Jim Wallis has been on my radar for 30 years, and I'm glad to see he's part of the national political debate now, representing a growing number of Christians who think God is not a Republican or a Democrat and that Christians care about a wider palette of issues than the two parties define. Along with some other commentators, he believes the evangelical swing vote in the next presidential election is up for grabs. The importance of that to the election depends on the importance you attach to the swing vote.

Here's a link to Wallis being interviewed by Katie Couric for CBS Evening News on October 18, 2007. He's always been an evangelical with a social conscience, but I think he speaks for more Christians than just evangelicals on the issue of the Church being captive to the two-party agenda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUaM80E_C4

And here's a link to a page where you can play a video of excerpts from Wallis' debate with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention at the "Values Voters Summit" on October 22nd where they tackle such issues as abortion, poverty, the environment, and national security: http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/10/video-jim-wallis-and-richard-l.html