Jim Wallis on political morality and jobs

Wallis is one of my favorite Christian writers because he fights for the people against corrupt corporate greed and avarice. His latest article in Huff Post, as usual, nails it for me. Some excerpts:

"While God cannot be said to support a particular piece of legislation, it is imperative that we ask how our moral values influence policy decisions and priorities. The country's major religious traditions have significant areas of disagreement, but one area that unites them all is concern about inequality.

A survey released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that majorities in every major religious category -- as well as the religiously unaffiliated -- all believe that the country would be better off if the distribution of wealth was more equal.


One side argues for strict capitalist principles in which the lazy starve. The other models a communal society that shares and redistributes private property. But understood properly, they actually work together.

Those who can work should work. Those who need work should be helped to find it. Those who can't work should be provided for.

I like Obama's American Jobs Act. It is a plan that could prevent up to 280,000 teacher lay-offs and modernize 35,000 schools. It would expand high-speed Internet access to build and broaden our technological infrastructure as well as invest in our current infrastructure that is crumbling. It also would give tax incentives to businesses for hiring veterans and the long-term unemployed, provide job opportunities for low-income youth and adults, and extend unemployment insurance for those who still can't find work. These are all good ideas.

The president has put forward a plan. The Republicans have offered no alternative except for their standard mantra about cutting taxes and regulations, which independent analysts say will not create jobs in the near term. It is simply not enough to just repeat ideology at a critical time like this.

Obstructionism may work politically, but it won't put Americans back to work. Concrete action must be taken, and we need to call for our political leaders to find common-ground solutions to create jobs."