Religion, public life, and politics

Reading Jim Wallis' God's Politics: How the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, I am inspired. Here--not in science classes, but here--is the place for religion in public life. Wallis shows how Christian theology can (and ruddy well should) inform the choices and actions of Americans. Remarkably pragmatic, given its subject matter, he cuts neither Democrats nor Republicans any slack, repeatedly invoking Jesus, the Old Testament, Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

His "God question": How are the kids doing? Meaning, for any given policy choice, how will children's lives be improved or worsened? He saves some of his bitterest condemnation for the fatcats in this country, pointing out that just four hundred taxpayers control some 99% of the wealth in the United States, but the Bush tax cuts benefited primarily those people and them alone.

He's not all that wild on the Iraq war, either. (This is Understatement As Humor).

Excellent read.