NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Townhall.com)--I have held my tongue for some time while folks like Jim Wallis (Sojourners), Mara Vanderslice (Matthew 25 Network) and Brian McLaren (emerging church movement) -– all religious and political liberals -- have manipulated a compliant secular media and some of the religious press to shill talking points for them.

The message varies in slight ways from story to story but basically asserts “the left” cares more for the poor than does “the right.” A companion assertion stated as fact is that evangelicals are “fractured” and that there is an emerging progressive group of evangelicals “discovering” there are other issues “just as important” as protecting the unborn and defending the biblical definition of marriage. Then a tired liberal political agenda is reframed in the language of faith.

It’s not just political chicanery or religious wrangling, but simply fraud -- a form of wishful thinking that if repeated enough times, de facto becomes the truth.

Let me clarify that liberal-leaning namesakes of famous evangelicals may have “just discovered” the biblical notions of “stewardship of God’s creation” and “providing for the needy and hurting.” However, for true conservatives these have been long time ministry efforts.

For the record, the Southern Baptist Convention has been advocating for careful stewardship of God’s creation for nearly 40 years, passing five resolutions (1970, 1974, 1990, 2006, 2007) urging personal responsibility in reducing pollution but also cautioning against extremism that would suggest God’s creation is fragile or that would lead to worship of the creation instead of the Creator.

Likewise, Southern Baptists have been particularly faithful to clothe the naked, house the homeless and feed the hungry.

-- Both Al Gore and George W. Bush described the Christian Women's Job Corps program, a ministry of the Woman’s Missionary Union, as the best of its type in lifting women out of government dependency and helping them become self-supporting wage-earners. Over 2,000 participants were assisted last year.

-- During the past 15 years, Southern Baptists have rehabilitated over 11,000 homes, mostly in inner-city areas, and unlike Habitat for Humanity there is no charge to the homeowner.

-- Southern Baptists operate the third-largest disaster relief organization in the country with nearly 83,000 trained volunteers and 1,500 deployable units (chainsaw, mud-out, command, communication, child care, shower, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild, generators, and others). While operating SBC-specific relief centers, Southern Baptists also provide volunteer labor to the Red Cross and Salvation Army. During Katrina relief operations, the Red Cross credited Southern Baptists with serving 90 percent of meals provided at Red Cross sites.

Moreover, over the last 30 years or so, at the national level alone, Southern Baptists have given nearly a quarter billion dollars for hunger relief around the world (nearly $231 million to be more precise). Collected monies are split 80/20 to international and domestic projects and last year just in the U.S. about 3.5 million meals were provided through the SBC’s World Hunger Fund.

In each of these ministry areas there also are collective efforts at the state and local level, and then what congregations and individuals do on their own.

Southern Baptists’ example is representative of what behavioral economist Arthur C. Brooks, director of nonprofit studies for the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, found about conservatives.

“For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous members of American society,” he wrote in his book, Who Really Cares. “Although they usually give less to charity, they have nevertheless lambasted conservatives for their [supposed] callousness in the face of social injustice.”

His research showed a direct relationship between religion and charity he described as “extraordinary.”

“[R]eligious folks...give nearly four times more dollars per year than secularists, on average, and volunteer more than twice as frequently.”

And it is not simply a matter of religious people giving to their churches, but they are more charitable with nonreligious causes as well. “On average, people of faith give more than 50 percent more money each year to non-church social welfare organizations than [liberal] secularists do,” according to Brooks.

Conservatives even donate more blood than do liberals.

To be fair, Brooks found on average religious liberals gave to charities at about the same rates as religious conservatives. However, religious conservatives outnumber religious liberals by about four to one.

Evangelicals aren’t monolithic but also aren’t fractured. They’re a mosaic of ethnicities; rural, suburban and city dwellers; and a host of other characteristics and demographics. Yet they share a common focus on serving Christ, touching others with His love and offering His message of salvation to all who will listen. They not only willingly give a man in need a loaf of bread without strings attached, but also take the time to share Christ as the Living Bread, if that man will listen. Continued...