During our travels, we listened to this new XM station POTUS 08 (XM 130), which is covering the 2008 presidential elections. (It seems mostly right-wing dominated, but maybe they let the left on at midnight when we weren't listening).

We listened to several speeches by GOP candidates at the Family Research Council Value Voters Summit.

Following are some observations, including notes on remarks by Rev. Jim Wallis who appears to be a true Christian who believes in justice and morality as opposed to the fake brand of religion being peddled by the GOP candidates.

The candidates were falling all over themselves to see who could be more against abortion and wave the biggest anti-Islamofacist flag. Fred Thompson bored them to tears. They were ready to proclaim Sam Brownback as the new Messiah, but he dropped out of the race the next morning.

Another segment was a panel discussion for conservative women about how Hillary Clinton will destroy our families and the American way of life. The panel featured Rep. Jean Schmidt (who you may remember called Rep. Jack Murtha a coward from the House floor) and our own Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who seemed uninformed, offered the same empty slogans over and over, and who was generally a total embarrassment for the state of Tennessee and women in general.

The most interesting segment, though, was a panel discussion on conservative Christian values with Richard Land (from the Southern Baptist Convention) and a Rev. Jim Wallis.

Land bloviated about the war and capitalism and Christian economic policy (whatever that is) and the dangers of secular society. Rev. Wallis got up and blasted Land and every other Christian conservative for not following the teachings of Jesus.

In his view, poverty and lack of opportunity are the root cause of anti-American sentiment and terrorism around the world. ("A world where half the population lives in extreme poverty is neither just nor secure.") He said the invasion of Iraq was morally wrong. He cited the failure to to pass SCHIP as an example of how Christian conservatives talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

Rev. Wallis was loudly booed when he said Christian conservatives should be concerned about the environment and climate change because the Bible says we are supposed to be stewards of the Earth but we aren't. Why would anyone boo the notion that we should protect our planet so we'll have a place to live? That's not conservative or Christian. It's just stupid.

Here's a blog post by Rev. Wallis about preparing for the conference. You can read more of his views at his Sojourners blog.

Maybe there's hope after all that Christians will wake up and realize they're being played by cheap snake oil salesmen and come over to the good side which actually believes in justice and morality.