We think the same of you.
You claim that you want everyone to live according to his/her own conscience. But you don't really. You only believe those who fit within your definition of the world should be allowed to live according to their conscience.
Your examples:
Abortion: The child does not even get to live. Your side always wants me to fund abortion in one way or another -- violating my conscience. Your side wants health workers to be FORCED to participate in abortions or lose their jobs (see NY in particular).
Gay sex: You sell the idea what it is just about what people do privately in their own bedrooms. But is it? Ever since the Supreme Court made sodomy a constitutional right, the push has been to force public approval of these private relationships and to make taxpayers reward them. Your side doesn't think the Boy Scouts should get to choose who they do and do not want as scout leaders based on their own ideas of morality. Heck, you guys BOOED the Boy Scouts at your 2000 convention. You have had them in court non-stop, and you've pushed them out of public facilities. You have forced Big Brothers and Big Sisters to have gay mentors, which usually means all the state sponsored homeless kids get gay mentors. You want the kids that we collectively supervise via the gov't to live in homes with situations I would define as child abuse. You want our children to be taught in gov't schools that being gay is exactly the same as being straight. Etc., etc., etc.
Church State: You say you want these two institutions separate yet you back all sorts of laws and court decisions that serve as laws restricting the free expression of religion. No one wants the law to mandate religious convictions. The law addresses behavior only. But your idea of law seems to be complete licentiousness on social issues and total socialism on fiscal issues. You want the individual -- as long as he fits into your mold -- to be free to do anything at all. Morality is a meaningless term to you. Yet, when the inevitable consequences of those actions come, you want the government to force the rest of us to pay for it OR GO TO JAIL.
For example, you say what two people do in the privacy of their own bedroom is none of my business. But if they emerge from that bedroom with the AIDS virus then all of a sudden you think it is my busness.
I just think you are fooling yourself about your own motives. Societies function with shared norms and values. Some are mutually exclusive. Your side just wants to replace the long held values that we in western civilization have inherited from our ancestors, with your own "progressive values." But it is no more all inclusive than any social structure.
Something along these lines came up on a thread earlier today.
Why is it that the homosexual lobby is always kvetching about the "privacy of their bedrooms" when they, themselves, are putting their beds smack dab in the middle of the public square? I do not go door to door throughout my neighborhood, asking others about their sexuality. I don't need to. Between the rainbow flags and the Gay Pride bumper stickers, homosexuals are freely giving up their right to privacy.