Edited to add Don Carrington’s hilarious photos capturing this cognitive dissonance exactly.

The News & Observer writes in praise of a “growing local protest-music movement” against “what they consider the legislature’s ‘regressive’ actions on abortion, unemployment, and other issues.” The article quotes one of the songs:

It’s a drag when people hide behind religion
Doin’ evil through and through
But since you wanna go there, let us ask a question
Is this here what Jesus would do?

Later verses, we’re told, explicate that Jesus “wouldn’t care for Art Pope” but would support the Moral Mondays protests — which, of course, has always sought to hide behind religion, with leftist clergy at the fore, to promote itself. (Sometimes the left’s newfound tack of promoting religion in politics runs smack into their denouncing religion in politics; fortunately, they have an app for that.)

Over the weekend, the Winston-Salem Journal reported that

Ministers active in the weekly “Moral Monday” protests at the Legislature have called off talks with Republican legislators, saying one lawmaker broke the ground rules when he disclosed the discussions.

The Charlotte Observer reported that Republican Sen. Jeff Tarte of Cornelius quietly started the talks to try to find common ground. A group of 10 lawmakers and about a dozen ministers met twice.

Tarte talked about the behind-the-scenes dialogue in response to a question from the Observer about his reaction to the weekly protests. Eight ministers then signed a statement saying they’re ending the talks because one ground rules was that they would remain private.

So Sen. Tarte was supposed to lie and say he was doing nothing in response to the protest? Was it damaging the cause of “morality” for religious leaders to gain an audience with legislators? Were they embarrassed by the revelation, as if being seen sitting in the house of the tax collectors?

Perhaps it would be damaging to the Jesus cares for us not you vs. evil through and through “moral” messaging if it came out that Republican lawmakers had been trying to listen to them after all.