An Evangelical Manifesto

Jim Wallis has a good column in Sojourners entitled "An Evangelical Manifesto" that offers his thoughts on the declaration with the same title from a couple of months ago. Here are a few highlights from his piece:

It's a point I have made many times: "God is not a Republican or a Democrat," and that is a good thing. Committed Christians will be, and should be, on both sides of the political aisle. Indeed, people of faith should never be in any party's or candidate's political pocket and should, ideally, be the ultimate swing vote because of their moral independence from partisan politics.

... In the future, we will see new alliances and campaigns led by people of faith on a wide range of moral issues that will involve people of faith across the political spectrum and will shake up politics. The social movements that really change politics are precisely that--public engagement defined by religious and moral commitment that defies normal political categories.

I wrote about the statement at the time, including in a Columbia Missourian column. It has been good to see the dialogue sparked by the declaration, and I hope it will lead us to continue to think about how to make sure we do not allow our faith to become too politicized.