With only a week remaining before Arizona’s contentious Senate Bill 1070 becomes law, Arizona human and immigrant rights groups have found unlikely allies among the religious community.

The American Prospect reports that a growing group of evangelical Christian leaders, like Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr., president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, are rejecting the traditional conservative stance on immigration, instead supporting President Barack Obama's call for comprehensive reform.

In a column I wrote in October 2009, "Quitting the Conservatives", I mentioned that one of my reasons for fleeing the conservative movement was the increasing pervasiveness and dominance, carried over from the Reform movement, of social conservatism heavily imbued with right-wing Christian fundamentalism.

A party dedicated to blindly doling out tax cuts and stroking the outsized egos of corporate masters was becoming more comfortable with theocracy.

God Talk

I must admit, I don't spend too much time reading comments posted to news stories. Beneath a cowardly shroud of anonymity, too many spew venom and hate and extraordinary ignorance. But there are times when I will scan a few pages worth of comments, hoping for an illuminating and pithy remark, a wonderfully unique approach to an idea, a few sentences that challenge me, a laugh. Most of the time I'm disappointed and eventually bored.

There are those who blow in bellowing and bloviating, without a scintilla of critical thinking or reading comprehension. Those who troll around for any opportunity to trumpet their confirmation biases.