Conservative = Christian?

Buz, I'm jumping in on your question but this isn't directed specifically at you. It is rather my statement on this thread.I know a student of C.A.Bowers ( C. A. Bowers, Online articles and books ) I couldn't find the quotes on his website but I will put forth another way of thinking about conservatism based on this student's years with Bowers.Conservatism is an approach to life that considers how a change will effect not just our lives but the lives of our children and their children for many generations. Change is understood as risky and not undertaken for immediate gain. There are Christian conservatives such as the Mennonite and Amish. Indigenous peoples are conservative. The native Americans lived sustainably on this continent for thousands of years.The imperialist who are mining the resources of this planet and destroying the environment and destroying the native peoples have usurped the name conservative. Bowers names them "market liberals". The European values of exploitation and individualism along with the claims of their superiority are not conservative values. The so called conservatives of say the Republican party (the Democratic party is scarcely better) are involved in the destruction of the environment and of the genuinely conservative indigenous cultures and traditions.Though is is possible to be conservative and Christian most Christians aren't conservative. The dominant western industrial culture of materialism and greed has become just too ingrained in society and many Christians now embrace it as if it is the very thing their God has desired for them.My view is that the only true conservatives are the dwindling numbers of indigenous peoples, a few other social groups along the lines of the Amish, and the handful of dominant culture radicals who see that the very basis of civilization is a reckless revolutionary disregard for the environment, the needs of people, and the consequences of their culture of materialism.

My concept of conservative includes conservation but goes way beyond it. I am making the point that the idea that in the USA republicans are conservative is misleading.Truly conservative societies exist. I'll mention Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, Message from the Heart of the World, and Derrick Jensen's book The Culture of Make Believe.Market liberals and their imperialistic exploitation of the planet is a problem not only because of the environmental degradation they are implementing, but the social degradation that results from an emphasis on individual rights of one lifetime vs. the need for a society to consider all it's members including children, grandchildren, and so on for generations. These market liberals are continuing to destroy genuine conservatives like the Kogi, Ladakh, indigenous peoples everywhere. They are driving Mennonite and Amish farmers off their lands. The market liberals worship of money and corporate wealth results in severe injustice to people. This is why I cringe to hear people like Bush, Reagan, Cheney, etc. called conservative. They are imperialists and market liberals for whom money and power justify anything and they make decisions based not on what is good for everyone including our unborn but on how much wealth it affords them in their present lifetime. This is not how conservatives operate and it is just wrong for them to get away with claiming to be conservative when they are the enemies of the real conservatives often driving them off their lands so they can exploit oil or mineral wealth or for some other selfish get rich while leaving a mess for others for who knows how many generations. These are not responsible or caring people. They are dangerous and their attempts to deceive us by calling themselves conservative needs to be exposed.Edited by lfen, : corrected typo "if" to "it"Edited by lfen, : corrected a noun by adding "s" as it should have been plural.