Politics & Power Quote by Jim Wallis

The real target here is not faith but moral certainty dressed up as faith. Wallis is warning about a rhetorical move that turns politics into a crusade: once a nation claims God’s endorsement, violence stops looking like violence and starts looking like housekeeping. “Ridding the world of evil” sounds clean, almost hygienic, which is precisely the danger. It’s a phrase that smuggles in permission - for war without grief, for collateral damage without accountability, for righteous ends that magically sanitize brutal means.

Wallis’s intent is to puncture the sanctimony that often accompanies American power, especially in the post-9/11 habit of framing geopolitical conflict as a battle of good versus evil. The subtext is theological and civic at once: the moment you assign God to your team, you not only demonize the enemy, you exempt yourself from scrutiny. That exemption is the true “very dangerous” part. He’s arguing that national innocence is a kind of idolatry - worshiping the nation’s self-image rather than facing the messy record of what it has done in the world.

The final line shifts from accusation to confession: “the evil we have committed” and “complicit” insist on collective responsibility, not just bad actors “over there” or rogue administrations “back then.” It’s an attempt to restore moral adult supervision to public life: humility over purity, repentance over triumphalism. If evil is always external, you’ll never notice when it’s wearing your uniform.