Leftists and Socialists Dominate LA Religious Ed Congress

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ANAHEIM (ChurchMilitant.com) - The aging leftist founder of Sojourners, Jim Wallis, took the main stage Saturday morning at the L.A. Religious Education Congress (LA REC) and immediately began pushing a leftwing version of Christianity, saying that "the Church" had to "rediscover Christ" — implying that Christians, for the most part, no longer follow Christ.

His is an entire "social gospel" predicated on a liberal interpretation of Scripture, where care of the body is given prominence over care of the soul. In a typical swap of meaning, Wallis quoted — or rather, misquoted — the first Beatitude as "Blessed are the poor," leaving off the defining "in spirit," which contextualizes the entire spiritual meaning of the passage.

Basing most of his overtly liberal presentation on racism and "white guilt," he said, "White Christians act more white than Christian" and that "White Christianity is an idol."

It took him little time to use the main stage at the Congress sponsored by the archdiocese of Los Angeles to go on the attack about whites being uncaring about "people of color." As proof, he provided the statistic that 72 percent of whites don't believe the claims by blacks of sustained police hostility in their communities — sidestepping the obvious fact that huge numbers of police officers, especially in urban areas, are black themselves, and many police departments have blacks as the chief of police.

Wallis noted that by 2040, White America will no longer be the majority — and to him, that's a good thing. He employs classic race-baiting politics and wraps it in the guise of Christianity.

"The narrative has to change," he insists, in an effort to produce "authentic" Christianity.

The 69-year-old Wallis said that any church that fails to put the poor as its first priority is "no church at all."

The self-identified Evangelical, coming from his 1960s, social revolution background, has been a longtime proponent of a more humanist view of Christianity, proposing that abortion is not as important as poverty, for example.

In 2010, Wallis falsely claimed he had never received money for his Sojourners community from billionaire atheist George Soros, who has funded dozens of groups with anti-Catholic agendas that support abortion, same-sex marriage and atheism.

When his falsehood was revealed and published by Marvin Olaskey, Wallis denied it, accusing Olaskey of "lying for a living." He later admitted his error, and that he had in fact received the donation from George Soros' Open Society Foundation, and also that he and his liberal group had accepted an additional donation for $150,000. He never apologized to Olaskey.

Wallis has deep ties to the Democratic Party, a.k.a., the Party of Death, serving as spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama during his time in the White House as well as a go-to resource for Democrat leaders like former Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid.

The LA REC has an enduring reputation as being a stage for pro-marxist, pro-gay politics and, at least in the main arena, the tradition is continuing. Many faithful Catholics are beginning to wonder why Los Angeles archbishop Jose Gomez is allowing this to continue. There is much quiet talk taking place that His Excellency is slowly trying to change the liberal culture in the archdiocese, which reached its zenith under modernist, leftist former archbishop Cdl. Roger Mahoney — but there is little evidence of that change at this year's Congress, as one leftist and gay advocate after another takes center stage.

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