The Soul of Politics, Jim Wallis/Not All of Us Are Saints, David Hilfiker

...Second, the prophetic stance is quite different from a public policy perspective, or from the responsibilities of a person in a position of political power...

...First, Wallis tends to be simplistically moralistic and excessively ideological He reduces a vast array of human problems to simple moral and spiritual failures...

...Reading Wallis one has the impression that a transformation of moral consciousness would solve all of our economic, political, social, and ecological problems—from unemployment in Washington, D C , to the threatened extinction of the California condor...

...a failure of ethics is at the root of our many related crises...

...His discussion is divided into prophetic and visionary components...

...Living sideby-side with the "wretched of the earth," Hilfiker asks, "in what sense do I deserve my wealth...

...Its strength lies in a consistent call to conversion and an unmistakable commitment to the politics of compassion Wallis effectively challenges his readers to scrutinize their own integrity as Christians and, in particular, to examine whether their concrete life decisions, from family structure to the uses of money, are consistent with professed Christian faith Wallis is quite effective in the role of Christian "gadfly," particularly regarding the dangers of consumerism and the "commodification of human life...

...He offers a fascinating "phenomenology" of the "preferential option for the poor" from the perspective of one innercity physician, a man who is introspective without being self-absorbed, intelligent without being pretentious, and hopeful without being naive...

...Wallis is clearly more adept at making sweeping moral indictments and visionary proclamations than at offering policy proposals that advance concrete, incremental changes...

...Intense awareness of the disparity of opportunity heightens Hilfiker's sense of the injustice underlying the health problems of poor people and his anger at the unresponsiveness and cynicism found in some public service workers charged with their care...

...Among the poor he "preferential option for the poor" has been associated with the "base Christian communities" and the liberation theologies of Latin America, yet the same kind of commitment to compassion, solidarity, and social transformation can be found in two recent books about life among the poor in the United States Jim Walhs's The Soul of Politics is the product of his years of struggling against poverty and violence on the streets of Washington, D.C , Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles Wallis, founding editor of Sojourners magazine, argues for the development of a viable political morality that is transformative, substantive, and religiously grounded...

...The crisis of the global economy is, at root, a moral one...

...First, the personal consequences of the "internalization of poverty" penetrate more deeply than either social engineers or kindhearted voters realize...

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...He succeeds...

...it calls for a change of heart, a revolution of the spirit, a transformation of our consciousness...

...If I possess these luxuries while they suffer in poverty, can there ever be community between me and my patients at Community of Hope...

...For many commentators, "public" is equated with "secular," but not so for Wallis, who argues that the moral vision of politics must be rooted ultimately in a spirituality that emerges from the concrete human expenence of the poor It is precisely the expenence of the poor that endorses a communitarian commitment to social change based on the moral values of personal compassion, grassroots citizen politics and political mobilization, respect for cultural diversity, sexual and gender mclusivity, community-based economic development, and ecological conservation...

...Though unmistakably committed to Christian moral ideals, Hilfiker displays a spiritual center of gravity that never collapses religion into mere social activism or compassion...

...On one level Hilfiker's narrative develops as a form of social criticism examining the institutional reasons—from substandard education and joblessness to racial discrimination and overly routinized and demoralized social service administration—that make escape from poverty nearly impossible for many people...

...Second, the problem is not a lack of information but rather "compassion fatigue"—the fact that the wider public has become "numbed" to the deterioration of the inner city and to the suffering of those trapped within it...

...The difficult question regarding the specific relevance of distinctively Christian spirituality for matters of public morality is never entertained Instead, Wallis operates at a very high level of generality "The way of Jesus and the prophets," he writes, "isn't just a welfare program...

...He effectively recounts the human suffenng encountered in faceto-face meetings with inner-city residents to underscore our profound failure as a society to live up to the American ideals of equality and liberty, and he persuasively demonstrates that racism has produced a two-tiered system of education and economic opportunity...

...Drawn to live in Washington, D.C, in 1983 out of a faith-inspired sense of obligation to help the poor, Hilfiker practiced 18 BOOKS medicine for ten years at Community of Hope Health Services, a small churchsponsored inner-city clinic, and at Chnst House Mission Group, a medical recovery shelter for homeless men and a home for their caregivers...

...What happens to my sense of integrity when I live so comfortably while those with whom I would be friends remain—by accident of birth—homeless and marginalized...

...But acute cognizance of his own temptations, lapses, and failures prompts him to accept his own frailties and limitations as one basis for accepting those of his patients The "preferential option for the poor" takes on a particularly personal character in the author's discussion of the impact of inner-city living on his own children, especially concerning their physical safety and education...

...Again and again, issues of personal responsibility and social fairness are examined...

...Spirituality is not reducible to a "welfare program," to be sure, but what is its real import for the policy maker facing various proposed reforms of monthly payments for AFDC recipients or for determining eligibility requirements for the administration of Medicaid'' David Hilfiker's Not All of Us Are Saints provides, in a different vein, another recent North American exemplification of the "preferential option for the poor...

...Wallis develops a prophetic mode of moral discourse, and therein lie his strengths and weaknesses...

...Moreover, The Soul of Politics is a passionate testimony to proTHE SOUL OF POLITICS A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Social Change Jim Wallis New Press/Orbis, $19 95, 275 pp NOT ALL OF US ARE SAINTS A Doctor's Journey with the Poor David Hilfiker, M.D...

...His story explores the tensions and ambiguities he felt as a highly educated professional who attempts to be part of a community comprised primarily of people from another class, culture, and race, people utterly lacking in the basic support, opportunities, and hope that middle-class Americans take for granted...

...But two difficulties attend this prophetic perspective...

...Wallis is correct to maintain that morality and spirituality are crucially important, but they are not the only challenges confronting us...

...On another level, the narrative constitutes a form of introspective analysis that probes with ruthless honesty the author's own complex reactions (including his fears, distress, and episodes of depression) when repeatedly confronted with the chronic physical and mental problems of his patients...

...In a beautifully clear and direct writing style, he provides a nveting account of his experiences with the world of overcrowded, underheated, and rodent-infested public shelters, of hospitals discharging patients with tuberculosis or other infectious diseases into the shelter system, of a city detoxification center which turned people away "because they weren't drunk enough," and of hopelessly understaffed child protective services which refused to investigate blatantly abusive families Writing in the vein of Jonathan Kozol and Alex Kotlowitz, Hilfiker's depiction of inner-city misery ought to stir the compassion of middle-class Americans and thereby inspire a deeper commitment to providing minimal health care Yet he does not wnte naively or with a simplistic assumption that disclosing the suffering of the urban underclass will prompt immediate action from middle America...

...Like Wallis, because Hilfiker lives with the poor, he yearns to communicate "the terrifying discrepancy between the lives we live and our concepts of justice and mercy...

...Hilfiker develops a narrative rather than a prophetic mode of moral discourse, recounting his encounters with the innercity poor in a way that is sympathetic, sensitive, and yet entirely devoid of sentimentality...

...Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $20, 259 pp Stephen J. Pope gressive evangelical Christianity, and a helpful corrective to the widespread identification of evangelical Christianity with the Religious Right and the defenders of the "gospel of prosperity...