Book Review: God's Politics

God's Politics is by Jim Wallis, best known for his work at Sojourners.

I tried really hard.  I promise.  But I only got about halfway through.

Look, I can tell that this was a great book, when it was written.  But the world that it's talking about is gone.  The political realities that it speaking to aren't here anymore, they've been replaced.  When this book was written, we'd just gone to war in Iraq, 9/11 was very recent, and President G.W. Bush was in his first term.  There was no Tea Party, and the Republicans and the Democrats still seemed to believe themselves to be existing, if not in the same neighborhoods, at least on the same planet.

I tried.  But... I have to say it was weirdly similar to reading a science fiction book about another planet.  I could recognize certain trends in behavior, but it wasn't from where I was living.  Honestly, the difference freaked me out pretty badly.  I mean, I was an adult when this was written.  I remember the events he talks about.  But I can't make the jump to reading what he's talking about as though it's still relevant- because all of his reasoning is based so heavily in the world he was writing in.  It was, I can tell, a very timely book, but it isn't timely anymore.

Now, if he were to update this, say every ten years- that would be awesome.  I would love to read that.  There were things I read that I agreed and disagreed with him on, and I would absolutely be up for reading updated arguments.  (Actually, once I'm ordained, I look forward to subscribing to Sojourners.)  But for the moment, I have other things to read.