Greetings, this is podcast number 53 of Blast the Right, I'm Jack Clark from TheRationalRatical.com.

Today, the topic of discussion will be what every progressive needs to know about true Christian economics in order to effectively counter the Christian right.

Let's get right into it.

About a month ago, I suggested that George Bush wouldn't do very well on judgment day in the eyes of his Savior Jesus.

I also suggested that Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez in contrast would.

In the course of that podcast, I mentioned that I myself wasn't a Christian.

This prompted an interesting email from Carl, a listener from Spokane, Washington. He wrote in part, quote,

In your last podcast, you said you were not a Christian, but I must disagree. You were not a Christian by most churches standards, but that has nothing to do with Christ.

It's the churches that started emphasizing his divinity over his deeds. It became all about getting saved and not about helping the least among us.

You, Jack, by not focusing on Christ's divinity are more Christian than the vast majority of those who call themselves that.

You and I have every right to call ourselves Christians because we don't have to believe Jesus was God. We just have to follow his example, close quote.

I look at it a bit differently than Carl. I do think that to be a Christian per se, you have to believe in the Son of God theology.

However, to act like a Christian is supposed to act. You don't have to be a Christian. You don't have to believe in the theology.

So in that sense, I do espouse policies, actions in the real world that are more in accordance with Christian values than right-wing Christians.

And looking at it that way, I am truer to Christian values truer to the word of Jesus than right-wingers are, which I think is Carl's point.

Am I truer to Christian values, though? Many right-wing Christians would contend that my sociopolitical advocacy has nothing to do with religion.

That such an attitude is widespread. In fact, may even be unconsciously assumed by many is evidenced in an interview recently published in the New York Times.

The person being interviewed was a sister Patricia Wolfe. Listen to all she does.

Sister Wolfe is, quote, executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a non-profit group based in New York that promotes corporate social responsibility.

Among the actions the center was responsible for were sponsoring human rights shareholder resolutions at major multinationals like Boeing, Chevron, and Haliburne.

Convincing Walmart to post data on its hiring of women and minorities, lobbying a fertilizer company to reveal to the surrounding community environmental impact data, and pressuring a major pharmaceutical company to develop a pediatric AIDS medicine.

At the end of the interview sister Wolfe was asked, quote, on a personal note, why did you as a nun choose to become involved in all this instead of concentrating on your religion?

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