More than 30,000 demonstrators have descended on the Wisconsin Statehouse, two days in a row, to protest Governor Scott Walker’s decision to severely restrict the collective bargaining rights of most public employee unions. The proposed bill would make it illegal for unions to use healthcare benefits and their pension funds as bargaining chips. Should Christians care?

“Do Muslims torture Christians worldwide?” I found these words scrawled across the white space of a poster promoting our upcoming anti-torture conference. Perhaps the impulse behind the question was bound up with the evangelical world’s difficulty articulating a new Christian ethic for the War on Terror generation.

Austin Dannhaus, a young evangelical teaching in inner-city Washington, D.C., reflects on his experiences at the Teach for American 20th Anniversary summit this past weekend, specifically on the role of faith communities in closing the education gap. His three hard-hitting conclusions may surprise you.

The achievement gap between rich and poor is divided along both socioeconomic and racial lines, and too many of our children are receiving less help instead of more despite the given hurdles they face growing up in poverty. This is more than just a broken systems issue; this is a moral issue. Education is the civil rights issue of our generation.

Obama and his Republican opponents have more in common on the budget than they’re likely to admit. The respective proposals of both parties “solve” America’s fiscal woes through cuts to programs that help poor people, while increasing military spending and — just as morally tone-deaf and mind-numbingly irresponsible — passing the buck on our nation’s longer-term fiscal problems.

Christian right groups such as Family Research Council, America Family Association, and Concerned Women of America have been joined by the largest conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, in condemning CPAC, largely over the inclusion this year of a GOP gay group. This CPAC split could very well mark one of the most significant political events of the decade.

President Hosni Mubarak’s thirty-year regime has officially come to an end. Even strong words from the defiant leader yesterday evening were not enough to keep the Egyptian people at bay. Their message during the past two weeks of demonstrations and protests has been loud and clear — echoing the words of Moses: “Let my people go.”

In the face of recent news that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refuses to step down from power, God is on the move. Over the weekend the Coptic Orthodox Church got involved in the protest for the first time, scheduling a Christian Mass in Tahrir Square — the epicenter of demonstrations aimed at ousting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power.

The Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life recently released a report detailing the religious make-up of the 112th Congress, the most recently elected group of Congressional leaders. Those familiar with the religious demographics of the U.S. Congress in previous years will see that little has changed.

If your understanding of the Kingdom of God allows you to support the American project enough to pay taxes, then good citizenship (both Kingdom and temporal) requires that you vote on election day. Anything less than false piety.