shaw CrouseTuesday, April 17, 2007 Jim Wallis has devoted his whole career to trying to force the round peg of leftist ideology into the square hole of biblical orthodoxy. When he wrote his "vision" designed to "transcend" the ideologies of the religious left and right, he ended up further polarizing instead of unifying the two evangelical movements. He rails against the "political language" of the right as well as the tendency of conservative evangelicals, in his opinion, to claim their use of scripture as authoritative. In so doing, Wallis hoists himself on his...

 A columnist for the Religious Left website Sojourners has just determined that "neo-conservatism" is incompatible with Christianity. Chuck Gutenson, a theology professor at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, wrote:"We, as followers of Jesus, should reflect on the differences between our calling to be imitators of Jesus and that to which the neocons would call us. And, most of all, we need to recognize the incommensurability of the two ways of being in the world."Gutenson, like many others, employs "neo-conservatism" as a broad and perjorative description for all who favor an aggressive U.S. foreign policy. Of course, neo-conservatism actually more narrowly describes...

You may remember MahonyFest 2006 with dread. The Religious Education Congress in LA showcases the cardinal's violations of liturgical norms, bad taste in music, gimpy wanna be pop stars and the oddest dancing this side of "Hair". Then there are the speakers, some of which make one wonder. Every day has a main speaker. On Saturday it's a priest specializing in "social justice". The Sunday address will be given by Jim Wallis. Who's Jim Wallis? Another "social justice" guy. Or rather, "socialist justice". A Protestant married to an Anglican priestess, he's as left as it gets. He founded the magazine...

A group of self-described "progressive" Christian evangelicals calling themselves "Red Letter Christians," and led by the left-oriented Sojourners magazine and left-oriented religious pundits like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, has recently emerged in the body politic. These self-proclaimed "progressives" have been making a lot of noise recently complaining about the ties that other Christian evangelicals have long held with the conservative movement in the United States, including the conservative movement in the Republican Party. One policy under attack by these "progressives" is the conservative effort to "cut programs to the poor." They say that such a policy goes against Jesus...

As I have traveled around the country, one line in my speeches always draws cheers: "The monologue of the Religious Right is over, and a new dialogue has now begun." We have now entered the post-Religious Right era. Though religion has had a negative image in the last few decades, the years ahead may be shaped by a dynamic and more progressive faith that will make needed social change more possible. In the churches, a combination of deeper compassion and better theology has moved many pastors and congregations away from the partisan politics of the Religious Right. In politics,...

Democrats turned to an evangelical Christian to give their weekly radio address on Saturday, citing a desire to avoid partisanship after last month's elections that gave them control of Congress. "I want to be clear that I am not speaking for the Democratic Party, but as a person of faith who feels the hunger in America for a new vision of our life together, and sees the opportunity to apply our best moral values to the urgent problems we face," the Rev. Jim Wallis said in his remarks. Wallis, author of 2005's "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong...

Religious Leaders Stand Up for Rick Warren, Barack Obama An open letter to pastors across the country Contact: Adam Segal, Faithful Democrats, 202-422-4673, adam@the2050group.com  MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 1 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is an open letter to pastors across the country: Dear Pastor:  Several right-wing religious organizations, including the National Clergy Council, recently blasted Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church for inviting Senator Barack Obama to speak on World AIDS Day this Friday, December 1. It's unfortunate that these groups would exploit the Christian faith to advance their divisive agenda – an agenda that gives almost exclusive attention to a few...

Can Butts, Obama, Dybul and Rick Warren Save the World? By Brannon Howse Rick Warren’s conference is this coming Friday, December 1st, 2006 at his church. To this day, I don’t have a clue what Pastor Warren thinks can be accomplished by gathering together a group of non-believers that are hostile to Christianity to discuss the world’s problems. Promotion of a social gospel will not save one soul. As you know by now, Rick has invited United States Senator Barack Obama to speak at his church conference. Senator Obama is described by many as left of Hillary Clinton. Now that...

WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans should work together to find new ways to end poverty, curb government corruption and strengthen families, Rev. Jim Wallis said Saturday. "Answering the call to lift people out of poverty will require spiritual commitment and bipartisan political leadership," Wallis, the head of the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal, an evangelical social justice movement, said in the weekly Democratic radio address. "Real solutions must transcend partisan politics," he said. "It is time to find common ground by moving to higher ground." President Bush has signaled his readiness to consider Democratic priorities such as a federal minimum-wage increase...

When I first filtered into an evangelical church at the age of 14, defining the term "evangelical" was simple, even for a kid my age. Without having to be told I concluded evangelicals preached a solid gospel, emphasized evangelism and missions, majored in soul-winning and minored in social issues, abstained from some worldly values (and occasionally went too far in this department coming close to legalism), were faithful in church attendance, Bible reading, and generally had a biblical worldview. Sure, we were often called "legalistic fundamentalists" but better to lean right than left. I was never and never will be...

The Evangelical Swing to the Left Nothing stays the same anymore; it is always morphing into something it shouldn't. So it is with evangelicalism. My alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, recently featured the king-pin of the "religious left," Jim Wallis. Wallis heads Sojourners' ministry and magazine, a ministry devoted to social issues though called evangelical. In his e-newsletter Wallis refers to his Bethel experience where he spoke to a packed chapel service. He says, "I was at Bethel University, known as a conservative evangelical school--fertile ground for recruiting by the 'religious right.' But the wind is changing...

A group of self-described "progressive" Christian evangelicals calling themselves "Red Letter Christians," and led by the left-oriented Sojourners magazine and left-oriented religious pundits like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, has recently emerged in the body politic. These self-proclaimed "progressives" have been making a lot of noise recently complaining about the ties that other Christian evangelicals have long held with the conservative movement in the United States, including the conservative movement in the Republican Party. One policy under attack by these "progressives" is the conservative effort to "cut programs to the poor." They say that such a policy goes against Jesus...