Just yesterday, the NCC was back in action to affect government policy by hosting a webinar to uphold a "faithful budget." This electronic meeting combined 30 heads of religious denominations and religious organizations. One of the organization's officials, Douglas Grace, opened with the webinar's intention-"that the US Super Committee not balance the budget at the expense of society's poor."

Aura Kanegis, Director of Public Policy at the Washington Office for the American Friends Service Committee, expressed disappointment regarding the lack of raised taxes and cessation of cuts against defense expenditures. Sharing several statistics, she said, "Any line in the sand to not cut one thing is a stance to cut another." Borrowing from the already tired language of the Circle of Protection, she asked, "Who will protect the weakest?...[Those who] have suffered a magnitude of cuts forced on them the past few years" "We must put our energies behind this conversation," Kanegis insisted, "this is a struggle for the soul of our nation."

What is more, Kanegis spouted Keynesian theories as resources for these liberal leaders. "Every $1 of SNAP benefits generates $1.73-1.79 in economic growth," she asserted. The Quaker activist even went so far to say that "government spending can provide a basis for stability in an economic downturn."

She offered her reasons for the relevance all these narrow policies have with religious heads: "The progressive religious groups have a key part to play in establishing the most robust shared future." The religious left is adamant that lower taxes have hurt the American economy, proclaiming "No damage to the common good is acceptable, even the tax cuts over the past decade." She complained, "Our military budget has nearly doubled in less than the last decade."

The PCUSA's Office of Public Witness also chimed in through J. Herbert Nelson, who declaimed, "A government for the CEO and the rest of the wealthy and not of the people, by the people, for the people is what we face today." He further condemned the American Congress since "We in the US give less than 1% of our budget to countries in the direst circumstances."

Nelson assured his audience that the upcoming budget is "not just what this means for individuals, but what this means for whole." Nelson then commenced to paint a picture of bleak neighborhood-wide starvation, where "communities die." Liberal Christians need to be about "turning around communities that are on the brink of despair." It seems rather over-the-top to assume that whole communities are so fragile and on the brink of actual starvation; perhaps more so that government handouts will significantly help the situation. He left off by encouraging, "Just stand in solidarity with those across the country."

The NCC and its affiliates will be phone-banking their respective Congressmen to protect the welfare agenda, affirming the coalition's commitment to focusing on poverty issues. The typical liberal policy will be baptized "by tapping to the spiritual base in which each of us clings." Starting next week, religious progressives will once again partake of big government litanies and liturgies, offering up a sacrifice of public prayers for welfare and may once again commence in that most holy of sacraments: arrest for civil disobedience.

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