Quotes from Jim Wallis

When power becomes the goal over service, self-interest over public interest, conflicts of interest over the common good, winning and losing over mutuality and compromise, and personal narcissism over shared benefit, we are headed for deep trouble. Autocratic behavior becomes more acceptable and even admired by people who are already subject to anxiety and anger. And before long, the road to authoritarian rule is a threat to freedom.

Significant numbers of American evangelicals reject the way some have distorted biblical passages as their rationale for uncritical support for every policy and action of the Israeli government instead of judging all actions—of both Israelis and Palestinians—on the basis of biblical standards of justice.

A modern American prophet, like Micah, once said, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is a nation approaching spiritual death."3 He was Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and he also made the connection between war and poverty.

Martin Luther King Jr., the nation's apostle of nonviolence, once said, "A riot is the language of the unheard."32 But King also showed us that, ultimately, only disciplined, sacrificial, and nonviolent social movements can change things.

he doesn't agree with the conventional wisdom that says, "The world changed on September 11." Hauerwas says, "No, the world changed in 33 A.D. The question is how to narrate what happened on September 11 in light of what happened in 33 A.D.

Fuzzy and ideological definitions of terrorism just make it easier to kill people. When you know your actions will kill innocent noncombatants, that's terrorism. And it must be clearly named as unacceptable—no matter who does it (individuals, groups, or states), whatever the weapons, the expressed intentions, or political justifications.

the peace movement sometimes does underestimate the problem of evil, and in doing so weakens its authority and its message.

Obedience to the law, even unjust laws, had become one of the most egregious ways that ministers and their churches had become conformed to their culture.