sorry, i’m just getting back to this thread. as you say, for me what you term “social” conservatism is just conservatism. it is the conservatism of most of the founders (really arguably all of them including franklin, jefferson and odd balls like paine).
for me, a belief in God as soverign (ala the founders) defines the extreme “right-wing” or conservatism. everyone else, from my point of view as a believer—including your “neo-cons” or “libertarians” are just varing degrees to the left of true conservatism.
in otherwords, my political theory uses the dimension of belief in God (rightmost) to non-belief in God (athiesm) leftmost.
I don’t mean to butt in, but that’s an interesting approach, and it’s not terribly different from my own in some ways, though I might reach some different conclusions. A question: what do you see as the state’s role as it relates to your belief in God? The reason I ask is that I see the growth of the state happening at the same time as the degradation of our culture, and I can’t help but think the two are related. As we drift from God as a society, does government fill the void, or did government growth have a role in causing the drift in the first place? Probably too late at night to be pondering such.
Ah, so then we start the debate of who’s God is greater, which theology is the ‘true’ Word of God? The self-righteous indignation of all others as too lowly to comprehend or know what’s best?
I’m sorry, but the Founders were as fearful of a Theocracy as they were of a Monarchy; hence the 1st Amendment, 9th and 10th.