A New Option?

This morning I finished off God's Politics. In the last section of the book, Jim Wallis channels the spirit of Nostradomus to give some predictions for the new millennium. One in particular caught my eye:

15. A new option will emerge: conservative in personal values, radical for social justice. The number of spiritual progressives will grow.

This is what I have been looking for. A way forward between the bifurcation of values. The choice between abandoning either the poor, or abandoning the unborn. Can there not be a middle path in which those of us who bleed purple can navigate?

This sort of understanding is what draws me to the thoughts and writings of Emergent. Particularly the writings of Tony Jones, in his most recent book The New Christians. There is a groundswell of progressive Christians that are prophetically calling us out to care not only about the unborn, and family values, but to also spur us on to care for the environment, the poor, and peace in our fractured world.

I am looking forward to the political circus that will commence at the end of the month with both the Republican and Democratic Conventions. I anticipate spirited debate between the two worthy candidates. And I hope that Washington will soon learn that one can be conservative in personal values, and be stridently for social justice.