I heard author and activist Jim Wallis speak last night at a church in downtown Seattle. A film crew recorded throughout the lecture; supposedly it's going to air on the CBS Evening News next week.

In a deep, grandfatherly voice, Wallis espoused many nuggets of wisdom and inspiration. These bright spots, however, were scattered among fool's gold and staked with red flags aplenty.

On the downside...

• Reduction junction:

  A lot of what Wallis talked about was true, but stopped short of Truth. He pointed out that there are 2,000 verses about poverty in the Bible, and his teaching implies that they're the only 2,000 worth reading-or at least accepting literally.

• Jesus is the icing, but He should be the cake -

  Credit Wallis with presenting Jesus to people who are otherwise wary of Christianity and its band of Republican posterboys. But the question is: which Jesus is he presenting? First thing last night Wallis identified Jesus as Lord and proclaimed, "I am an evangelical Christian." By using disclaimers like "for me" and "personally, I believe", however, he qualified his Christology as an individual-not a universal-truth.

  Wallis has a political agenda. Noble and important as it may be, it's still an agenda. Participation in social justice, he would suggest, is what it really means to be a good Christian...or Muslim or Buddhist or whatever. Just care about poor people and put your faith in something. If that "something" happens to be Jesus, that's great but ultimately inconsequential. As Jon Stewart surmised at the end of his interview with Wallis, "Faith without works is nothing. Works without faith is still pretty good."

• "Bad stuff" and other euphemisms:

  According to Wallis, we've got some "bad stuff" in us. We've also got "good stuff," however, and "good religion pulls out our best stuff." In other words, we're basically good people (at least some of our stuff is). Sin is not the problem. The problem is bad religion. And "the answer to bad religion is not secularism; it's better religion." Wallis was equally vague in his attempts to define concepts like faith and spirituality.

On the other hand...

• "Believing in Jesus doesn't matter much if you don't follow Him."

  While Wallis' words fall dangerously short, his actions speak volumes. When he says he believes in Jesus, "I want people to see what that means."

• Two thousand verses is a lot:

  The social gospel is no match for the full gospel of Jesus Christ, but the Bible does call Jesus' disciples to lead the charge when it comes to loving people in ways they can appreciate (James 2:14-17). Why don't we take passages like Matthew 25:31-46 more seriously?

  Jim Wallis characterizes social justice as a spiritual discipline requiring diligence and repetition. In an attempt to steer clear of the comfortable utopia that is consumer Christianity, Wallis makes his home in urban D.C., where he is forced to confront daily the affects of poverty (in society and on his conscience).

• The Grand Alliance:

  Wallis' bestselling book, God's Politics, is subtitled "Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." His political vision includes a "Grand Alliance" in which the right would do more to cultivate social responsibility and the left would do more to cultivate personal responsibility.

  This and the "Budgets are Moral Documents" campaign suggest that Wallis has his eye on some high level changes. "We can't keep pulling people out of the river," he explains, referencing Salvation Army founder William Booth, "We have to have to go upstream to see who or what is throwing them in."

Though Jim Wallis may not be a good theologian or Bible teacher, as an activist he represents the Christian worldview better than most politicos.

It disturbs me on a profound level when a man may be misleading others with a false gospel of salvation and redemption through social action. At the same time, however, I believe that God can use a flawed man like Jim Wallis to plant a seed; he has many opportunities to bring the light of the true gospel into places where it doesn't get to shine very often. His philosophy on evangelism (inspired by the real-life experience of his friend, Tony Campolo): Regardless of our religious beliefs, let's put our faith into action-protest, demonstrate, clamor for change-and when the fuzz comes and arrests us, we'll talk Jesus in jail.

Jim Wallis declared that "the monologue of the religious right is over; the dialogue has begun." As the scope of the conversation broadens, God is using Jim Wallis to speak the name of Jesus to people who may not otherwise listen. As Christians we should be standing by (or better yet serving alongside), prepared to further illuminate the identity of the only One who can fix the world; One He can save us.