PETER WEHNER: Jim Wallis and the dangers of heresy. “What these ‘progressive’ Christian leaders are doing is committing the same error that some on the so-called Religious Right did, which is to pretend that Scripture can be reduced to a governing blueprint. (In this instance, we’re asked to imagine Jesus as a liberal, big-spending director of the Office of Management and Budget.)” Imagine being the key word. Plus this: “To argue that their form of liberalism has the imprimatur of Jesus — and to argue the necessary corollary, which is that those who want to return spending levels to their pre-stimulus levels are being unfaithful to the commands of their Lord — is arrogant and harmful. It reduces faith to a political weapon. In their partisan zeal, these Christian leaders are discrediting the very faith they insist they are defending.”

Most notable, of course, is that this sort of religious claim doesn’t seem to get nearly as much flak for “mixing government and religion.” But a tax increase for religious reasons is just as “theocratic” as an abortion ban for religious reasons.