Jim Wallis is an author, public speaker, and president and CEO of Sojourners, whose mission is to "articulate the biblical call to social justice.". Photo courtesy of www.sojo.net

By Leonel Martinez

ANAHEIM – Evangelical leader Jim Wallis labeled Fox News commentator Glenn Beck one of the “media bullies” and insisted that social justice remains an important part of the teachings of Jesus despite Beck’s criticism of churches that emphasize political activism.

“Whatever the media bullies do to us, we just try to respond like Jesus would do to them, but we must say that social justice is integral to the gospel,” said Wallis, drawing strong applause.

Wallis added that within the last several days, he received several calls from pastors saying that they started preaching more about social justice in their churches “because Glenn Beck told them not to.”

Wallis – a nationally renowned columnist, theologian, activist and author – spoke at the annual, Religious Education Congress sponsored by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese Friday through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center. The annual event bills itself as the largest of its kind in the world, hosting more than 300 talks and drawing about 40,000 participants.

He was responding to Beck’s suggestion on his show that viewers should abandon churches that focus on social or economic justice because they are code words for “communism and Nazism.”

That statement prompted a media scuffle between the two. Wallis responded by calling for a boycott of Beck’s show and inviting the TV show host to a cordial discussion, while Beck blasted Wallis as a Marxist and vowed to broadcast a weeklong exposé of the Protestant clergyman.

But Wallis, dressed in his trademark dark suit with no necktie, sounded immovable Saturday afternoon as he delivered a speech titled “When Did the Market Become God” to a primarily Catholic audience. It was a receptive group. The Catholic Church has a tradition of social-justice teaching that stretches back to at least 1891, when Pope Leo XIII issued a document affirming the dignity of work, the right to private property, and the right to form labor unions.

Joking that he is a “convert to Catholic social teaching,” Wallis diagnosed the nation’s recent economic crisis as primarily spiritual and insisted that economic problems cannot be permanently eradicated if they don’t deal with deeper issues like consumerism, materialism and plain greed.

The nation’s banks, for example, responded to a financial bailout by handing out about $150 billion in bonuses to top executives, an amount that could have erased the California budget crisis or provided health insurance to 30 million Americans, Wallis said.

“This is an issue not just of politics, but an issue of worship,” he said. “It’s a spiritual issue … the worship of the market has become very ecumenical, and we have all worshiped at the altar of the golden calf.”

The mottos that led to the crisis, said Wallis, were those such as “greed is good,” “it’s all about me,” and “I want it now,” while the remedy is the application of traditional American principles like “enough is enough,” “we’re in this together,” and making decisions based on how they will affect future generations.

Wallis also outlined what he called the two principles of God’s economy: There are enough resources if people share them, and it’s crucial to care for the poor.

In fact, he said, archeological digs have shown that when the gap between rich and poor grew wide in the nation of Israel during Old Testament times, God raised prophets to tell Israel it was going astray.

“God gets angry at the disparity,” he said. “This crisis needs the values embedded in our traditions.”

Leonel Martinez is a Bakersfield blogger who writes about Latino and faith issues. The above story can be found on his blog, La Voz de Kern, at www.vozdekern.blogspot.com.