Rev. Jim Wallis The Rev. Jim Wallis is the founder and president of Sojourners, the largest network of progressive Christians in the United States focused on the biblical call to social justice. Wallis is also author of the New York Times bestseller God’s Politics, which electrified Americans hungry for a new kind of politics in America. His latest New York Times bestseller is The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change The World. Wallis is a leading figure at the crossroads of religion and politics in America today serving as a public theologian, internationally renowned speaker and preacher and faith-based activist. Visit Jim Wallis and Sojourners and read his daily blog at God's Politics.

Capitalizing on the Crisis of Opportunity

Rev. Jim Wallis sees an opportunity for redirecting our moral compass in the economic crisis.

In 1934, a retired dentist from California named Francis Townsend wrote a letter to the editor of his local paper. He was 66 years old, unemployed and without any savings. His plan was simple: Every citizen over age 60 would receive a check from the government for $200, to be paid for by a 2% sales tax. Jonathan Alter writes that, “Within a year, five thousand ‘Townsend Clubs’ across the country represented between 2 and 5 million members – a powerful new elderly lobby poised…