INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Infighting among Christians has distracted religious leaders and is preventing them from helping the poor, a speaker told the Community of Christ world conference.
Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners religious magazine, compared the divisions among Christians to those among gangs. Wallis said religious leaders could learn from a gang peace summit he attended, where rivals threw off their colors and vowed to work together to improve the community.
"If Crips and Bloods can get together, why can't the evangelicals and the liberals, the blacks and the whites come together," Wallis said in his April 7 address to more than 1,000 conference attendees from 50 countries. "We sometimes behave like gangs, and our children are falling through the cracks."
Wallis has organized the Call to Renewal, a national coalition of church groups working to fight poverty. The Community of Christ - formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - participates in the program. The church, which claims a worldwide membership of 250,000, is headquartered in Independence, Mo.
