Quote from sho-tim:
And you're concerned about slander and libel, are you. State sponsored religion? Really? How much have we pissed away on the unwinnable war on poverty since lbj? Can you say trillions?
Welfare sucks, and I am against it. However... at least a dollar given to the poor is dollar that STAYS IN OUR ECONOMY. A dollar spent on a bullet that is shot in Iraq is a dollar that leaves our economy, forever. This, combined with our trade deficit, is a Very Bad Thing. Welfare is still a Bad Thing, but it doesn't directly destroy the absolute fundamentals of our economy; on a national-level scope, redistribution of wealth isn't nearly as bad as the destruction of wealth.
State sponsored religion: yes.
"Faith-based initiatives" funnel millions of tax dollars into religious institutions. This is probably the religious right's greatest victory in recent years, because the Supreme Court has apparently decided that the Establishment Clause doesn't apply to executive orders. This is a strong implicit admission that the Faith-based Initiative crap DOES represent state-sponsored religion, but is permissible through a loophole that leaves the Executive branch immune. All hail Pope Bush II.
Furthermore, the Republican party attempted to put the ten commands in classrooms in the 90s, then they attempted to rebrand Creationism as "Intelligent Design" and put that in science classrooms only a few years ago (if you are one of the ones who think that Intelligent Design is a legitimate scientific theory, please review the prosecution's evidence. It was clearly proven that ID was a very sloppy cut-and-paste job that replaced "Creationism" with "Intelligent Design".) School vouchers are also state-sponsored religion... they are taking my tax dollars and funneling them directly into private religious institutions.
My point is this: non-religious conservatism seeks to reduce the government's size and influence. Giving away tax dollars to religious institutions clearly expands the government's power and influence over matters it shouldn't be concerned with, and also increases taxes (or debt) in the process.
Thus, state-sponsored religion is inherently liberal. Religious conservativism (in the political sense, not the moral sense) and fiscal conservativism are not compatible.