Contact: Jason Gedeik, Sojourners, (202) 230-2555, jgedeik@sojo.net

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Jim Wallis Reflects on President Obama’s First 100 Days in Office

WASHINGTON, DC – April 29, 2009 — Rev. Jim Wallis, progressive evangelical leader, author of The Great Awakening and president of Sojourners, the largest network of progressive Christians in the United States, issued the following commentary on President Obama’s first 100 days in office:

Rev. Jim Wallis Statement:

“Today marks 100th day of the Obama Administration and the final day of the Sojourners Mobilization to End Poverty, the nation’s largest gathering of Christian leaders and activists committed to overcoming poverty in our country and world.  This Mobilization brought together over 1,100 Christians from across the religious spectrum who visited eighty-three Senate and two hundred house offices to advocate for including low-income families and vulnerable people in the economic recovery. The first full day of the Mobilization was excited and energized by a video message from the President who took the opportunity, during the week that marked the first 100 days of his administration, to re-commit to overcoming poverty in our country and partnering with the faith community.

In the first hundred days of his administration, President Obama has made unprecedented strides and set promising priorities in two key areas, expanding economic opportunity at home and forging a new role for America in the world.   

In regards to poverty, the President and his Administration have shown a clear commitment to ensure that poor and low-income people are not left out of the economic recovery plan and the budget.  There has not been a President or a budget I have seen in my lifetime that have so carefully considered the people who Jesus called “the least of these.” These early steps show that poverty reduction will be a commitment of the Obama Administration, both in word and deed.  This can be accomplished through commitments in his budget and stimulus plan to repair a neglected safety net for those who find themselves without jobs, key investments in infrastructure that will create new jobs and opportunities, especially green jobs, finally achieving health care reform, and through a long term plan for ensuring that our schools and institutions of higher education are the best in the world.  His budget’s commitment to foreign aid will make sure that the progress we have seen on reducing extreme poverty across the world will continue in a time when we could easily backslide. 

For our role in the global community, from the moment he was inaugurated, President Obama changed the image of America in the eyes of the world.  Since his inauguration he has made substantive policy changes and set priorities that are forging a new global role for our country. First, he has reached out to the Muslim world and begun to build the bridges and understanding that will be necessary for peace, security, and prosperity in our world today.  Second, he has clearly and unequivocally stated his commitment to ensure that torture is not acceptable and will no longer be a tool of American foreign policy.  Third, his global commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons is a compelling vision for which we have already waited too long and an early commitment to that goal offers the opportunity for serious progress of the course of his administration.  Fourth, early steps in foreign policy have shown a preference for development and diplomacy over mere military action.  By dropping the deceptive and misleading “War on Terror,” we have new opportunities for progress and peace.  

On values, vision, principles, and direction; President Barack Obama’s first hundred days have offered some real encouragement to many of us in the faith community. But the most important results are yet to come; and for that, it will take a vital new partnership that includes both the support of the faith community when the Obama agenda in consistent with our own, and challenge when our prophetic integrity requires a role that this new President has already affirmed.”

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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: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. His latest New York Times bestseller is The Great Awakening: Seven Ways To Change The World, Reviving Faith & Politics.

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.

Sojourners’ mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world. Visit www.sojo.net, and www.GodsPolitics.com.