More groups are beginning to notice the hypocrisy of nuns advocating for progressive causes, including and especially their stumping for campaign finance disclosure. Over at Juicy Ecumenism, the blog published by the Institute of Religion & Democracy, guest writer T.J. Whittle echoes what loyal PowerBlog readers will recognize as a familiar theme. Namely, the nuns are working in league with leftist organizations interested only in stifling their opponents’ political speech.

In his essay, “Nuns in Glass Buses,” Whittle, a research assistant at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, writes:

After helping to re-elect President Obama in 2012 and advocating for immigration reform in 2013, Sr. Simone Campbell and the Nuns on a Bus have returned for the 2014 midterm elections. Sr. Campbell, who heads the progressive Catholic group NETWORK and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2012, has warned in her typical populist tone that “Our election campaigns are now awash with big money.”

The nuns’ efforts to spread their message and increase voter turnout are well planned. Most of the ten states the nuns have targeted have tight Senate races in an election where Republicans are threatening to win back control of the Senate — and many of those petitive governors’ races. The tour has now been extended to include get-out-the-vote efforts in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, all of which feature multiple toss-up races in the Senate, House, or governors’ mansions.

For some insight into who the nuns will encourage voters to support at the polls, their website proudly features “partners and collaborators” like America Votes, which has received major support from billionaire progressive bankroller George Soros. The organization funneled nearly $1 million to support the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in 2012, and Walker is on the ballot for reelection this year in a race so close that the nuns’ election-day visit is certain to make a difference.

And the coup de grace:

Of course, driving a luxury bus over 5,000 miles to convince unenthusiastic voters to participate in a midterm election can get expensive. David Gibson, who helped Sr. Campbell pen her memoir, wrote in September that the nuns had raised most of the $400,000 they needed for the tour “mainly from Network members and from foundations that promote voter registration and health care reform.” Because of the nuns’ concern for big money’s influence on politics and their advocacy for Democrat-leaning causes, one might expect a journalist to dig a little deeper into the sources of the nuns’ funding. Indeed, Gibson’s account is made conspicuous by the absence of further detail.

Sr. Campbell explained to a group of nuns in 2012 how Nuns on a Bus got its start: “The only inspiration I had was to ask for help. And we asked for help in DC, and our colleagues, all the big players, they came together and helped us brainstorm this.” Who might these big players include? munications work is performed by Faith in Public Life, which, as the Catholic bishops have noted, receives funding and backing from the Washington, DC-based Center for American Progress and George Soros.

The Nuns on a Bus serve as their own best example of how elections can e “awash with big money.” Though Gibson’s profile of the bus tour is quick to proffer libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch as the reason for the nuns’ concerns over “dark money” from wealthy donors, he conveniently leaves out any connection NETWORK has to Soros.

The nuns’ concern over money in politics is nothing new, and ideas to alleviate the problem vary across the political spectrum. Those on the right tend to point out that until there is a reduction in the federal government’s vast influence over American life and business, moneyed interests will inevitably seek influence over the government. The left’s latest solution is a drastic measure to amend the Constitution to gut America’s cherished free speech protections. The proposal, named for its drafter New Mexico Senator Democrat Tom Udall, has so seduced the left that even the ACLU has had trouble maintaining its traditionally consistent voice in opposition free speech restrictions.

While the media reports the Nuns on a Bus as a cute public-interest story with political overtones ( the sister’s even released a ridiculous video parody of Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” called, predictably, “All About That Bus”), that bus is nothing more than a far-left Trojan Horse, using religion as a delivery mechanism for Soros’ funded progressive ideology.