In the 2004 election, 80 percent of those who claimed "moral values" was the most important issue affecting their vote cast their ballots for Bush, as did 63 percent of frequent churchgoers. Since then, the Religious Right has continued to cement an association between "Christian" and "moral" values and conservative policies.

Getting On Message challenges this association from the very heart of the Christian tradition. These readable and incisive essays use biblical framing to discern the personal and social ethics that truly embody Christian values in the contemporary world.

• Marilynne Robinson discusses the link between personal holiness and a generous spirit

• Garret Keizer looks at the growing wealth/class divide from a Christian perspective

• Rev. Heidi Neumark examines hospitality as a core Christian value

• Rev. Chloe Breyer explores a justice criterion for women's decisions on abortion

• Rev. Bill Sinkford asks what really constitutes a God-approved marriage and family

Getting On Message is a book for clergy, for politically active people of faith, and for progressive organizers and strategists who want to learn how to talk to religious believers about the values they share.

Rev. Peter Laarman is executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting, codirector of the Center for Prophetic Renewal in Los Angeles, and a board member of Faith Voices for the Common Good. Before moving to California, Laarman served as senior minister of New York's historic Judson Memorial Church. He worked for twenty years as a strategist and communications specialist in the labor movement prior to training for the ministry.

Fourteen prominent religious thinkers begin with the Bible to define real Christian values.