Choosing Niceness Instead of Evil

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was the silly spy satire, Get Smart. Junior moralist and social reformer that I was, my favorite part of the show was always at the end, when Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) would muse, after defeating the bad guy, “If only he’d used his abilities for niceness instead of evil.” (Italics in original)

I recently read the excellent book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, by Jim Wallis. An evangelical minister(1), Wallis is one of the founders of Sojourners Magazine (available on the Internet at sojo.net) and a promoter of “prophetic politics.” He points out that all the great American social movements, such as the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement, were born out of Christian beliefs and led by believers. He adds that biblical prophets such as Isaiah and Amos were the social critics of their day who weren’t afraid to stand up to the rich and powerful and demand justice for the poor and oppressed. Wallis writes:( Read more... )