One very obvious way in which the Right (religious and otherwise) fails to care for the poor is the systematic campaign against progressive taxation.

For the last quarter century, since the rise of Ronald Reagan, the rich in America have been getting richer, the poor have been getting poorer, and things have been getting tighter and tighter for the shrinking middle class.

It's not a question of whether or not government is the only appropriate conduit for providing some minimal support for the poor, or whether private charity ("faith-based" and otherwise) has a role.

It's a question of whether government exists to serve the interests of corporate wealth at the expense of individual citizens ("consumers").

I continue to grieve at the current widely accepted propaganda whereby sincere, well-intentioned, highly moral American people are persuaded that they have a "Christian duty" to consistently vote against their own economic interests by supporting a party that sponsors, and is financed by, warmongering and corporate greed.

All of us, left, right, and center, seem to instinctively (and correctly) feel that individual human values are being undermined by corporate interests. Too bad we can't get ourselves more united to do something about it.

Those on the right are apparently most suspicious of corporations in the entertainment and information industries, and perceive their left-ish opponents as pawns of these "pornographers," while they accept the behavior of powerful corporations in the fossil-fuel and defense sectors.

Those on the left are united in opposition to the Enrons and Halliburtons of the world while finding little or no problem with Hollywood and the music and video-game industries (or, at least, are reluctant to support any form of censorship, even of expression that they might find personally distasteful).

I think it all comes down to attitudes about sex. One camp is horrified by whatever evils might be rooted in uncontrolled sexual activity, but seems willing to accept wholesale theft and financial corruption, not to mention "unavoidable" "collateral" killing of countless humans, especially if they're poor (i.e., "insignificant"), dark-skinned, and/or far away.

The other bunch has opposite priorities ~ opposed to stealing and killing, not too concerned about adultery and covetousness.