Jim Wallis

Jim Wallis
Wallis at 2012 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
Born	James E. Wallis Jr. United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Writer, editor, political activist, cleryman

Jim Wallis (James E. Wallis Jr.; born June 4, 1948) is a Christian writer and political activist. He is best known as the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine and as the founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian community of the same name. Wallis is well known for his advocacy on issues of peace and social justice. Although Wallis actively eschews political labels, he describes himself as an evangelical and is often associated with the evangelical left and the wider Christian left. He works as a spiritual advisor to President Barack Obama. He is also a leader in the Red-Letter Christian movement.

Wallis was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Phyllis (Morrell) and James E. Wallis, Sr. He was raised in a traditional evangelical Plymouth Brethren family. As a young man Wallis became active in Students for a Democratic Society and the civil rights movement. Wallis graduated from Michigan State University and attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, where he joined with other young seminarians in establishing the community that eventually became Sojourners. The journal Sojourners originated in Deerfield, Illinois as The Post American in 1971.

Wallis wrote in 1974 that, "The new evangelical consciousness is most characterized by a return to biblical Christianity and the desire to apply biblical insights to the need for new forms of sociopolitical engagement."