Religion and Poverty
The Left Coaster has an excellent piece on the refusal of the religious right to address poverty and social injustice issues. See http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/003490.html#more

The religious right will not see it this way. There has always been a strain of American Protestantism that views "worldly success" as a sign of God's favor. They view success in this world as God's sign that you are one of the select. The corollary, of course, is that you should not help your fellow humans, at least in any material sense, since that would be working against the judgment of God. The only help you should give to others is to help them to accept Jesus as their personal savior. This goes back as far as the Puritans. Now, if you are cynical, you might see this as a theological justification for selfishness -- but if you are rich and worried about suffering even the remotest pangs of social awareness, it is a pretty attractive religion.