Just for the record - early on, well before the terms 'conservative' and 'liberal' came into common usage, it was the Democrat party that was ardently anti-socialist, and it was the Republican Party that was our nation's first 'progressives.' It was 'progressive' Republican Governor Hyram Johnson, who in the early 1900's (1914, if memory serves) who turned our political process upside down, and began the long march to where we find ourselves tonight.
My grandparents and their parents were ardent conservative and religious American Democrats. I was one too, until I found Democrats to be the greatest supporters of abortion. I chose to become a Republican, mainly because they had become the true conservatives - meanwhile socialists in the GOP gravitated to the Democrat party.
'Chuck' was little different. He too found that Democrats left him' - while Godly conservative folk had moved to the GOP. Hence, despite the fact that he knew that his career would be radically affected by the move, he became a Republican, saying, 'The Democrat party has come to disdain moral people.'
Heston stayed married to one woman until his death, 64 years.
And Heston actually marched with MLK, too. He was very anti-racist. As are almost ALL republicans. A conservative is someone who judges a person by their charcter, not color, and expects everyone to be given equal opportunities, not outcomes in life.