Jim Wallis: try Bush adminstration for war crimes, imprison if guilty; oops, Christians should forgive??

Jim Wallis, on his blog, God's Politics, has called for the Bush administration to be put on trial for war crimes after they leave office, and if guilty, to be imprisoned. He was accused of being partisan, which is interesting.

He was also reminded by some that the duty of Christians was to forgive, and leave vengeance (if any) to God ... if those posters meant to forgive Bush and not try him, then that's the same thing (if Bush is guilty) of forgiving murderers, not putting them in prison, and leaving God to seek justice. That would be spectacularly poor stewardship.

But back to partisanship. Some might accuse activist Christians like Pat Robertson or Jim Wallis of being overly political. I argue that Christianity is inherently political. To answer human needs, we must confront oppressive power structures. To fail to do so is poor stewardship, and it fails to love our neighbors. If there is no exploitation of the poor, then Christianity is not political.

However, Christians, while maintaining their political views, should not use their religion in an overly partisan manner. American tax laws forbid Christian groups registered as 501c3 non-profits with the IRS from supporting any particular candidate. They allow us to take political positions, and to communicate those positions to our leaders. They forbid us from spending more than a certain percentage of our funding on lobbying activities, which seems justifiable - else, we are a lobbying organization, to which donations are not tax deductible.

Those laws seem a decent starting point for deciding how to constrain our involvement in politics. It seems distasteful when the Religious Right acts like a paid shill for the Republican Party. It seems distasteful when conservative congregations openly support certain candidates for office from the pulpit, and the IRS does not investigate.

However, is it right when some Catholic bishops publicly threaten pro-choice Catholic politicians with denial of Communion, or excommunication? Is it right for Jim Wallis to call for the Bush administration to face war crimes charges? These incidents may fall into more of a gray area. I find the former distasteful, but I am hard pressed to say that it is outright wrong. I find the latter to be wholly unobjectionable - I think I've probably said as much on this blog. However, I can see that it might make some Christians uncomfortable. Additionally, should a Democratic president commit major human rights violations, and I failed to call for his or her ouster, that would be partisanship.

So, having said that, George HW Bush imposed strict sanctions on Iraq after the Gulf War. Bill Clinton continued the policy; he was a Democrat, and the former Bush was Republican. The sanctions may have had severe effects on mortality in Iraq by, for example, denying people needed medicines and a functioning infrastructure. Bill Clinton continued the sanctions. It is hard to estimate excess mortality in situations like these; the country's infrastructure is too damaged to do a census, and it can be hard to separate 'normal' mortality from mortality attributable to sanctions. However, if a case can be made, should Clinton also face charges of crimes against humanity?