[annalex]

I am free

When you actually throw the bums out and keep it that way for more than a couple electoral cycles, I'll listen to how the Republic is supposed to stand without religion. So far, your score is zero.

You are not free. When the government forces you to pay for other people's abortions, just to pick one example, you perhaps do not mind, but free you are not.

[allmendream]

I see, you couldn't actually answer any of my objections, so you had to invent an argument I didn't make.

Who said we could stand without religion?

You are suggesting we cannot survive without religion ENFORCED.

Compulsory submission to religious authority is the most false and servile sort of conversion, and a debasement of faith.

And make no mistake, secular authority is backed by lethal force. Do you think mens deepest convictions should be subject to secular authority exercised by religious hierarchy at the point of a gun?

Really?

And you think that is small government conservatism?

Really?