Every day I receive updates on what's going on over at RedState.org. In today's update, there is a piece about a new book from HarperCollins called God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and The Left Doesn't Get It. And, as usual, they and the author, Jim Wallis, don't "get it" any more than The Left does.

The religious and political Right gets the public meaning of religion mostly wrong -- preferring to focus only on sexual and cultural issues while ignoring the weightier matters of justice. And the secular Left doesn't seem to get the meaning and promise of faith for politics at all-mistakenly dismissing spirituality as irrelevant to social change. I actually happen to be conservative on issues of personal responsibility, the sacredness of human life, the reality of evil in our world, and the critical importance of individual character, parenting, and strong "family values." But the popular presentations of religion in our time (especially in the media) almost completely ignore the biblical vision of social justice and, even worse, dismiss such concerns as merely "left wing."

The problem here is that Wallis, as does most of the MSM, only taken into account those portions of Evangelical Christianity that catch his eye. In other words, those issues where Christians express their political opinion and where Wallis disagrees. Wallis seems to think that I, and evangelicals everywhere, only get politically animated by issues of sexuality and cultural morals. By "sexual" issues, Wallis is referring to the debate over Same Sex Unions (what most people call "gay marriage"). In fact, sexual issues wouldn't even be "issues" if the courts and radical activists didn't make them into issues. Had the Massachutesettes Supreme Judicial Court not extended their reach into legislative matters and usurped the place of the people of Massachutesettes in determining state marriage policy, then same sex unions wouldn't have been the explosive issue it has been. Christians became involved in the issue because of the strong ties between marriage (a religious and social institution) and the social structure of the U.S.

The truth is that evangelicals are animated by a great number of things. Wallis hasn't cared to look into the role evangelicals are playing in what he terms "social justice" issues. The evangelic church is THE leader in dealing with race relations. I have seen no other organizations as willing as the church to stand up against racism. In fact, you will probably find no more racially harmonious community than Christian churches. Evangelical churches also take the lead in dealing with the poverty stricken. The church I attend, Southeast Christian Church, operates its own ministry -- LifeBridge -- that reaches out to families in need to provide food, clothing and basic household furniture. Southeast also teams with other local organizations such as the Wayside Christian Mission to provide for the less fortunate. Evangelical Christian churches are also the most benevolent community in American society. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and Flight 93, Southeast Christian took up an additional offering -- over and above the normal offering -- to provide for the need of those in the vicinity of the attacks. Southeast members provided a half million -- that's right, $500,000 -- in relief funds to help people and businesses deal with the aftermath of the attacks. This past weekend, Southeast took a similar offering for victims of the December 26th tsunami in South Asia and raised $732,000 (God be praised!) to be used by local organizations in the region for disaster relief.

So, Mr. Wallis, don't look at me and tell me that conservative evangelicals don't know social justice. Evangelicals have done more than anyone for social justice. I'll drop one name in closing my case -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (an evangelical minister).