Pre-Writings (n.)

It’s statements like this that make me wonder how Jim Wallis understands the grace and power of God: “Even in the loving arms of a God who also grieves such terrible human losses [such as the Oklahoma City bombing], the pain never really does go away.” (God’s Politics, p.302) Is this deep sympathy that the pain is tremendous, perhaps that that God even in his goodness allows someone to keep their pain? Or is it a legitimate and real limitation of God’s power to comfort? His answer could be quite profound, or banal.

Or take a statement like, “Her prayer comes right out of the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, which was the passage that brought me back to Christian faith,” (God’s Politics, p.217). I believe that God can and does use such a motivation to come (back) to faith in Christ. And that such a faith grows in maturity, insight and nuance over time. Indeed, coming to Christ should be just as much out of adoration for the God who loves the poor as it is for the God who forgives sin through Christ’s work on the cross. Moreover, it is our sin which has broken the world and made us poor both in body and in spirit. To seek God for one motivation ultimately converges, I suspect, with the other.

But why is Jim Wallis a professing Christian today? We all have deficiencies in our views of God, in our theology. That must be admitted in light of the infinitude of God’s manifold beauty and attributes. Thus, we must learn from each other. And as one educator recently wrote in a Chronicle of Higher Education, “For a student to be educated, she has to face brilliant antagonists,” (Mark Edmondsun, Dwelling in Possibilities, the 3/14/2008 issue).
I ask this because while the soundness of his theology is not necessarily dependent upon his motives, they are related. And he is not followed merely for his views, but for his personhood, character, and what he stands for. I also ask this because as I read an author, I’m most interested in the mindset and journey of that thinker more than his current views. I learn more by how someone came to her views rather than person’s position (which can change) at a particular time.

Well, I don’t know if Jim Wallis is brilliant (nor do I consider him an antagonist), but I have plenty to learn from him, both his correctness and his mistakes. God help me know the truth, as best it’s known by someone like me.