At Odds: Religion and Social Change?

First of all, before I get down to business, I know this is sort of an unusual opinion in some circles. I'm a person of very mixed political tendencies - some issues I lean left, others I lean right. I believe strongly in women's rights, but I am also strongly pro-life and a deeply devout Christian.

I don't know what got me started in thinking about this - but living in and around San Francisco, you see a lot of protests. Some of them, you agree with, but others, you find distasteful.
What I don't understand is why there is such a rift between political activism and being devoutly religious. I know a lot of devout Christians - good, educated, moral people - who are unequivocally, completely against political activism, saying that it's too liberal, too radical - a lot of heavily loaded adjectives.

Lately, I've been doing some thinking, and I came to ask myself - how can you believe in Jesus Christ and hate political activism? There are time, admittedly, when activism goes out of line, but to think of it as something negative in every case? To simply hate all cases of protest, because it is protest?

Jesus Christ, for those who choose to believe in him either as a historical or a religious figure, was a political activist. Think about it - even reading the Bible will tell you so.

Jesus Christ stood up to the existing, oppresive secular and nonsecular powers of his time, advocating a movement towards positive social change. Biblical figures - Moses, Joseph, and I'm sure Christian with a background with the Bible could name dozens more - were activists.

Not every form of protest, in my opinion, is justified - when protest escalates into violence, when innocent and undeserving people are hurt, then it becomes different. But people who raise valid, important, controversial and at times disconcerting dialogues in the name of social change shouldn't be shunned or frowned upon by devoutly religious colleagues.

Perhaps the terminology of a radical social scientist and a devout Christian may differ at times - but in many cases, isn't the goal still leaving in the same direction of positive social change?