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“Where in the bible do you find all this stuff about patriotism?”

Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong, and the Left Doesn't Get It, held a public lecture at St. John Arena at The Ohio State University on March 28, 2006. The lecture was followed by audience dialogue.

Wallis began his lecture with a reference to a conference held in Washington DC that very day. The richest and most powerful leaders of religion, met with the leaders of the most powerful nation, to discuss the so-called “war against Christians”.

“I am a person of faith too, and that is not my faith!” He proclaimed that the religious right was created by the political right and needed a counter movement. Nonetheless, he insisted, to not create a mirror image of that on the other side of the spectrum.

As for the subject of poverty, Wallis revealed that three billion people live on less than $2 a day. 30,000 children die every day. He also referred to the consequences of poverty within the United States. When speaking at the notorious prison Sing Sing, he learned that all of the inmates originated from three or four neighborhoods in New York.

“You can’t overcome poverty with 80% single parents!” Repeatedly, Wallis spoke of the importance of family. He also said, it was possible to be pro family and marriage and to be pro gay civil rights.

To the ongoing discussion about abortion, he demanded that actions were to be taken to reduce the abortion rate.

“Protest is good but alternatives are better” It would have been possible to remove Saddam Hussein, without bombing children said Wallis, referring to the six-point plan.

Jim Wallis is a speaker, author, activist, and international commentator on ethics and public life. He is editor of the Sojourners magazine and gets his primary support from the religious left. He opposes the religious right's fiscal and foreign policies.

His columns appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other major newspapers. Wallis is also author to numerous books on religion and politics.