Republicans Need to Move Beyond Partisan Paranoia

On December 2, 2006, for the first time in US history, the Democratic Party invited a religious leader deliver its weekly radio address: Jim Wallis, evangelical pastor and author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It., and coiner of the phrase "God is NOT a Republican... or a Democrat."

New Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked Mr. Wallis to give the address because Wallis is "bipartisan," and doing so would set the non-partisan tone desired by Democrats in the next Congress.

An admirable goal, for sure, but one viewed suspiciously by Republicans. Dr. Andrew Jackson, conservative founder of RedBlueChristian.com, called the labeling of Wallis as bipartisan "a joke." And the rabid rightwing NewsBusters raged that the religious leader's views are "indistinguishable from the liberal mainstream of the Democratic Party."

I met Jim Wallis at a 2005 event in Pasadena, and heard him speak. Yes, I believe he's a Democrat (as is revered evangelist Billy Graham), and he likely votes Democratic... but that hardly makes his every utterance a diatribe for the Democratic Party.

In fact, his bestselling book was universally hailed as a bipartisan Christian view of politics today.

Bipartisan Words Falling on Deaf Republican Ears
Read the words of his radio address (here, at Religious Leader Jim Wallis Delivers Democratic Radio Address). Set aside your preconceptions of what you believe Jim Wallis WOULD say... and hear his words afresh.

Then I challenge you:Specifically what is partisan about these brief, heartfelt words?

The Republican-led 109th Congress was a notoriously unproductive legislative body, largely due to deep partisan distrust. Democrats genuinely desire to start the 110th Congress on a more generous, bipartisan note, and have already taken many steps to reflect that desire.

But it takes two to tango.

If, for the good of the country, Republicans truly want to heal our country and move forward as one people, they need to dump the festering, paranoid chip from their shoulders and their hearts.

Read and "hear" the common-sense wisdom in Jim Wallis's December 2, 2006 Democratic radio address. It's a healthy first step to making Congress functional once again.

Recommended Reading
Religious Leader Jim Wallis Delivers Democratic Radio Address
Jim Wallis, Evangelical Christian Who Needles Both Democrats & Republicans
Bono's Speech to the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast