Sojourners was founded by Jim Wallis in 1976, the offspring of the Post American, which was published by a few radical theology students who banded together commal-style in Chicago in the late 1960s. Encouraged by Richard Barnet [of the Institute for Policy Studies], Gordon Cosby [of World Peacemakers], and others, Wallis decided to move his ragtag Christian hippie community to Washington. Barnet's influence was soon felt at Sojourners, for after Wallis moved the Sojourners commune to Washington and came in contact with IPS, the appearance of the magazine improved and its rhetoric was toned down. But when Wallis addresses his colleagues in the elite theological circles, he makes no effort to conceal his politics. He told Mission Tracks in 1979, in the article "Liberation and Conformity", that he hoped "more Christians will come to view the world through Marxist eyes. . ."
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The U.N. Special Session on Disarmament of 1978 was to be an extravaganza for peace activists throughout the Western world. . .The entire endeavor had been conceived and approved by the World Peace Council in 1975, based on the Soviets' perception. . .Never mind that nothing specific on disarament resulted from the special session. What did emerge were some organizational vehicles for "the movement"--Mobilization for Survival, the Riverside Church Disarmament Program, World Peacemakers--all of which "IPS fellows were instrumental in organizing", as an IPS annual report pointed out. . .
The theme of the March 1978 Sojourners issue was in keeping with the campaign being promoted by World Peacemakers. . .
one of Sojourner's affiliated groups, the Call for Renewal