About Us
Our Motives and Mission
The Center on Faith and Justice was founded at Georgetown University in 2021 by the Rev. Jim Wallis, a theologian, social justice advocate and longtime leader of Sojourners, the Christian non-profit and publication. Taking its inspiration from the Gospel of Matthew, the Center on Faith and Justice focuses on four key missions: uprooting systemic racism; building a multi-racial democracy; alleviating poverty; and building peace in the U.S. and around the world.
The Center on Faith and Justice carries out these missions in a variety of ways, including through direct political advocacy; hosting public events and private strategy sessions; organizing a Faith and Justice Academy and other academic programming; publishing a bi-weekly podcast (Soul of the Nation) and weekly Substack newsletter (God’s Politics); and writing pieces for national media outlets. The center also serves as a hub for students, seminarians, scholars, spiritual leaders, grassroots organizers, policymakers, government officials, journalists and others committed to serving the common good.
In welcoming the Center on Faith and Justice, Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia said the Center will help the country’s oldest Jesuit institution carry out its special responsibility in the nation’s capital to advocate for the common good. “We are honored to be able to advance our contribution to this idea of civil spirituality through this new center and with the leadership of our longtime colleague, Rev. Jim Wallis,” DeGioia said.
In addition to leading the Center on Faith and Justice, Wallis serves as the first-ever Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, where he has taught classes on faith, politics, and racial justice for over a decade.
In its first years, the Center on Faith and Justice has hosted public dialogues with political leaders and scholars: on the threat to voting rights with the Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama; on the possibility of building a true multi-racial democracy with Princeton University scholar and MSNBC contributor Dr. Eddie Glaude; and on the January 6 insurrection with Rep. Jamie Raskin. More events are planned.
The Center on Faith and Justice has led campaigns to alleviate poverty by convening religious leaders and organizing public letters pressing Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit; to protect voting rights by convening religious leaders in 10 key states and advocating for national legislation in the Senate; and to promote peace by writing and circulating an open letter from Christian leaders to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, calling on him to exercise his influence to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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