Poor must take priority over tax cuts, says founder of Sojourners

Published: 2005-10-04

SEATTLE (CNS) -- Religion should be neither ideologically predictable nor morally partisan, according to the author of a best-selling book on the role of religion and politics. "Religion should be the prophetic kind of force that holds both sides to accountability," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, a Washington, D.C.-based organization promoting social justice. He was interviewed Sept. 29 while in Seattle to speak at the 30th anniversary celebration dinner of the Washington Association of Churches. At that event, retired Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen received the organization's lifetime ecumenical leadership award. Rev. Wallis said he has long admired Catholic social teaching for its emphasis on the preferential option for the poor. "It is a moral and religious imperative to put the needs of poor families right at the top of national priorities," he told The Catholic Northwest Progress, newspaper of the Seattle Archdiocese. The Gulf Coast hurricanes and flooding may do just that, he said.

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