On January 18, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to lawmakers outlining top Catholic legislative priorities. The letter features well-known Catholic positions, including concerns on abortion and marriage law, support for universal healthcare, advocacy for "poor families and vulnerable workers"—but it also stresses the bishops' robust support for net neutrality.

"As the Internet continues to grow in its influence and prominence in Americans’ lives, we support legislation and federal regulations that ensure equal access to the Internet for all, including religious and nonprofit agencies, as well as those in more sparsely populated or economically distressed areas," said the letter. "True net neutrality is necessary for people to flourish in a democratic society."

This isn't an outlying position among US Christian leaders, either. The National Council of Churches, which represents everyone form the Episcopalians to the Presbyterian Church (USA) to the Orthodox Church in America to the United Methodists, issued a net neutrality resolution of its own on October 18, 2010.

"We jointly urge the Federal Communications Commission to take any and all action to adopt network neutrality, including reclassification of broadband services as a telecommunications service, as a fundamental and necessary part of the framework for all forms of broadband Internet service that will protect the freedom of every individual and group to see and hear and send any information they desire," said the resolution.

While the NCC skews liberal, even (some) conservative Protestants have jumped on the net neutrality bandwagon. The Christian Coalition, which is currently working for the "repeal of ObamaCare," has been a famous supporter of net neutrality for several years. This has been a controversial stand in conservative circles, but as far back as 2007, the Coalition was making "the conservative argument for net neutrality."

The reasons for this support aren't hard to find; churches simply don't have the financial resources of massive corporations, and they worry that they'll be priced out of using the Internet in effective ways. "This is what the net neutrality debate is really about, at its core," said the Coalition three years ago. "The ability of diverse voices and alternative views to continue to be heard, whether or not it is profitable for Viacom or Disney to air these views. It's about the ability of conservative activists and candidates to communicate directly to our members and supporters without paying an additional toll to Verizon or AT&T."

The NCC had similar worries. "If vital net neutrality protections are not assured by the FCC, large for-profit companies providing Internet services may have a commercial incentive to favor their own content over others and as a result could limit the activity and equal access of members of faith communities and other non-commercial organizations online," it said.