Last month, Sojourners launched the Red Letter Christians, a network drawing attention to the social concerns that Jesus spoke about in the Bible (think of those versions of the Bible with Jesus' words printed in red), such as "fighting poverty, caring for the environment, advancing peace, promoting strong families, and supporting a consistent ethic of life." The Red Letter Christians suggest that not only should these issues be Christian priorities, but that they should also be priorities as worthy of public policy intervention as any other political or social problem. Red Letter Christians are political, but not partisan, as this quote from Diana Butler Bass at God's Politics illustrates:

We are Christians. All those other labels—Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative—are secondary to being Christian, our passionate quests to enact grace and live a Christian way of life.

While the initiative shines a light on how we decide which issues are important enough to be addressed in the public sphere, it also emphasizes just how difficult Jesus' teaching are for our lives. From loving our enemies to not putting our faith in treasures on earth to forgiveness, it's easy to rationalize that these commands don't apply to our current situations as individuals and members of communities. Red Letter Christians want to change the way we think about and apply Jesus' words to our lives.