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From God’s lips to Jon Stewart’s monologue?

By Ami Eden · July 7, 2009

The Rev. Jim Wallis interviews Jon Stewart in the July issue of Sojourners -- and calls him a Hebrew prophet:

Jim Wallis: The Hebrew prophets often use humor, satire, and truth-telling to get their message across, and I feel you do a combination of all three. How conscious are you of this, and are you trying to make social change happen?

Jon Stewart: It may be true that the Hebrew prophets used humor in that regard, to create social change, but it was also used by Borscht Belt social directors. We’ve got a lot more in common with them than the prophets. Everyone here has a lot of respect for activists and an appreciation for what it takes to be an activist. For most of us, writing jokes, playing a little Guitar Hero in the afternoon, and calling it a day seems to be the way to go. Because we’re in the public eye, maybe people project onto us their desires for that type of activism coming from us, but just knowing the process here as I do, our show is maybe the antithesis of activism, and that is a relatively selfish pursuit. The targets we choose, the way we go about it—it’s got more of a personal venting aspect than a socially conscious aspect.

Over at the Newsweek/Washington Post religion blog, David Waters isn't quite buying it either, though he concedes that Stewart might be on a mission from God:

Real prophets aren't venting on their own. "God is raging in the prophet's words," wrote Abraham Joshua Heschel, the great 20th-Century Jewish theologian.

I don't think Jon Stewart qualifies as a prophet, but who's to say God doesn't also send us court jesters?