Olasky at the World Magazine blog:

Brooks, who has a book coming out on this subject, concludes, "So who is more compassionate: the religious right, or the secular left? The answer appears to be the former. The reason for this, however, revolves around religion, not political ideology. The relatively large religious right and fairly small religious left are both far more compassionate than secularists from either political side. The most uncompassionate group of all - in attitudes and behaviours - is a subset of conservatives who are also secularists. Inordinate media attention to this group may help explain why conservatives are often accused of being uncompassionate."

Do we know what charities the religious right donates to? Perhaps churches that spew anti-gay hatred from their pulpits and praise the current administration's policies of giving tax cuts to the rich while opposing increases in the minimum wage? As Randall Balmer points out in his book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America, the term "Christian" has taken on a whole new meaning the last six years or so. I dare say we can't determine a level of "compassion" based purely on size of donations. You could get a tax deduction from donating to these guys.

Inordinate media attention to secular conservatives? Yeah, right. I read about them every day on the front page of the New York Times.