Aaron Graham, featured in this intriguing clip from ABC News, is a good friend of my daughter (and Friends of Justice Development Director) Lydia Bean.  Before moving to Washington DC to work with the progressive evangelical group Sojourners, Aaron, and his wife Amy, served as pastors in a poor neighborhood in Boston.  That might not sound like typical evangelical behavior (aren’t evangelicals the folks who hate poor people?) but Graham is 100% evangelical–his parents are Southern Baptist missionaries, for crying out loud.

Also featured in the ABC report is prominent evangelical pastor Rick Warren.  Religious leaders like Warren and Graham conform to the usual evangelical mold: they take their Bible straight and they are opposed to abortion.  But they also care about things like global warming, poverty, war and injustice. 

Aaron Graham is responsible for organizing a series of Sojourners-sponsored “Justice Revivals” across America.   Friends of Justice (and others) are working hard to make Dallas the next location.  In the process, we are hoping to stir a table spoon of criminal justice reform into the issue mix.  Poverty is the primary focus of a Justice revival, and that is appropriate.  But can you talk about poor people without addressing the criminal justice system?  We think not. 

The first debate between Barack Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton (way back in June of 2007) was co-sponsored by Sojourners and CNN.  And now, it appears, the first debate between John McCain and Mr. Obama will be hosted by evangelical pastor Rick Warren. 

Does this mean that white evangelicals are waking up to the biblical call to justice and compassion.  Not really.  The shift in focus, particularly among young evangelicals like Aaron Graham, is real, but it isn’t big enough to swing an election anytime soon.  When most white evangelicals think of “justice” they picture criminals getting their “just deserts”.  Evangelicals generally fail to grasp the radical truth: God stands on the side of the oppressed and Jesus came into the world to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). 

A biblical awakening at the heart of evangelicalism may not help Democrats get elected in the next decade; but it may transform the face or Republican politics.