Keeping the Faith

Your piece on Jim Wallis (“Faith, Hope and Activism,” by Howard Kohn, Nov. 6) was uplifting.

All my life I have lived in white suburban neighborhoods while my child attended predominantly white schools. Then I became starkly aware of the separateness of white America and black America. I recently moved to a predominantly African American neighborhood. My child now goes to a school where there is a mixture of races.

Jim Wallis and the Sojourners light the way for those of us who have heard the wake-up call.

Lorne B. Patterson

Pasadena

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It was wonderful to read a story about a true man of God who not only talks the talk of Jesus Christ but walks the walk as well. I am so tired of Christians being stereotyped as a bunch of Bible-thumping fanatics.

Linda M. Cota-Kumagai

Encino

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I graduated from an evangelical Christian college where “progressive evangelicals” of Jim Wallis’ ilk captivated student audiences weekly. I’ve learned that it is very tempting to assume the progressive evangelical’s scorn for mainstream evangelical culture and conservative politics.

However, progressive evangelicalism has two fundamental flaws. First, it is a subtle type of spiritual pride (“no, we are not tacky and simplistic Christians like those conservatives, thank you very much”) and, second, it ignores the complete message of the Bible. Jesus did not go around preaching a vague type of humanitarianism, but insisted on repentance and a radical holiness available only through Him. Unfortunately, Wallis and others like him see the systemic sins of society clearly enough, but they neglect to communicate Jesus’ frequent commands for personal repentance from all sins.

Susan Brown

Claremont

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When American Christians employ Wallis’ agenda, creating a Christian Democratic party and employing some of the billions in the churches, the world will truly see the kingdom of heaven on earth.

As a Christian Democrat, I now propose a radical solution to the national debt. In the Bible, a “jubilee” periodically canceled all debts. Let’s declare the year 2001 an American Jubilee, and erase the $4-trillion debt.

Mark James Christian

Brentwood