Nick Knisely ponders the issue of the role of clergy in politics by means of two essays written by Episcopal priests. Both of them are struggling with their public role as priest (or canon, or bishop), partisan politics, and hot-button issues. Dan Webster writes:

But matters of justice, matters that have an impact on the poor, hungry, the imprisoned and the stranger need to be addressed by church leaders in the pulpit, online, in the media and wherever else we can proclaim Gospel values.

For an alternative perspective, read Ed Kilgore’s piece on the connections between the Religious Right and the Tea Party. He writes of televangelist James Robison:

In other words, to Christian Right leaders like Robison, it appears that both Keynsian economics and tax increases have become “as wrong and immoral as stealing.” As with his attacks on judges that let bureaucrats help people who have failed to live up to God’s eternal standards, he sounds like an incongruous Christian Ayn Rand.