Jim Wallis and the Sojourners team recently convened a group of Christian 
leaders at a private retreat in order to pray, lament the state of American politics, and compose a declaration entitled “Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis.” The statement’s opening paragraph reads:
We are living through perilous and polarizing times as a nation, with a dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership at the highest levels of our government and in our churches. We believe the soul of the nation and the integrity of faith are now at stake. It is time to be followers of Jesus before anything else—nationality, political party, race, ethnicity, gender, geography—our identity in Christ precedes every other identity. We pray that our nation will see Jesus’ words in us. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Although I agree with 90% of this statement’s agenda, I am afraid I would not be able to sign it (not that I have been asked) because I believe that it contributes to the very polarization it seeks to condemn.
I, too, am outraged at the conduct and the policies of our current presidential administration, but my outrage did not begin with Trump’s election. Neither has my personal lament been confined to protesting only Republican administrations.
In this respect, the Sojourners statement is no different from the boiler plate criticisms of religious and political progressives made by the religious right.
Where was Sojourners’ outspoken “concern for the soul of our nation” when President Obama embraced and expanded the many violations of American civil liberties begun under President Bush?
They were mute, along with the rest of the Democratic Party establishment.
They were silent as Obama prosecuted more journalists and whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act of 1917 than all previous presidents combined (here, here, and here).
They were silent when Obama misled us about extending the practice of warrantless surveillance.
They remained silent when Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act enshrining the outrageous practice of “indefinite detention” of American citizens.
They were silent when we catastrophically overthrew the Libyan government, leaving it the failed state of a suffering people that is now free to entertain open-air slave markets.
Where was Sojourners’ call for national repentance when President Obama lied to the American people about the large number of civilian casualties from American drone strikes?
Did they condemn the president as he simply redefined an “enemy combatant” to be any “military aged male” killed by a US drone? No, they did not.
But, Abracadabra! In a wondrous act of political smoke and mirrors, Obama’s drones suddenly became modern marvels of military accuracy, rarely killing any civilians at all! (See this report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, or this Atlantic article on how Obama paved the way for Trump’s policies today, or this Reprieve report on Obama’s lies).
Where was the collective lament over Obama’s weekly staff meetings where he gathered military advisers to ruminate over his secret “kill list” – a list 
that included American citizens! – selecting whom they would assassinate next – all free of any public trial, defense, or offering of inculpatory evidence.
No. I am sorry, but this call for “Reclaiming Jesus” is a statement of religious hypocrisy writ large.
Followers of Jesus who truly understand that their citizenship in the kingdom of God always takes precedence over every political, partisan or national allegiance, will never limit their prophetic critique to only one political party and its representatives.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is an equal opportunity offender.
The Sojourner’s statement can only become acceptable if its authors:
- Confess their sin of selective outrage, acknowledging that their silence during the Obama years helped to enable the evil committed under that Democratic administration.
- Admit that their own political partisanship has crippled their ability to speak and to be heard today as true, unbiased witnesses to the gospel of Jesus and the kingdom of God.
- Determine that “Reclaiming Jesus” is only the first in a series of non-partisan statements that will seek to hold every administration, every political party, and every elected official to identical standards of public righteousness, according to our best understanding of Jesus’ kingdom ethics.