Politics opens the door, social movements force the change

Political change needs the force of social movement to happen! For example, Lyndon Johnson, the great political power needed Martin Luther King, the great social movement power to make the changes of civil rights happen. And Martin Luther King needed Lyndon Johnson to also be there, to politically use that social movement power. Right now, we have a peace social movement that has 70% of the American people with us. Yet we need a peace committed president instead of the war committed President Bush or the the war committed John McCain, to end our American initiated wars. We need the joint force of social power and political power.

If we do elect a peace committed candidate like Obama or Clinton, our work will have just begun. On the day after the election, we can celebrate. On day two, it is back to intensive work for we need that social movement power to fuel the political movement power. With ratios like three pharmacy lobbyists for every congressional person, we need to be very involved to have effective political action. It was our mistake in the past, to believe that merely electing good people would be enough. We have learned that we need to elect good people everywhere, the 50 state strategy. Just like the 50 state strategy, we need to broaden our horizon again. This time we must we need to go deeper in this political struggle, into to the values discussion.

To fuel a effective social movement, we need to blend "people of conscience" along with "people of faith", working together to reclaim our government for working for the common good. (For full disclosure, I am one of those "people of conscience" , a person walking a  spiritual path without a particular "religion" brand.) This social movement power idea is championed by Jim Wallis, of Sojourners Magazine and also by the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Jim Wallis says that politics opens doors, and social movements push open those doors.

Jim Wallis spoke at Macalaster college, in St Paul, at noon yesterday. This will be rebroadcast next week on Minnesota Public Radio(MPR), date and time not yet available.  Jim Wallis is an Evangelical Christian theologian, writer and activist. He is the founder and executive director of Sojourners Magazine  and author of The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics In a Post-Religious Right America Note that Evangelical for a long time, meant progressive, working against poverty, slavery and racism. Jim Wallis is from that long tradition. The MPR mid morning program with Kerri Miller is already available. Jim Wallis even has his own blog,
God's Politics.

Basically, our religions have been hijacked, even though our religions are inherently progressive. Jim Wallis says that is being challenged, we are now in a religious dialog. So earthquake changes in agenda are now happening, we have new "revival" based on

• poverty is the most important focus of good news (Luke 4)
• climate change, using the words respecting "god's creation"
• consistent ethic of life, at all ages, not just before birth
• immigration as "welcome the stranger"

Jim Wallis says that from the "swamps of social justice" come the "mosquitoes of terrorism", and we need a whole new narrative for how we do foreign policy based on social justice instead of war.

A social justice movement that does not root itself in values, can become bitter and tired. A path that just focus on spiritual with social justice can be narcissistic. Jim Wallis tells a story of Desmond Tutu, in the most desperate of times, facing armed guards recording his words and threatening him, invited the guards to join the winning movement of God in such a way that the whole church started dancing. The guards could think of nothing to arrest in the dancing celebration. Jim Wallis that all "people of conscience" along with "people of faith" need to as active as Desmond Tutu in "believing things into being". To ignore the evidence and the facts that would force into cynicism and inaction, to instead "believe things into being". In the Jim Wallis world, God is personal never private. Values need to be action. People of faith need to feel the call of the church as a call to action. People of conscience need to be comfortable working with people of faith in social movements.

We are the ones that we have been waiting for!