Faith Journal

with Ray Waddle

The most startling religious quote of the season comes not from a clergyperson or theologian but an atheist — Rep. Pete Stark of California, who happens to be Congress' only self-proclaimed non-believer.

It may sound courageous (or crazy) for a politician to declare himself an atheist in a nation so awash in belief. But Stark shrugs it off.

"What is courageous is to stand up in Congress and say, 'Let's tax the rich and give money to poor kids,' " he declared recently.

By implication, he was hurling a barb at his congressional colleagues — overwhelmingly Christian — who refuse to make the tax code simpler and fairer or speak their own minds free from powerful special interests.

How peculiar these times are ... So many Protestants and Catholics on Capitol Hill, so many Christian voters and churches, so much talk of spiritual renewal and great awakening, with Jesus' name emblazoned on tattoos and bumperstickers. Yet we are a nation mired in war, hated as an imperial bully, immersed in media violence, handgun homicides, reckless personal debt, secret porn addictions, a creaking health care system, and deep ambivalence toward immigrants.

Pity the 60 percent of Americans who don't go regularly to church and thus might be confused about Christian belief and behavior. The faith sends mixed public signals every day. Christians worship the Prince of Peace, yet self-styled Christian voters are the White House's most reliable constituency in support of an excruciating war in Iraq. This is the nation of brisk Bible sales — and gun sales.

Where is the credible public Christian witness, the visions of community courage and healing and citizenship, strategies of hope?

No one expects Christian believers to rise up with one voice. Denominations themselves cannot agree on the mandates of Jesus for public policy or personal behavior. And church-state separation guarantees no church can dictate the priorities of government.

Yet that shouldn't stop believers from injecting a dispirited climate with fresh ideas and action, or pushing back against a culture that would pacify us into a stupor of consumerism, fear, anger and exhaustion.

"Our economic and political order rewards us for selfishness and punishes us for openheartedness and caring for others," says author Rabbi Michael Lerner, who worries we have lost touch with biblical values of generosity and renewal.

As the election cycle heats up again, Christian citizens ought to be identifying their values and preparing answers to questions like these:

+++ Are all people made in the image of God? If so, what are the political ramifications?

+++ Should we all be sacrificing for the war somehow, or just the soldiers?

+++ What should faith say about the casual racism and everyday vulgarity that infuses the corporate media and enriches their profits?

+++ Does God care if we pollute the earth or not?

Despite a world of difficulties, signs of hope, people of hope, are within reach. I think of:

+++ Minister Jim Wallis has stirred interest in a gospel-based "culture of life" that opposes not only abortion but poverty, war and global warming. Based in Washington , D.C. , his movement, "A Call to Renewal," hopes to throw the powers-that-be off balance and remind Americans that progressive religion has triumphed before: it helped defeat slavery, child labor laws and racial segregation. His message is especially attractive to young people who are sick of the old-guard left versus right.

+++ Opinion-shapers are rediscovering the tough-minded theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). Niebuhr was known as a "Christian realist." That is, he believed in sin. He warned against corruptions of power, but he also distrusted Christian pursuits of doctrinal and political purity, which he considered naive and dangerous.

He also believed in courage. We must willingly use power for moral causes while staying wary of our own pretensions, he said. (He would have blistered President Bush for his "axis of evil" condemnation of Iran and North Korea . The president won political points but worsened diplomatic avenues we need now.)

One public figure recently summed up his own Niebuhr enthusiasm: "I take away the compelling idea that there's serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction."

The speaker? Barack Obama, presidential candidate.

+++ The witness of Rick Ufford-Chase, former moderator of the General Assembly, and the prison justice work of Stacy Rector of Nashville, and the writings of farmer/essayist/poet Wendell Berry of Kentucky, and the generosity of tireless waves of church volunteers who are rebuilding the post-Katrina Gulf Coast — these and other voices demonstrate moral clarity in the face of a noisy, anguished status quo.

Yes, there is hope despite the heartbreak of deadlocks and body counts. Sometimes it even takes an atheist to push believers onto a more faithful path.

Columnist Ray Waddle, author of Against the Grain: Unconventional Wisdom from Ecclesiastes, can be reached at .