Happy Easter Sunday!

Best of wishes to all on this beautiful Easter Sunday!

As a secular, I will not be attending any church service. That's right, I don't even attend service on Easter Sunday. (I never really understood the mass of people that strictly attend Easter and Christmas service, but never show up otherwise... why fake it?)

Anyway, I have some recommended reading for this Easter Sunday (especially for those who have a lack of faith in, well, faith). If Tony Perkins and John Hagee represent all that is wrong with religion today (and its fusion with politics), Rev. Jim Wallis is the other side of the coin. Having survived the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections and observing the weight that "values voters" carry, I had come to believe that religion is being used for all the wrong reasons and thus reaffirmed my "secular beliefs."

Rev. Jim Wallis is writer, political activist, and the founder/editor of Sojourners Magazine. He and I share a similar distaste for Religious Rights' fusion of religion with a strict political ideology, mainly a strict opposition to gay rights and abortion, above all.

In Rev. Wallis' most recent book, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics In A Post-Religious Right America, he states the following:

The Religious Right did it wrong, allowing their religion to become too partisan, too narrow, and too ideological. They were used by politics and did plenty of using themselves -- using both people and issues to further their own agenda. But I believe their day is over, and we have now entered the post-Religious Right era. That's not just optimism, but a claim based on serious observation.

Some people believe the alternative to bad religion is secularism, but that's wrong, too. The answer to bad religion is better religion -- prophetic rather than partisan, broad and deep instead of narrow, and based on values as opposed to ideology.

The question is not whether faith and spiritual values will be applied to politics, but how? Can faith enter public life in ways that are respectful of democracy, pluralism, and diversity? Could spiritual renewal supply the energy that makes social justice more achievable? Is revival necessary for reform? I believe the answer to all those questions is an empathetic yes.

Rev. Wallis believes the Bible teaches us to offer a hand to our brothers and sisters and fight for social justice. But he does NOT interpret this to mean we should exhaust our strength in an attempt to terminate gay rights and abortion. He believes it means standing up for our brothers and sisters in Darfur, helping ensure that our neighbors right here in America have health care, and ending senseless wars, among other things.

Now, as I said at the beginning of the post, I am no Christian. But, isn't that what Jesus would do?