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Covenant News Covenanters Join Marches in L.A., Chicago LOS ANGELES (May 3) - Two Evangelical Covenant Church conference leaders were among those participating in the immigration reform demonstration here Monday, and a Covenant pastor in Chicago says it was important that he and several students participated in the Midwest city's march the same day. Two walks occurred in Los Angeles, and Greg Yee and Walter Contreras found themselves near the front of the second event, walking alongside Cardinal Roger Mahoney. They were subsequently joined by other Covenant pastors participating in the march, which police say attracted some 500,000 individuals. Yee...

<p>In a front-page story Tuesday on the President and his compassionate conservative agenda, the New York Times said that, "some religious supporters of Mr. Bush say they feel betrayed by promises he made as a candidate and now, they maintain, he has broken as president." The story relies heavily on quotes from one Reverend Jim Wallis, whom the Times describes as an, "early supporter" of the President. Wallis tells the Times Mr. Bush has, "failed the test." He is the only person in the whole story identified as a Bush supporter. But Wallis is, in fact, an ardent Democrat, who did not vote for Mr. Bush, and who edits a liberal religious magazine called Sojourners, which has consistently criticized the President and his administration. None of this is mentioned in the Times story.</p>

MICHAEL LERNER was back on campus at Berkeley. But this time he is a portly Jewish rabbi leading 1,200 mostly middle-aged "spiritual progressives," and not the young Students for a Democratic Society agitator targeted by J. Edgar Hoover in the 1960s. The "Politics of Meaning," Lerner's label for his spiritual liberalism, peaked in the early 1990s, when his supposed fans, Bill and Hillary Clinton, ascended to power. But Hillary disavowed Lerner when his quirky views attracted fire, and the old Berkeley activist, though still publishing Tikkun, seemingly faded. Now Lerner is back. And his "Conference on Spiritual Activism," held at...

Professors oppose Bush `theology' - By Marshall Allen , Staff Writer PASADENA -- A group of Fuller Theological Seminary professors, saying they are responding to a "grave moral crisis' in America, are signing a statement opposing President Bush's alleged convergence of God, church and nation and what they call his "theology of war.' Glen Stassen, Fuller's Louis B. Smedes professor of Christian ethics, said Bush's religious rhetoric confuses the cause of Christianity with that of a nation at war. For instance, in Bush's 2002 State of the Union address the president labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea the "axis of...

SINCE the 2004 election, there has been much soul-searching and hand-wringing, especially among Democrats, about how to "frame" political messages. The loss to George W. Bush was painful enough, but the Republicans' post-election claims of mandate, and their triumphal promises to relegate the Democrats to permanent minority status, left political liberals in a state of panic. So the minority party has been searching, some would say desperately, for the right "narrative": the best story line, metaphors, even magic words to bring back electoral success. The operative term among Democratic politicians and strategists has become "framing." How to tell the story...

Today's Chicago Tribune story on a group protesting Republican Congressional efforts to curb social spending identifies Rev. Jim Wallis as a "Christian activist." The article reports he is a leader of "a Christian social justice group" and speaks of "Wallis and other progressive religious leaders." It would be more accurate to describe Wallis as an activist liberal Democrat. He's long been a force within the Democratic party and, as noted in the Weekly Standard, has a " 35-year history of effectively pacifist, anti-capitalist, pro-socialist positions. With the exception of abortion and family values, the political issues that animate him today...

More Than 100 Arrested in Capitol Protest By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago U.S. Capitol Police arrested 115 religious activists who were protesting a House Republican budget plan's cuts in social programs when they refused to clear the entrance to a congressional office building Wednesday. "These are political choices being made that are hurting low-income people," said Jim Wallis, the event's organizer and founder of the Christian ministry group Sojourners. "Don't make them the brunt of your deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility." Wallis called the House budget plan, which would produce $50 billion in savings over five...

With U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton extending an olive branch to abortion opponents in a recent speech and other congressional Democrats peppering their language with faith-based phrases, it's clear that some members of the party are trying to find their religious voices. Some might call that political pandering. But Jim Wallis, a left-wing evangelical Christian who believes Democrats need to affirm the role of faith in shaping public policy, sees these developments differently. He argues that conservative Republicans have taken control of the discussion about religion and morality in this country and have used hot-button issues like abortion and same-sex marriage...

Democrats, reeling from the Republicans' success at courting churchgoers, are focusing new attention on a religious and political anomaly: Jim Wallis, one of the few prominent left-leaning leaders among evangelical Protestants. At the start of the Congressional session, Senate Democrats invited Mr. Wallis to address their members at a private session to discuss issues. A group of about 15 House Democrats invited him to a breakfast discussion about dispelling their party's secular image. And NBC News has enlisted him to appear as a guest during its inauguration coverage opposite Dr. James C. Dobson, one of the most prominent evangelical conservatives....

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It Jim Wallis HarperSanFrancisco 01/05 Hardcover $24.95 Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Read an excerpt on hope. In a Nutshell: Many in America yearn for a fuller, deeper, and richer conversation about religion in public life and especially about the role of faith in politics. The major political parties, however, as evidenced by the Presidential election of 2004, have failed to articulate "the prophetic voice of religion." According to Jim Wallis, the Right has focused its energies mainly on sexual and cultural issues while...

IT TAKES A CERTAIN AMOUNT of chutzpah to write a book called God's Politics. But you have only to read a few pages of Jim Wallis's new bestseller by that name to discover that it isn't actually about the politics of an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful deity at all. Instead, it's 384 pages of Jim's politics, and Jim (with a couple of notable exceptions) is a pretty average, down-the-line leftist who, by the way, believes in God.Wallis is a hot property lately on the talk-show, book-tour circuit and, more important, in Democratic party backrooms. Still smarting from their rebuff by "values...

The media have been trotting out Jim Wallis as their alternative for values-oriented voters. He is consistently described as an evangelical Christian but many of his views (pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, pro-Islam) are clearly not Christian.