Sojourners on Christian Peace Witness

I just received my Sojourners e-mail and in it are links to all the speeches given at the worship service at the National Cathedral and pictures of the service, march and vigil. If you go to Sojo news you should get just about everything.

This is the blog of Jim Wallis, God's Politics.

This is the link to Sojourners Magazine.

I only had one beef with the otherwise incredibly prophetic call to action by Rev. Wallis. Here is the portion that caused me to wince:

Ironically, this war has often been cloaked in the name and symbols of our faith, confused American imperial designs with God’s purposes, and tragically discredited Christian faith around the world, having so tied it to flawed American behavior and agendas. Millions of people around the world sadly believe this is a Christian war. So as people of faith, let us say tonight to our brothers and sisters around the world, and as clearly as we can – America is not the hope of the earth and the light of the world, Jesus Christ is!

I agree that America is not the hope of the earth and light of the world. I can also see how Jesus Christ is the hope and light for Jim Wallis, even for me for that matter. Jesus is the Christian symbol for hope and light which in turn are mysteries that are larger than the symbol of Jesus Christ. This hope and light can be symbolized in other ways by other religious and secular means. Jim Wallis may mean that or he may not.

But all of that subtlety can get lost when we speak about Jesus Christ as the light and hope of the world. In the end, it is simply Christian exclusivism and triumphalism. I am concerned that all the good he said before could get lost in that exclusivistic phrase. I am proud to participate with evangelical Christians as far as I can. Let's work together and stop this war. But I cannot go there with them in their exclusivistic religious claims. I think those claims have done tremendous damage to relationships between people and nations. I don't think there will be peace in the world until religions give up their exclusive claims to truth.