A Bible full of holes?

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, was speaking to the students at a Christian college and told them that when he was in seminary, a fellow student took hold of an old Bible and cut out "every single reference to the poor."

"And when we were done, that Bible was literally in shreds,” said Wallis. “It was falling apart in my hands. It was a Bible full of holes. I would take it out to preach and say, 'Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible.'"

Wallis paused. "It's like someone has stolen our faith. And when someone tries to hijack your faith, you know what? There comes a time when you have to take it back!"

For nearly two years, Wallis has traveled across the country attempting to do just that. And some would argue that those efforts have begun to bear fruit, as demonstrated by gains in the recent elections. But Wallis, America's leading progressive evangelical, contends that the issue is far larger than any one election, that the Christian conservative movement has remade Christ in its own image. "What's at stake here is not politics or social action," he insists, "but the very integrity of the word of God."