It interests me that you can assume that a liberal basing her opinions upon her personal experiences is either confused or incorrect, but that a conservative can condemn a whole political outlook, or profession (avert your eyes while I say it: academic), and be perfectly correct.

The nice conservative lady is a staunch Republican, has anti-abortion bumper stickers on her car, goes to an evangelical Christian church whose minister appeared at public meetings to condemn abstinence-based sex education containing birth control information at the 11th grade level, thinks censorship is OK, wore fashion-camo and red white and blue outfits during the official hostilities in Iraq, and is married to a man who won't let her (you heard me) work more than 15 hours a week. She's also a knock-out and rides a motorcycle. I've known her for years: Story Time, PTO, soccer, that kind of thing. I like her, too, but I don't appreciate the spin of her politics. So when she brings it up, I listen until she finishes her sentence, and then I change the subject, having heard it many times before. (Working in a business that depends upon donations, and being a very public face of that business, I can't afford to speak up too often about my opinions. I save my political nickels and spend them all when it becomes very important. Welcome to Small-Town America.)

The church -- well, I know the church. In fact, I know both of the churches. Neither one is Episcopal or Unitarian Universalist. The maintenance man's church is, in fact, as conservative, religiously and politically, as the one he works for. (They still haven't forgiven me for saying in public that it's stupid to forbid high school faculty -- including psychologists and guidance counsellors -- to speak to students about homosexuality as if it existed.) The congregation of the church he works for dresses much better, though, and the cars in the parking lots speak for themselves. Their pastor's wife doesn't have to work in the checkout at the supermarket to supplement the family income, either, the way his pastor's wife does. [sarc] God blesses through the bestowal of worldly goods, and punishes iniquity through the withholding thereof. Where God has denied, who are His chosen people to contradict him? [/sarc] Predestination and the anointing of the Elect still live in America's religious imagination.

The carpenter's kid didn't have lunch with the High Priests, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He ate with the tax collectors, the fishermen and the harlots. Make what you will of it. I make it out as a hint that we are all equal in dignity and need to be treated as such.

That your church doesn't discuss politics should make you grateful. Make no mistake: this may very well be because there are a lot of Democrats in the congregation. Some of them may be in leadership positions in your congregation. Some of them may even be members of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Regards--
Mary Anne