Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, delivered a stinging critique of the Bush administration yesterday, declaring that “justice is dying in America.”

In a guest sermon at Riverside Church on the Upper West Side, Mrs. Edelman made often thinly veiled attacks on President Bush, accusing him of neglecting poor children and families. She also accused the administration of breaking its promises on the No Child Left Behind education reform law, and of pursuing instead a policy of “leave no billionaire or powerful interest behind.”

“Our nation’s moral compass needs resetting – America is sliding backwards,” she told a large audience.

Mrs. Edelman yesterday also described a Children’s Defense Fund campaign to raise voter turnout in next month’s presidential election. Mrs. Edelman plans to contact thousands of faith-based organizations. Her organization says it already has registered 25,000 new voters.

Aides to Mrs. Edelman say that her current political activities are unprecedented in the 31 years she has led the Children’s Defense Fund. One aid said that Mrs. Edelman aims to prove that faith based groups “aren’t just the province of the right wing.” Although yesterday’s sermon was blistering, Mrs. Edelman has criticized presidents before.

For years, she and her husband, Peter Edelman, were good friends of the Clintons. Senator Clinton once was the Children’s Defense Fund chairwoman.

But the couples’ friendship seemed to cool during Clinton’s years in office and she strongly criticized President Clinton over welfare reform, accusing the president of making “a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children.”

Although the No Child Left Behind law echoes her organization’s trademark mission statement, “Leave No Child Behind,” but Mrs. Edelman has directed steady criticism at the president’s policies on education and child poverty. She has accused his administration of failing to spend money to help working mothers pay for childcare.

“The Bush administration’s budget choices favor powerful corporate interests and the wealthiest taxpayers over children’s urgent needs,” she said in a 2002 statement.

Mrs. Edelman plans to spend the next month traveling around the country to deliver sermons focusing on the election. The Children’s Defense Fund’s Action Council also will contact 40,000 faith-based leaders to help turn out voters. The council’s activities will culminate at an interfaith service to be held on October 28 – days before the election – at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

“Let’s stand up for justice, let’s stand up for children,” Mrs. Edelman said yesterday. “This is a nation-defining time.”

In her sermon, she likened the policies of the administration to “weasels” that devour a crop.

“There are some big weasels eating away at America’s Constitution,” she said. Mrs. Edelman said that the administration spent billions “to try to deal with nonexistent weapons of mass destruction” but did little to address what she described as domestic “weapons of mass destruction” -problems like poverty and homeless. She also faulted the Bush administration for trying to substitute charity for the government action in areas such as supporting education and childcare.