This is kind of huge. Jim Wallis has been directing the agenda of the “progressive” “left” Christians for a very long time now through Sojourners magazine. From Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist:

The Christian magazine Sojourners has replaced its founder Jim Wallis after shit hit the fan regarding his handling of an article criticizing the Catholic Church’s racism.

As I posted a few days ago, the controversy involved an article first published on the magazine’s website in late June (and in the print magazine later), all about how some Catholics had openly embraced White Nationalism without facing any sort of real rebuke from the Church itself. For example, while priests will deny communion to pro-choice politicians, there’s no word of the Church symbolically rejecting members like Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, who have promoted Donald Trump’s repeated acts of bigotry.

Wallis didn’t read that article before it went up, but he quickly took it down, saying the piece “was offensive and should not have been published.” It turned out Catholic organizations complained about the piece to him personally and Wallis wilted under the pressure. He later clarified in a series of updates that the piece “would jeopardize relationships” between his organization and Church leaders — in other words, an essay that fairly criticized another religion could get in the way of his non-profit’s work. As far as journalism goes, those are two worlds that should never interfere with each other.

Two staffers of color quit the magazine in protest, as did three columnists. Several reliable freelancers said they would stop submitting pieces.

And now Wallis will no longer be running the magazine he’s been in charge of since 1971, though he will still be president of the Sojourners organization.

friendlyatheist.patheos.com

I’ve been reading Sojo on and off since about 1983 and so this is really kind of huge. Sojo has such an outsized influence, it’s hard to overestimate. That said, I really have to point out that Wallis had to be dragged kicking and screaming into seeing that LGBTQ rights were human rights and his past views on abortion can scarcely be separated from that of the average anti-abortion radical. (It’s hard to tell what his current views are and I’ve got to sign on for work in 10 minutes, so no time to search it out.)

Anyway, something to watch.