Using the name of God to push a political agenda is by no means new — and by no means acceptable to most people. Yet some fairly callous and desperate officials within the United Food and Commercial Workers union have increasingly been using cheap allusions to God to hock their wares.

This weekend it was their ongoing anti-corporate campaign against the Smithfield meat company, when activists donned t-shirts reading “We pray for healing and justice at Smithfield, oh God.” How disingenuous. UFCW is trying to organize a giant plant for Smithfield — which has said it welcomes a union election at any time. UFCW strategists know they won’t win. Perhaps they can’t win because they’ve already offended the religious sensibilities of their would-be members.

This “faith and justice” showing, while distasteful, doesn’t even reach the level of UFCW’s sacrilegious pre-Christmas ad campaign attacking Wal-Mart by asking “Where Would Jesus Shop?” I guess these are the kinds of campaigns you get from well-paid political hacks hired to run a no-holds-barred PR campaign.

I came across some thoughts from the Dustbury.com blog on the UFCW’s “WWJS?” campaign worth sharing: “I admit to being a bit perplexed by this ‘Where would Jesus shop?’ premise. I think we can safely conclude that JC opposed commerce in the Temple, but beyond that, it’s hard to be sure.” Later: “I rather strongly suspect that if the United Food and Commercial Workers had negotiated a contract with Bentonville that gave Wal-Mart Associates exactly what they’re getting now, we wouldn’t be seeing any of this.”