It’s possible that I’m being unfair.

Say it ain’t so Bruce! Yes Dear Reader, you’ve heard the vituperative scorn I regularly heap on the right-wing-fundamentalist-reality-challenged buttheads who seem to have captured the discussion on “moral values.” I am amazed to find that there are some other folks out there who are “evangelical” as opposed to “fundamentalist,” for whom “moral values” means something other than being against gays and abortion and being intolerant generally. From Sunday’s New York Times: [I’ve bolded some text].

One More 'Moral Value': Fighting Poverty
By John Leland, January 30, 2005, The New York Times

During the inaugural festivities in Washington this month, three evangelical Christian groups sponsored a black-tie "Values Victory Dinner," where they celebrated the electoral strength of "moral values" as a factor in the campaign. In the shorthand of post election polls and analysis, that meant opposition to abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research.

… Evangelical organizations, whose views were often stereotyped after the election, are also seeking a broader definition of moral values. "We've let not evangelicals, but the right wing determine what moral values are," said David J. Frenchak, president of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education, a nondenominational group that helps develop urban ministry programs at 12 seminaries or divinity schools around the country.

In Chicago last weekend, Dr. Frenchak joined a gathering of 20 Christians, mostly evangelicals, to produce a book defining moral values to include a focus on poverty. At the meeting, one man held up a Bible from which he had cut every verse that addressed poverty. "There was hardly anything left," Dr. Frenchak said. "He said, 'I challenge anyone in the room to take their Bible and cut out every verse about abortion or gay marriage, and we'll compare Bibles.’ "

… "This is the great secret story," said Jim Wallis, a progressive evangelical who runs Sojourners magazine and Call to Renewal, a network of religious groups committed to combating poverty.

"The perception of evangelicals is that all they care about is abortion and gay marriage, but it isn't true," he said. "It hasn't been for years.” [The jury is out on that one].

Mr. Wallis has long tried to assemble a coalition of progressive or moderate evangelicals and Roman Catholics with mainline Protestant organizations on moral issues like poverty. Though his voice has sometimes been a lonely one, his new book, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It," enters the New York Times best-seller list this week at No. 11. …

"There's this tendency for liberals to say, 'We don't want anything to do with mixing church and politics,' " Ms. Metcalfe said. As a result, she said, liberal Christians and their concerns have not entered the values debate.

Elizabeth Theoharis, a doctoral student and community activist who was leading the class with Mr. Baptist, challenged the students: "How do we move from the idea of poor people being sinners to poverty being a sin?" …

Good question. Dear Leader’s budget will not have enough money to fully fund many programs for housing for the poor, low income housing, and education aid, not to mention cutting the VA’s budget - as if our military is highly paid. But of course they do want to extend those tax cuts and perhaps add another. That’s mighty Christian of our leaders - or not.