Despite the influence of the religious rights place within the Republican party, or visa versa.  This article prom-ted me to remember something from many years ago that applies ever more so today as well:

...and those who have gone to the church to seek the bread of economic justice have been left in the frustrating midnight of economic deprivation. In many instances the church has so aligned itself with the privileged classes and so defended the status quo that it has been unwilling to answer the knock at midnight...

  The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and critic of the state, and NEVER it's tool. If the church does not capture it's prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and for racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied it's will.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.