I've managed to stay out of this 'til now, but the time's come, I 'spect. If this were purely a political thread, I would've stayed out of it, but as Uncle Jaque and Beccy have explained, it's about much More.

Whenever I hear the phrase "separation of Church and State" I cringe, because, as in the discussion of the term "conservative", there is much confusion over this phrase and its application. I confess to being lazy about attributions, but haven't I heard/read that this phrase does not even exist in the Bill of Rights or Constitution? Yet it's quoted like, well, ...Scripture!

(A phrase that does exist in these documents is "freedom of religion", yet it's often [these days] interpreted to mean "freedom from religion".)

For the sake of clarity, I'm going to make a distinction here between "organized religion" and "personal, relational, faith in God"; and the following addresses the latter.

If it were possible to remove that part of me that embodies my personal faith in God and desire to serve Him [and that, through serving others], my personhood would be greatly diminished and devalued, as would be my usefulness. If you extrapolate this to include everyone who professes that deep personal faith and desire to serve, then the result would be a catastrophic loss to society. Yet Those who would restrict freedom of religion screaming "separation of Church and State" would do exactly that. And if they can succeed at so devaluing the Born, how much more so the utterly defenseless Unborn?   This is a perversion of social "righteousness". Does anyone believe that God is pleased when that which He created in His Image is destroyed and called "choice"?   Me neither.

And if pleasing God has any priority in my life, it cannot be relegated to an hour-long time slot on Sunday mornings; it must spill over into the "secular" hours and avenues, including that of government. Since my trust is in God, and not the government; I need less government, especially if the government has shown itself to be so grossly inefficient. As a steward of what God has provided me, I am to be conservative in my wants, so that I can be liberal in helping others… And if I combine my efforts to help others with other like-minded Believers, then those efforts can be multiplied in order to bypass inefficiency.

Problems erupt whenever Servanthood collides with Selfishness. It is difficult to fund or compensate for situations that arise out of selfishness, especially if the selfishness is coupled with ignorance. And if the government's primary institution for addressing ignorance is itself an agency of that government's inefficiency and selfishness [ie, "you're violating my rights","that's not in my contract", "you gotta know how to play the system", "they're going to do it anyway", "politically correct", etc.] the problems are perpetuated. Perhaps this is an aspect of "Ye shall know the Truth…"

I'm sure that there are those of you who have gotten to this point and thought, well, that's just what she believes. I want you to understand that neither my belief , or your disbelief, has any effect whatsoever on what IS. The world was never flat, just 'cause folks believed it to be. One of my favorite quotes, paraphrased from C. S. Lewis, says "Either Christ is exactly who He says He is, or He is a liar." This is where radical faith comes in- "lukewarm" faith is not faith.

So there's the label "radical", and the faith is"fundamental"to our personhood, and we trust that we're "right" [the stakes are pretty high here].   If this is what constitutes being a conservative, then I'm guilty. There is really no other option for me.

And I agree with Beccy- many of us privately mourn the media bytes that spew unkindness and callousness made by those who are commanded to show mercy- but again, please don't confuse what you hear, with what IS.   

All I have said here is intended to shed Light, not to anger or offend.