"Pro-Life" Obama Defenders Sojourners, Jim Wallis, Funded by George Soros

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 24, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

"Pro-Life" Obama Defenders Sojourners, Jim Wallis, Funded by George Soros

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 24
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Jim Wallis, the publisher of the religious left newspaper Sojourners has long been a thorn in the side of the pro-life movement. Claiming to oppose abortions, Wallis has been one of the staunchest defenders of pro-abortion Barack Obama — both before and after his elected as president.

Wallis is a member of the White House Faith Council which has been criticized for failing to implement a promised plan to reduce abortions despite two years of the Obama administration.

Wallis has attempted to rebut criticisms of his Obama apologetics and his boasting of his ties to the Obama administration by claiming his "progressive Christian" Sojourners movement has not received funding from leftist billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

He originally rebutted a criticism of "religious progressives" in 2005 for the alliance with Soros.

"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," he said then.

Earlier this month, in Patheos, Wallis wrote, "No, we don’t receive money from George Soros."

Now, a new report in World magazine finds Soros, a billionaire who has financed groups promoting abortion, bankrolled Sojourners with a $200,000 grant in 2004. Since then, the magazine indicates, 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.

Mark Tooley, the president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, responded to the new information on Wallis and Sojourners, calling it "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," Tooley said. "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," he said.

Wallis has claimed he has tried to get Obama and the Democratic Party to reduce abortions, but he’s failed in attempts to do so.

In March 2009, he said any health care reform package would be sunk if it included abortion funding. The final bill eventually included it and Obama signed it into law.

Prior to the 2008 Democratic Convention, Wallis advised Obama to include language in the Democratic Party platform calling for the "reduction" of abortions.

"Abortion reduction should be a central Democratic Party plank in this election," Wallis told ABC News. "I’ll just say that flat out."

"This is going to be a big Denver conversation," Wallis told the television station. "You don’t have to call for criminalizing anyone. You don’t have to take a different stance about a woman’s right to choose. But you begin with the need for reducing abortion dramatically."

The platform eventually contained an uncompromising statement saying abortions should be allowed throughout pregnancy and paid for by taxpayers across the country.

 

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