“It’s not hyperbole or overstatement to say that Glenn Beck lies for a living. I’m sad to see Marvin Olasky doing the same thing. No, we don’t receive money from Soros. Given the financial crisis of nonprofits, maybe Marvin should call Soros and ask him to send us money.
via blog.christianitytoday.com
This is a fascinating article in Christianity Today that talks about Jim Wallis receiving gifts from a far left benefactor. Me posting this has nothing to do with whether I like or endorse Wallace or not. Truth be told, I have appreciated much of Wallis' balancing contribution to the "civil religious" dialogue. It has to do with my incredulity about Wallace's response that he didn't even know about the gifts coming in (and calling Olasky a liar about it). He refers to the gifts as the tiniest of contributions. As someone who runs a nonprofit I can assure you that if a "tiny gift" came in at $100,000 I would know about, I would call and say thank you and send a follow up "thank you" note…and be thinking how we could invite more investment. In fact, with a gift that large, I almost certainly would have been in on "the ask" before it came in. Sojourners is simply not that big of an org for him not to know about that size of gift being given. In an organization that takes in just a few million dollars a year, a $100,000 gift would most certainly be noticed.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but for me this gesture at the very least appears not just a little shifty. Either he was attempting to dodge some unwanted attention or he needs to get in touch with his organization.
Yeah, that’s what I don’t get is there’s no reason Wallis shouldn’t have been able to just say, yeah – we take donations from anyone who wants to support us.
I have a feeling Jesus took donations from some shocking places – both Zealots and Tax Collectors. Anyways, yeah the whole thing is just bizarre.
I agree with you BD. Who gave him the money is irrelevant to me. The possible cloaking of it is what bugs me.
I’d take his money… 🙂
This whole thing is just weird to me. It makes now sense why Wallis would lie. But it’s insane that someone should be questioned based on who gave them money. That sort of guilt by association is a dangerous game.
I guess, I don’t see why a big deal has to be made of who gave money to Sojourners, etc. And that’s what bothers me about this whole thing.