People are finally listening to Jim Wallis.

His labored in near obscurity on evangelical Christianity's political left for decades when Christian political right spokesmen like the Rev. Jerry Falwell were on TV daily.

Courtesy of Harper One (ENLARGE)

'The Great Awakening: Reviving Politics in a Post Religious-Right America' by Jim Wallis is at number 30 on The New York Times best-seller list.

Today, Wallis is a talking head in demand, appearing on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and TV news shows, political forums and debates. He is the go-to explainer of the much-discussed evangelical vote which has, depending on who you listen to, fragmented, dissolved or expanded beyond the issues of gay marriage and abortion.

His new book, "The Great Awakening: Reviving Politics in a Post Religious-Right America," is at number 30 on The New York Times best-seller list. It is about spiritual revivals' past influence on social issues such as slavery and about the growth and influence of modern evangelicals on current issues such as genocide in Darfur, global poverty and the environment.

Wallis will be in Atlanta Wednesday, talking to pastors and students at Morehouse College. He will speak in public at Ebenezer Baptist Church at 7 p.m.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution spoke with him by phone.

Q: What were recent events that shifted momentum in evangelicalism to include broader issues?

A: One is the emergence of a new generation. At Fuller [Theological Seminary in California] last week, there weren't enough chairs for the young seminarians who wanted to be part of this conversation.

The narrow agenda of abortion and gay marriage are no longer the defining issues for them. A new generation has a new agenda. They care about the sanctity of life, but they include Darfur in that. They think that the 30,000 kids in the world who will die today from disease and hunger are more important than a gay marriage issue on the ballot in Ohio.

Two, the failure of the political project of the religious right. People regard it as too partisan, too narrow, too top-down and too much in bed with one party.

Another factor is the failure of the Bush administration, which was seen as the administration of the religious right. This was their president and their administration and from Katrina to Iraq [it failed].

And, I think at a deeper level, I don't want to sound pietistic, but I am an evangelical, what my new book about is great awakenings, when revivals in faith change society.

Q: What are the top concerns of those attending your meetings?

A: There are a lot of issues around poverty. Human trafficking is huge for young people. There are more people in economic and sexual slavery than when Wilberforce [an English politician and abolitionist] freed the slaves. There are three billion people living on $2 a day. That is a world that is neither just nor secure, and I would add, not safe for our children.

Second is the environment, climate change, being good stewards of the environment.

And three, is conflict, how do we resolve conflict?

Q: What would signs of failure of this movement be?

A: If there are signs that we were sort of a new chaplaincy of the religious left. If the Democrats win, they don't need chaplains as much as they need prophets.

One reason the religious right failed is that they lost credibility, they lost their independence, their voice of conscience because they became power brokers in a party. And that is not what social movements should do.

[To succeed, the movement needs to remain independent, work with people on both sides]

It is not a religious left to counter a religious right. It has to go deeper, for a moral center or a politics of common good.