Sojourners’ Jim Wallis to Speak at Kent State on Morals, Ethics and Social Justice in 2012 Presidential Campaign

Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners, a national nonpartisan Christian organization, will discuss “The Politically Engaged Believer: Morals, Ethics and Social Justice in the 2012 Election” at Kent State University on Thursday, Sept. 13, at 7 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Kiva. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow his talk.

A bestselling author, public theologian, speaker and international commentator on ethics and public life, Wallis recently served on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and currently serves as the chair of the Global Agenda Council on Faith for the World Economic Forum. He teaches a course on “Faith, Social Justice and Public Life” at Georgetown University and has also taught at Harvard University.

Wallis’ latest book is Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street — A Moral Compass for the New Economy. His two previous books, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America and God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, were both New York Times bestsellers.

Wallis frequently speaks in the United States and abroad. His columns appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, among other major news venues. He frequently appears on radio and television, on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, on shows such as Meet the Press, Hardball, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The O’Reilly Factor, and National Public Radio.

Wallis comes to Kent State as the keynote speaker for the fall 2012 symposium of the Center for the Study of Information and Religion, a research initiative of the School of Library and Information Science. In addition to the annual symposium, the Center for the Study of Information and Religion hosts an annual spring conference that examines how various institutions and agents of religion impact social knowledge through the use, dissemination and diffusion of information.

Co-sponsors of this year’s symposium include Kent State’s Honors College, University Libraries, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science, Department of Philosophy, Religious Studies program and Center for Student Involvement, as well as the Church of the Saviour United Methodist, Cleveland Hts. 
Sojourners is a national Christian organization committed to faith in action for social justice. With a 40-year history, Sojourners is a nonpartisan leader that convenes, builds alliances among and mobilizes people of faith, focusing on racial and social justice, life and peace and environmental stewardship. For more information on Sojourners and Wallis, visit www.sojo.net.

The School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University has the only American Library Association-accredited Master of Library and Information Science degree program in Ohio, offering courses in Kent, Columbus (State Library of Ohio) and through a fully online option. The school also offers a Master of Science in information architecture and knowledge management, and participates in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the College of Communication and Information. The School of Library and Information Science is recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s top 20 library and information science graduate programs, with a youth librarianship program that is ranked 13th. It is one of the largest library schools in the country, with more than 650 students enrolled. For more information, visit www.kent.edu/slis.