In his “Bad Economics, Bad Public Policy and Bad Theology,” columnist Raymond Keating makes the case on OrthodoxyToday.org that the Religious Left offers “assorted biblical passages that speak of aiding the poor, the necessity for charity and justice, or other vague generalities, and then simply assert that these quotations support the particulars of their big government philosophy. Of course, this ranks as either ignorant or disingenuous from a theological standpoint.”

Keating examines resurgent activism by liberal/leftist religious leaders on environmental issues and government spending. Describing “the degradation of God’s sacred Earth” as the “moral imperative of our time,” these church leaders advance a view of the earth as an exhausted land, filled with poisonous air and water. You wonder how anyone manages to survive day to day.

Of course, this is wrong. Keating illustrates how in fact the environment is in many ways better today than it was only a few years ago, and shows how the Bush administration has been ratcheting up government spending at an alarming rate.

It will shock no one that many religious leaders are stumping for the welfare state. But it’s nothing new. Keating produces this quote from President Calvin Coolidge: “I wouldn’t for a minute be critical of the church and its work, but I think most of the clergy today are preaching socialism.”