To really help "the last and the least" do you have to focus on "the lost" as well?

Maybe not -- if you go by the statistics at Kiva, the international internet person-to-person micro-lending site where it appears that folks with no religion are spirited participants in efforts to uplift the world's poorest.

Kiva, which kicked off in 2005, is a global force in orchestrating small loans to individual whose business successes ripple through the lives of their families and communities. Forbes once described it as mixing the "entrepreneurial daring of Google with the do-gooder ethos of Bono...”

According to the Associated Press, Kiva has raised more than $75 million for nearly 200,000 individuals in 44 countries and, this June, expanded the ranks of eligible entrepreneurs to struggling small businesses in the United States.

Last year Kiva added a gimmick for encouraging folks to lend (and re-lend once their original $150 or so has been repaid) through competition. There are teams by organized dozens of ways including special interest groups, churches, businesses and more.

And who's whomping the crowd overall?

In first place, with $761,975 loaned -- Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious "committed to caring about suffering." Next in the listings: Kiva Christians ($519,725), followed by Team Obama ($408,500).

Sort by "Religious Congregations" to find that, topping Kiva Mormons ($57,425) and Kiva Catholics ($59,625) is the squadron devoted to the The Flying Spaghetti Monster ($81,725) who sign on to give because "Thou shalt share, that none may seek without finding." Unfamiliar with the FSM parody "pastafarianism"? Check it out here.

DO YOU THINK... giving can be faith-free and still have "values?"

Illustration from Random House: This image of the parody diety comes from The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson. Fans of the FSM are among the leaders in micro-finance lending in team competiton at Kiva.