Since committed to write a response to every chapter in Jim Wallis’s book, Rediscovering Values, I’ve become very busy and need to devote more attention to those things in my life. But I wanted to finish the book and share my thoughts on the rest of it. I skimmed through some major sections of the book, and while I wish I could get into more detail on each one, let me comment a few times on some disagreements Jim Wallis and I have:
Clean Energy Economies
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with “green energy” per se. While it is important to steward the environment properly, Wallis comes at it from a collectivist standpoint, explains “green jobs” in a way that sounds wonderful an appealing, but doesn’t deal with all of the unseen consequences. He praises President Obama for increasing the standards of fuel economy, clear evidence that he doesn’t understand that unforeseen and unseen consequences occur when you arbitrarily enforce regulations such as fuel standards.
Free Market Canards and Straw Men
Canards, for those of you like me who recently discovered the word, are unfounded rumors or stories. Straw men are artificially-erected arguments made in order to easily tear them down. Wallis has perpetuated many economic fallacies in this book, but the following is most disconcerting:
To hear some zealots of the free market talk, you would think they believe in a sinless market, where no regulations are allowed, no limitations accepted, no restraints needed, and no accountability required. In other words, the market is beyond sin and shortcomings. The logic goes that, left to its own devices, the market will behave in a perfect or sinless fashion and, in fact, only it can provide the moral framework in which everything else should operate. (pg 190)
I’ve read hundreds of articles online, and thousands of pages of books by those who would be self-avowed “zealots” of the free market. Let me make this clear: NOT ONE OF THEM HAS CLAIMED ANY SUCH THINGS! Wallis is simply not listening, or refuses to comprehend, that free market advocates do not believe in a “sinless” market, because the market is simply a metaphor for free persons exchanging and interacting with one another. So when Wallis follows up the above paragraph with, “In light of the Great Recession, can we still hold on to that bad theology?” I want to scream. Literally! Wallis is apparently blind to the obvious non-free market nature of our economy, which caused this crisis on the first place.
Twenty Moral Exercises
Wallis ends the book with 20 moral exercises for the reader to implement in his life. To be honest, if you want to read this book, go to the book store, read this chapter, and you’ll benefit greatly. It will save you twenty bucks and give you twenty life practices to work on personally.
Final Thoughts
Wallis and I disagree on a lot, but we also agree on a lot. While on the one hand I think Wallis goes too far by presenting straw men and false dichotomies, on the other hand many of his solutions do not go far enough. Wallis is a big believer in the inherent goodness of government, and believes that it must be there to thwart evil and keep markets in check. At the very most, I’m a believer that government is a necessary evil, and must be utilized in a minimalist role, but in a very specific one. My biggest complaint with Jim Wallis is that his vision for social justice cannot work without lots of guns: the only mechanism for enforcing the laws and regulations setup by the state is weapons.
While this book is fraught with economic half-truths, misleading explanations, and sometimes an incoherent ignorance with regards to some basic economic principles, if you ask me if you should read this book, I’d say yes, because Wallis is insightful, even prophetic at times, when it comes to admonishing personal responsibility and Christian social awareness for those who have long since forgotten the values upon which we ought to stand.
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