But the fact is on the grand scale it's ALWAYS Conservatives who love to "talk" religious values trying every single trick in the books to cut or eliminate funding for ADC, food stamps, children's healthcare, head start, homeless shelters... and the list goes on & on & on.
Conservatives are not against helping poor people. What they are against is being ordered by the government to do so in a non-efficient way. You will find most conservatives will oppose government handing out food stamps forever, but will gladly give money to charities to take care of the less fortunate or buy a guy a meal on the street if he looks like he needs one. It is not the principle of helping people that we oppose, it is the manner that it is done.
And the Far Right radical religious wing is not only dangerous... they are unAmerican. They justify killing doctors and bombing women's clinics.
The other side of the argument here (and not to justify bombing abortion clinics because that is wrong) is that far left types justify the slaughter of millions of innocent babies. You can buy into that or not, but you can at least understand the other point of view.
And it's not hard to build up disdain for the snake oil salesmen Evangelists either. They con & bilk & drain bank accounts and often hurt people who can least afford it like the ill & elderly.
I agree, there are some (some) Evangelists who are out for nothing but money. However, as you say, people can choose to donate to them or not, so I have little sympathy if someone donates to them and could not afford it.
America is a land where freedom of choice and freedom both, of and from religion is so very important.
I will give you freedom of religion, but I do not see freedom of choice anywhere in the Constitution. All I do see is a court case where the Justices could not even agree where it could be interpreted from. In fact they even point out that "maybe" it comes from this Amendment.
We see the damage to peoples lives and especially women everyday with other fanatic fundamentalist religious groups like the Taliban and say... but extreme Christians could never act like that.
BULL SH1T!!!
All religions will have their bad seeds. It does no more to discredit the religion that a country having a bad seed does to discredit a country.
We're always just one step away from a David Koresh or a Jim Jones. And there are many more who want an American Theocracy.
There are also millions who are religious and have no desire to see either of those. I think your characterization is bias and misguided.
Well known Evangelists like the Reverend Hagee and Reverend Ron Parsley are far more dangerous to Americans individual liberties than even the overtly dangerous ones because they've already tasted power through their use of slick fear mongering pulpit telemarketing campaigns.
If people choose to follow them (and you argue we have freedom of choice here) why is that a bad thing? Not that I like the people, but it is not my place to tell someone they cannot listen to them.
As a father of 2 daughters I'm perfectly fine and in full support of letting each individual woman decide what goes on inside her own body. And no one has to choose an abortion.
But I do know that it definitely should not up to me... or you... or the government to decide.
If you believe that life begins at conception as millions do, then it is the place of the government to legislate away the idea that you can kill life because it is not born yet. After all, I would say it is codified in law pretty clearly that we have the right to life (by the government).
In the end it is ALWAYS totally up to the woman regardless. The only question is should we endanger women's lives by withholding safe sterile medical care.
Not this FATHER... HELL NO! [/COLOR]
The only way I would ever agree to that (and I never will because I find abortion ridiculous) is if the woman got pregnant herself. Other than that, I think it is a disgrace that the father has no say in the matter.