Evangelical Left Icon Jim Wallis Finally Admits to Dollars from Billionaire Leftist George Soros

The Christian Newswire (Link) - Jeff Walton (August 24, 2010)

Evangelical left voice Jim Wallis, who has boasted of his ties to the Obama administration, finally has admitted that his �progressive Christian� Sojourners movement has received funding from leftist billionaire George Soros� Open Society Institute.

According to WORLD magazine, Soros, an atheist billionaire who has financed groups promoting abortion, atheism, and same-sex marriage, bankrolled Sojourners with a $200,000 grant in 2004. Since then Sojourners has received at least two more grants from Soros organizations altogether totaling $325,000, the most recent in 2007. Sojourners revenues have more than tripled -- from $1,601,171 in 2001-2002 to $5,283,650 in 2008-2009.

Wallis originally rebutted a criticism of �religious progressives� for being allied with Soros in 2005: �I know of no connections to those liberal funds and groups that are as direct as the Religious Right�s ties to right-wing funders.� Earlier this month in Patheos, Wallis wrote, �No, we don�t receive money from George Soros.�

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

�Wallis� initial denials and then ultimate confirmation of Soros funding for Sojourners is a revealing turning point for the evangelical left.

�Long insisting he represents a mysterious Christian �third way� more enlightened than the old Religious Right, Wallis now stands exposed as what he always was: a man of the political left. From his days 40 years ago as a radical Students for Democratic Society activist, to his championing of the Marxist Sandinistas in 1980s� Nicaragua, Wallis has always allied himself with secular leftist groups hostile to the historic Church.

�Religious leftists may freely tout their views no less than religious conservatives. But Wallis and his Sojourners, as Soros-funded religious leftists, should heed truth in advertising.�