The book is subtitled "On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street ... as well as "A moral compass for a new economy".
I'm very glad that I waited until 2018 to read this book -- time has already done all the judgement on this book, so I don't need to be as judgemental as Mr Wallis. 2008 was not "the end of the American Economy", although Obama nearly was. We are back to super low unemployment and 4.1% growth rates thanks to Trump.
The first point to be made is this, from page 143;
"My adult life has been committed to the ministry of calling Christians to the message of social justice, which is at the heart of the gospel and the life and ministry of Jesus".Actually, no ... Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10) ... his kingdom was and more importantly "not of this world". It is ETERNAL and SPIRITUAL, not of dollars and cents! John 18:36.
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.The kingdom of Jim Wallis clearly IS of this world, and his "gospel" ... to the extent it can be identified, is "income inequality" ... although he is apparently a darling of the most elite of the wealthy. On page 81 he talks proudly of speaking at the Davos world economic forum. Davos, the place where in 2017 the top 8 richest men on the planet who in aggregate had more wealth than the bottom half of the people on the planet attended. If the Davos crowd calls you up, you can be pretty sure that they at least "like your cover". When 8 guys have more wealth than half the planet, having Jim come talk is like "MEMO: We care" ... now back to the regularly scheduled amassing of billions.
To the extent that Wallis has "values", they appear to be mostly economic "values'. Certainly he would like people to spend "more time with their familes", but he has not one word to say of the actual moral decline in BOistan that has led to massive divorce, abortion, and even questioning Biblical values as to sexuality and gender. Certainly churches have declined, however the ones that have really declined are the ones that preach what Wallis preaches -- a focus on "social gospel" vs the actual core message of Christ as Savior for ETERNITY. "Social Justice" saves nobody in the eternal way that counts!
Mark 8:36,
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
On page 186 he phones in from the Wallis universe and says "... the dominance of the market over all else has literally caused our society to fall over." and "The public sector has not played the necessary role for the last three decades ...". Well, it certainly cost a lot, and this book is ALL about money!
So the government spends 35% of the GDP -- the rest of us get to fight over the remaining 65%. Guess what, we are losing ... government workers are kicking our butts on the "take".
The book veers into farce as Wallis begins to lament about the Demise of Detroit, once the model city for "progressive" America. Detroit died of the same causes as the USSR, N Korea, and Venezuala ... socialist dreams that drove out innovative business. Socialism doesn't work on any scale ... local or national. Wallis or course is a Socialist at heart -- why is it that when the government takes more and more from the productive and buys votes with more and more to people less productive that we end up with less productivity all around? Rules like "subsidize what you want more of, tax what you want less of" don't work for Wallace -- somewhat because he mistakes government for chairity and the church. Christ commanded US -- the church, individual citizens to care for the poor. Christ didn't suggest it be outsourced to Caesar.
Wallis was however ironically prophetic in this book! On page 210 he talks of Nehimiah (the shortest man in the Bible) "restoring the walls" of Jerusalem and "uniting the people with the vision for a city restored" (Make Jerusalem Great Again???). On 210 he quotes the Bible "remember the Lord who is great and awsome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes" ... pretty much like a Trump rally!
On 228 he says "The game feels rigged -- and it is. What people are really feeling is a crisis of democracy in a country that still has the forms of democracy but has lost much of it's substance. So we feel helpless, angry, or both."
Sort of like the feeling 60 million people get when they elect a president and then the Deep State, Media and entire TP ("The Party" TP-D) apparatus spends all it's time working to overturn the will of the people.
In summary, the "social gospel" is a destroyer of both souls and economies. With the benefit of a little time it is easy to see that Wallis completely miscalled the 2008 crash -- he expect more government to be the answer, but it in fact stalled the economy and it was Trump that finally brought us back to over 4% growth. Capitalism creaded Detroit and "progressivism" / "democratic socialism" killed it -- but since Wallis likes those "progressive" thoughts, that CAN'T be true!
No need to read this book -- this blog is more than you need to know and it is certainly old and very tired thinking.
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