On the first point, I'm not sure what to say. I need to think about this.

On the second... the fact that the organizations involved are churches is secondary to the message; churches are better positioned to do something like this than most organizations are, but, well, check the next-to-last paragraph of the slacktivist post:

But why stop there? "Torture is wrong" is a statement every religious congregation can agree to bear witness to, but it is not exclusively a religious testimony. Next to the banners on every church on Main Street I'd like to see other banners: "Little Anthony's Pizza says 'torture is wrong,'" "Prime Cuts Salon says 'torture is wrong,'" "John's Tavern says 'torture is wrong.'"