Darek + Stacie

Book: God’s Politics by Jim Wallis
Recommended: Yes (but be prepared to take a lot in at once)

I kicked off my newfound reading habit with God’s Politics. It was probably not the best book to start with (especially over the Christmas holidays); it’s kind of a large book and reads very much like the non-fiction that it is, and it took me 2 months to get through it. It covered general faith-related-to-politics kinds of stuff as well as more specific issues like poverty, the Middle East conflicts, war, terrorism, current administration policies, peace, Biblical prophets, race, and other current situations.

Despite its length and copious information, it was worth the read and very interesting. It was nice to read something on the topic of politics that actually took a scriptural/biblical perspective, rather than the usual “this is what I want to believe so I’ll find something to back it up” that most books and magazines lean heavily toward.

Since I finished reading it about 2 months ago, the details are a little fuzzy, but one part stands out in my mind somehow. He writes about giving speeches to groups and asking what the Bible says about the poor. And he said that each and every time he asked this question, at least one person yelled out “The poor you will always have with you!” Every single time. Lots of times.

I think that says a lot. A lot about our attitudes and a lot about missing the point entirely (and missing the countless other scriptures about helping and having compassion for the poor, not to mention that ones that say there shouldn’t be any poor people among us). And a lot about how we focus on what we want to hear, what we want to believe, what is easiest to deal with.

As I read, I found myself sometimes frustrated and frequently saddened. With so many serious problems in the world, who really wants to spend their free time reading about them? But I did, and I found it worthwhile, and I think I grew a little bit in some ways.

I think that’s what I look for in a book.