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But will we all get free wooden shoes? Barack Obama didn't say. But he does have a plan to give people jobs. Put them to work . . . building windmills. His idea came in response to a question at last night's Compassion Forum on CNN from Jim Wallis, a leading member of the religious left whose focus is "social justice." Wallis wanted Obama to commit to a new War on Poverty. JIM WALLIS: As you reminded us a week or two ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed 40 years ago, he wasn't just speaking about civil...

Have evangelicals abandoned the Religious Right for a more moderate center? Some say yes. ... Mr. McLaren says global poverty, destruction of the environment and increasing violence in the world must be addressed and calls for the church to "change its framing story" and to start trying to change public opinion in these areas. He launched a tour called "Everything Must Change" and is currently traveling throughout the country rallying support. ... Well-known liberal evangelical Jim Wallis called evangelicals the swing voters in '08. Not everybody agrees with his statement, but political analysts do a note a shift. Some religious...

The following statement is being issued by over a dozen Christian leaders to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. We invite you to join us in adding your name as a gesture of lamentation and repentance. »See the full statement and signers This season of Lent, we are truly living "in darkness and in the shadow of death" as we mark, on March 19, 2008, the fifth anniversary of the war with Iraq. It is a war that is being waged by our country, financed by our taxes, and fought by our sisters and brothers. As U.S....

Hundreds of Christian leaders marched to Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives and convey their message of social justice and peace to cap off a large annual ecumenical gathering Monday. Tue, Mar. 11, 2008 Posted: 16:20:04 PM EST Hundreds of Christian leaders marched to Capitol Hill to meet with their representatives and convey their message of social justice and peace to cap off a large annual ecumenical gathering Monday. The President of the National Council of Churches USA, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, in preparation for Monday’s advocacy told participants of the Ecumenical Advocacy Days that Christians have a biblical responsibility...

An increasingly influential religious leader explains why evangelicals should worry less about abortion and gay marriage, and more about the poor.... Among the most prominent champions of a new evangelical agenda is Jim Wallis, the chief executive of Sojourners, a Washington-based organization that advocates for a Christian approach to social justice issues. Wallis began his activism in the civil rights and anti-war movements, and has long been a critic of the religious right, writing books, giving speeches, and publishing the Sojourners magazine to exhort Christians to pay more attention to the poor. But his profile increased dramatically with the publication...

Another category of Christian, however, is rapidly losing its traditional identity in our culture: Evangelical. While it never made distinctions on theological grounds, that term could always be counted upon to identify those Christians who are conservative, Protestant, culturally influential and outspoken about their faith. With recent developments, however, the defining elements of Evangelical may soon go the way of the much-encompassing Christian. Why? Because some who purport to speak for all evangelicals are being sucked into marginal issues that are usually harped on by America-hating liberals. And because conservative Christians are allegedly being divided, the mainstream media is eating...

The “Religious Right” lost its religion when it began to identify with first being a “conservative” movement within one Political Party.

“Evangelicals are going to vote this year in part on climate change, on Darfur, on poverty,” said Jim Wallis, the author of a new book, “The Great Awakening,” which argues that the age of the religious right has passed and that issues of social justice are rising to the top of the agenda. Mr. Wallis says that about half of white evangelical votes will be in play this year. ... Look, I don’t agree with evangelicals on theology or on their typically conservative views on taxes, health care or Iraq. Self-righteous zealots like Pat Robertson have been a plague upon...

Begging forgiveness of Islam? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: November 27, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern It was predictable in this age of wishful thinking. After 138 Muslim leaders last month wrote an open letter to Christendom calling ostensibly for peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding, self-proclaimed Christian leaders and other celebrity Christians took the bait. The appropriate response would have been to search their own Scriptures, to get down on their knees to beseech God to give them wisdom, to seek the counsel of others, particularly those expert on Islam, history and the persecution of the church in Muslim lands. Instead, some get-along-with-the-world Christians...

Christian leaders ask for Muslim forgiveness The signers are a veritable who's who of Christian leaders in the United States. And there's nothing essentially wrong with such a gesture: no community has a monopoly on evil, or is entirely free from it. But it is singularly unfortunate in this instance, since Muslim groups worldwide have never, in any context, offered a similar gesture. Where are the apologies for the jihad conquests and dhimmitude? They will, most assuredly, not be forthcoming. From the Khaleej Times (thanks to all who sent this in): ABU DHABI—Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as...

I believe that Dick Cheney is a liar; that Donald Rumsfeld is also a liar; and that George W. Bush was, and is, clueless about how to be the president of the United States. ...They have shamed our beloved nation in the world by this war and the shameful way they have fought it. Almost 4,000 young Americans are dead because of the lies of this administration, tens of thousands more wounded and maimed for life, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also dead, and 400 billion dollars wasted—because of their lies, incompetence, and corruption. But I don’t favor impeachment, as...

A Different Dialogue for 'Values Voters' (by Jim Wallis) I'm preparing for a dialogue with Richard Land at the FRC Action's Values Voter Summit tomorrow. This has caused me to reflect on how the definition of "moral values" has changed. Evangelical activism to protect God's creation is now publicly visible in a new way, including Christian concern over global warming. A host of other issues are now part of a broadened and deepened evangelical agenda—most connected to poverty, human rights, and social justice. Even American military and foreign policy has begun to come under critique by Christian scholars (including evangelicals),...

NOT ALL OF Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's encounters in New York during his recent trip were testy. The Shiite theocrat had what the New York Times called a "warm, even friendly exchange" with 150 church officials at the United Methodist Women's Church Center for the United Nations. One sponsor, the Mennonite Central Committee, called the gathering a "time of dialogue and prayerful reflection among the children of Abraham." A Mennonite official further explained that "mutual respect and graciousness in this conversation blunts the demonization which is part of the current rhetoric of both governments." The meeting is the third between...

 Living under the rule of Hamas in Gaza cannot be a joy for anybody.  But Gaza's 2,000 Christians are especially apprehensive under the Islamist regime.Meanwhile, a columnist for Jim Wallis's "Religious Left" journal, Sojourners, excoriates the U.S. and the opponents of Hamas as ultimately responsible for ascendant Islamic radicalism in Gaza. During the recent battles between Hamas and Fatah, a Catholic convent and school were ransacked.  According to the Associated Press, attackers "burned crosses, damaged a statue of Jesus, and ruined prayer books." Hamas denied any responsibility for damage to properties of their Christian "brothers," instead blaming Islamist groups that supposedly are even more...

With the predictability of a John McCain temper tantrum (or a John Edwards $200-haircut), every two year the Democrats announce that they're going to fight like hell for the religious vote - a vow duly reported by the media in the hushed tones of revelation. Thus, a story on the recent CNN Democratic presidential forum began with the following observation: "After barring their souls in a live television confessional, top Democratic White House hopefuls have put Republicans on notice that religious voters are up for grabs." At the forum, sponsored by Jim (Hugo-Chavez-Is-My- Shepard) Wallis and his Sojourners collective, Hillary...

Once she wrested control of the Senate’s Environmental and Public Works Committee from conservative stalwart Sen. Jim Inhofe (R.-Okla.), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.) was expected to aggressively pursue legislation to combat global warming. What wasn’t expected was that she would do it with blessings from the Church. Last Thursday, Boxer held a hearing that highlighted the growing role of religion in liberal political campaigns--particularly in the name of “environmental justice.” There, a coalition of 35 religious denominations called for an 80 percent reduction in global warming emissions by the year 2050, and bill S.309, sponsored by Boxer and avowed socialist...

By David Noebel Posted: 03/01/2007 Tony Campolo: The Marxist Delusion and a Christian Evangelist By David A. Noebel           I have just finished reading Tony Campolo’s book Letters to a Young Evangelical.  Published by Basic Books and copyrighted by Campolo in 2006, this work gives the reader an amazing look into the mind and heart of a radical sociologist on a mission—to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.  The cannon fodder for establishing this Kingdom is the poor, the wretched, the oppressed, the naked, the downtrodden, and the proletariat.  The chief tool to bring about this Kingdom is “progressive politics”...

Hillary Clinton: Faith Saved My Marriage Tuesday, June 05, 2007 WASHINGTON — In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God. Clinton stood by her actions in the aftermath of former President Clinton's admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage. "I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right,...

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought," Clinton said during a forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith and values. "I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith," she said in response to a question about how she dealt with the infidelity. The forum, sponsored by the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal evangelical organization, provided an uncommon glimpse into the most personal beliefs of Clinton and rivals John...

Thursday, May 17, 2007 Jim Wallis: Falwell's Legacy I watched much of the cable television coverage of Jerry Falwell’s death and legacy. And I did a lot of grimacing, both from the uncritical adulations of his allies (who just passed over the divisive character of much of Falwell’s rhetoric), and also from the ugly vitriol from some of Falwell’s enemies (who attacked both his character and his faith). And there were even some who attacked all people of faith. I ended up being glad that I passed up all the invitations to be on those shows. On the day...

The "peace and justice" Christians are insistent in telling us they don't wish to move away from issues such as the protection of unborn Christian life. They simply seek to "expand" Christian social witness away from a truncated "Religious Right" focus on abortion and marriage. We're not pro-abortion, groups such as Sojourners and leaders such as Jim Wallis assure us. It's just that we believe that life doesn't begin at conception and end at birth. We believe, they say, that global warming and quality day care and an increased minimum wage are pro-life issues too! Next time you hear this...

Left-wing evangelist Tony Campolo and leftist Jewish activist Michael Lerner are organizing a new manifesto calling for the U.S. to “repent” and “apologize” for the Iraq war, eagerly collecting funds to publish the appeal in major newspapers across the nation. Called “An Ethical Way to End the War in Iraq,” Campolo and Lerner want America to give up in Iraq immediately and pay reparations for her crimes. So far, they have collected the signatures of such enlightened luminaries as Harvard's Cornel West, radical nun Joan Chittester, Glen Stassen at Fuller Seminary, and former Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) moderator Rick Ufford Chase....

Jim Wallis: Polarizer or UnifierBy Janice Shaw CrouseTuesday, April 17, 2007 Jim Wallis has devoted his whole career to trying to force the round peg of leftist ideology into the square hole of biblical orthodoxy. When he wrote his "vision" designed to "transcend" the ideologies of the religious left and right, he ended up further polarizing instead of unifying the two evangelical movements. He rails against the "political language" of the right as well as the tendency of conservative evangelicals, in his opinion, to claim their use of scripture as authoritative. In so doing, Wallis hoists himself on his...

 A columnist for the Religious Left website Sojourners has just determined that "neo-conservatism" is incompatible with Christianity. Chuck Gutenson, a theology professor at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, wrote:"We, as followers of Jesus, should reflect on the differences between our calling to be imitators of Jesus and that to which the neocons would call us. And, most of all, we need to recognize the incommensurability of the two ways of being in the world."Gutenson, like many others, employs "neo-conservatism" as a broad and perjorative description for all who favor an aggressive U.S. foreign policy. Of course, neo-conservatism actually more narrowly describes...

You may remember MahonyFest 2006 with dread. The Religious Education Congress in LA showcases the cardinal's violations of liturgical norms, bad taste in music, gimpy wanna be pop stars and the oddest dancing this side of "Hair". Then there are the speakers, some of which make one wonder. Every day has a main speaker. On Saturday it's a priest specializing in "social justice". The Sunday address will be given by Jim Wallis. Who's Jim Wallis? Another "social justice" guy. Or rather, "socialist justice". A Protestant married to an Anglican priestess, he's as left as it gets. He founded the magazine...

A group of self-described "progressive" Christian evangelicals calling themselves "Red Letter Christians," and led by the left-oriented Sojourners magazine and left-oriented religious pundits like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, has recently emerged in the body politic. These self-proclaimed "progressives" have been making a lot of noise recently complaining about the ties that other Christian evangelicals have long held with the conservative movement in the United States, including the conservative movement in the Republican Party. One policy under attack by these "progressives" is the conservative effort to "cut programs to the poor." They say that such a policy goes against Jesus...

As I have traveled around the country, one line in my speeches always draws cheers: "The monologue of the Religious Right is over, and a new dialogue has now begun." We have now entered the post-Religious Right era. Though religion has had a negative image in the last few decades, the years ahead may be shaped by a dynamic and more progressive faith that will make needed social change more possible. In the churches, a combination of deeper compassion and better theology has moved many pastors and congregations away from the partisan politics of the Religious Right. In politics,...

Democrats turned to an evangelical Christian to give their weekly radio address on Saturday, citing a desire to avoid partisanship after last month's elections that gave them control of Congress. "I want to be clear that I am not speaking for the Democratic Party, but as a person of faith who feels the hunger in America for a new vision of our life together, and sees the opportunity to apply our best moral values to the urgent problems we face," the Rev. Jim Wallis said in his remarks. Wallis, author of 2005's "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong...

Religious Leaders Stand Up for Rick Warren, Barack Obama An open letter to pastors across the country Contact: Adam Segal, Faithful Democrats, 202-422-4673, adam@the2050group.com  MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 1 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is an open letter to pastors across the country: Dear Pastor:  Several right-wing religious organizations, including the National Clergy Council, recently blasted Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church for inviting Senator Barack Obama to speak on World AIDS Day this Friday, December 1. It's unfortunate that these groups would exploit the Christian faith to advance their divisive agenda – an agenda that gives almost exclusive attention to a few...

Can Butts, Obama, Dybul and Rick Warren Save the World? By Brannon Howse Rick Warren’s conference is this coming Friday, December 1st, 2006 at his church. To this day, I don’t have a clue what Pastor Warren thinks can be accomplished by gathering together a group of non-believers that are hostile to Christianity to discuss the world’s problems. Promotion of a social gospel will not save one soul. As you know by now, Rick has invited United States Senator Barack Obama to speak at his church conference. Senator Obama is described by many as left of Hillary Clinton. Now that...

WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans should work together to find new ways to end poverty, curb government corruption and strengthen families, Rev. Jim Wallis said Saturday. "Answering the call to lift people out of poverty will require spiritual commitment and bipartisan political leadership," Wallis, the head of the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal, an evangelical social justice movement, said in the weekly Democratic radio address. "Real solutions must transcend partisan politics," he said. "It is time to find common ground by moving to higher ground." President Bush has signaled his readiness to consider Democratic priorities such as a federal minimum-wage increase...

When I first filtered into an evangelical church at the age of 14, defining the term "evangelical" was simple, even for a kid my age. Without having to be told I concluded evangelicals preached a solid gospel, emphasized evangelism and missions, majored in soul-winning and minored in social issues, abstained from some worldly values (and occasionally went too far in this department coming close to legalism), were faithful in church attendance, Bible reading, and generally had a biblical worldview. Sure, we were often called "legalistic fundamentalists" but better to lean right than left. I was never and never will be...

The Evangelical Swing to the Left Nothing stays the same anymore; it is always morphing into something it shouldn't. So it is with evangelicalism. My alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, recently featured the king-pin of the "religious left," Jim Wallis. Wallis heads Sojourners' ministry and magazine, a ministry devoted to social issues though called evangelical. In his e-newsletter Wallis refers to his Bethel experience where he spoke to a packed chapel service. He says, "I was at Bethel University, known as a conservative evangelical school--fertile ground for recruiting by the 'religious right.' But the wind is changing...

A group of self-described "progressive" Christian evangelicals calling themselves "Red Letter Christians," and led by the left-oriented Sojourners magazine and left-oriented religious pundits like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, has recently emerged in the body politic. These self-proclaimed "progressives" have been making a lot of noise recently complaining about the ties that other Christian evangelicals have long held with the conservative movement in the United States, including the conservative movement in the Republican Party. One policy under attack by these "progressives" is the conservative effort to "cut programs to the poor." They say that such a policy goes against Jesus...

How's this for an Unholy Alliance: Evangelicals and Mullahs?Religious Left activist Jim Wallis organized 100 prominent religionists in the U.S. to demand that the U.S. renounce any possibility of military action to forestall Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The moralists urge instead that the U.S. focus on eliminating its own nuclear weapons program.Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad squeezed into his New York visit a 70-minute chit chat with 45 U.S. religious leftists, whose support against the U.S. he had good reason for which to hope. The gathering, organized by the Mennonite Central Committee, offered some church officials a chance to “dialogue”...

The Red Letter Christians, a "progressive" group, says it offers an alternative to the religious right in the discussion about moral values in American politics. The liberal group claims Christian conservatives focus too heavily on abortion and homosexuality. "Since the 2004 election, the term 'values voters' has become a mainstay of the political discussion, and we're hearing it again this fall. But the discussion has generally been very narrow and discusses particularly one specific type of voter -- a conservative, white, evangelical, Republican," said Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine, at the National Press Club in Washington,...

The Problem with Red Letter Christianity by Mitch Lewis There is a move among some self-described “progressive evangelicals� to identify themselves as “red-letter Christians� - describing themselves as Christians particularly devoted to the words of Jesus (which are printed in red in many editions of the Bible). Here are a few samples and I’ll let them speak for themselves.Red Letter Christians home page at Sojourners.netRed Letter Christians by Jim WallisWhat’s a ‘Red-Letter Christian’? by Tony CampoloBirth of the Red-Letter Christian Movement at Sojourners.netRed Letter Christian BloggersOn Being a Red Letter Christian at MainstreamBaptistCount Me In as a Red Letter Christian...

WASHINGTON -- "Impeach President Bush!" urged Jim Winkler, head of the Capitol Hill-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society. Winkler was speaking earlier this spring here in town to an "Ecumenical Advocacy Days" rally for liberal religious activists, organized by the National Council of Churches, mainline denominations, several left-wing Catholic orders, and Jim Wallis's Sojourners group.

Religious left gears up to face right counterpart By Thomas Ferraro Tue Jul 25, 8:16 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The religious right, which helped re-elect President Bush in 2004 by rallying opposition to abortion and gay marriage, is now facing a pushback from the religious left. With a faith-based agenda of their own, liberal and progressive clergy from various denominations are lobbying lawmakers, holding rallies and publicizing their positions. They want to end the Iraq war, ease global warming, combat poverty, raise the minimum wage, revamp immigration laws, and prevent "immoral" cuts in federal social programs. Some, like the...

Brian McLaren on The Da Vinci Code An interview by Lisa Ann Cockrel With The Da Vinci Code poised to go from bestseller list to the big screen on May 19, pastor and writer (and Sojourners board member) Brian McLaren talks about why he thinks there's truth in the controversial book's fiction. What do you think the popularity of The Da Vinci Code reveals about pop culture attitudes toward Christianity and the church? Brian McLaren: I think a lot of people have read the book, not just as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with...

ON THE RELIGIOUS LEFT, the great hope these days is that the Religious Right is melting down over Global Warming. Liberal evangelical activist Jim Wallis rejoiced about the crack-up in a recent column, claiming that "the Religious Right is losing control" thanks to environmentalist evangelicals. Wallis, head of "Sojourners" and author of God's Politics: Why the American Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Just Does Not Get It, is predicting a "sea change" among evangelicals since the Religious Right has "now lost control of the environmental issue."The reason for Wallis's optimism is the newly-created Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), endorsed...

Covenant News Covenanters Join Marches in L.A., Chicago LOS ANGELES (May 3) - Two Evangelical Covenant Church conference leaders were among those participating in the immigration reform demonstration here Monday, and a Covenant pastor in Chicago says it was important that he and several students participated in the Midwest city's march the same day. Two walks occurred in Los Angeles, and Greg Yee and Walter Contreras found themselves near the front of the second event, walking alongside Cardinal Roger Mahoney. They were subsequently joined by other Covenant pastors participating in the march, which police say attracted some 500,000 individuals. Yee...

"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God." -- Mark 16:19 Right hand. Right side. Right way. Religious Right. It is easy to understand how conservative Christians have influenced politics and populace in America, says Rabbi Michael Lerner. It has been about taking ownership of the human need to feel valued, protected and directed. The activist, author and former darling of the Clinton administration was on the Easter edition of "Meet the Press" to discuss faith, morality and politics and will speak in...

AUSTRALIA must beware the rise of the "religious right" in politics, American Christian activist Jim Wallis has told a Melbourne audience. Mr Wallis said religious faith would be the most influential force in Australian politics for the next decade, but the country was in danger of allowing the religious right to dominate. "It is clear from … the abortion debate and the rise of Family First that Australia, like many countries, is witnessing a new religious force that could change the political landscape," he said. Mr Wallis is in Melbourne to launch the Australian edition of his book God's Politics:...

Interfaith group launches social justice campaign Plans to raise single voice on social justice issues By William HersheyDayton Daily News COLUMBUS | More than 300 people gathered Tuesday in Columbus' First AME Zion Church to celebrate the launch of We Believe Ohio, an interfaith group with the goal of making a unified cry for social justice heard in the public square.In other faith-and-politics developments: • Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a candidate for governor, met Tuesday in Cleveland with United Pastors in Mission, seeking support from black pastors usually considered friendly to Democrats. Blackwell, a black conservative, said...

CPT Statement:  CPTers Released23 March 2006Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community. Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad. We rejoice in the return of Harmeet Sooden. He has been willing to put his life on the line to promote justice in Iraq and Palestine as a...

All the remaining members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams held hostage in Iraq were rescued by multinational forces. In a statement describing their release the organization said: Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been freed safely in Baghdad. ... They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. We believe...

Integrity It is more than simple honesty. It's the key to success. Do you want to learn how integrity can make you a success? These essays explore the many ways we can find purpose when helping other people on a personal level, nurturing the environment, or when working with others toward a larger goal. Read More... See! Hear! Study! Enjoy! • Bibles • Bibles on CD • Bibles on MP3 • Bible Software • Electronic Bibles.... and more... Read More... See this? Advertise here! Evangelical Christianity, born in England and nurtured in the United States, is leaving home. Most evangelicals...

In a recent USA Today op-ed, Tom Krattenmaker argues that “playing the God card” has backfired on President George W. Bush. The president’s favorability has fallen through the floor, Krattenmaker argues. And surely God would never side with unpopular presidents. “The God’s-on-our-side rhetoric is looking even less credible now, after more than a year of frequently bad news for the president and his administration,” he writes. As for the actual “God’s-on-our-side” rhetoric, Mr. Krattenmaker’s examples are pretty lame. He quotes an obscure alternate delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention and New York Governor George Pataki (no favorite of the...

EVERYTHING WAS going swimmingly on the panel. The subject was politics and faith, and I was on stage with two clergymen with progressive spiritual leanings, and a moderator who is liberal and Catholic. We were having a discussion with the audience of 1,300 people in Washington about many of the social justice topics on which we agree — the immorality of the federal budget, the wrongness of the president's war in Iraq. Then an older man came to the mike and raised the issue of abortion, and everyone just lost his or her mind. Or, at any rate, I did....