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Religion and God...always personal, but never private Admittedly this is the first time I have read a Jim Wallis book. Considering the tone of the last elections in regards to religion in politics, this is a very timely piece. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you lie, Wallis argues that Christians need to step back from the 2 prevailing party views and apply what is found in the bible. He does this well in describing his 'bible with holes' principle. This challenges the reader (Christian or otherwise) to strive for goals based upon the ancient texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Most of what he speaks about is our human response to the poor and otherwise disadvantaged among us (or in Jesus' view the least among men). The challenge that he puts forward for politicians is to collectively look for solutions to problems rather than taking a pro/con stance. Most of the issues that we face in our world today are too complex to only have 2 sides where one is right and the other is wrong. He also exposes the debates as what they truly have become. A place where we see people arguing for and against causes that never receive any follow-up after the elections. The mistake that one may make is to try and figure out which side of the political spectrum this book is coming from. Personally, I found myself doing this and realized that I was doing what we all do. We don't spend enough time stepping away from our conservative or liberal ideologies to evaluate information in a non-biased way. This is not to say that there isn't a slant but you find yourself agreeing and disagreeing about some of the points and more importantly, you start to develop your own ability to look at these issues in a non-polarizing way. As far as the reading went, I found that it was a little difficult to get started until I decided to really listen to what I was reading. He tackles 2 of the most volatile subjects (religion and politics) and shows us how they can positively and negatively complement each other in today's world.