I've Been Accused of being Liberal. Okay I'm laying my cards on the table

As a moral conservative and a social moderate, I've been accused of being both a caveman and a liberal. I strive to maintain consistency between Church teachings and my views on political issues. Among friends and acquaintances, I have found it is in vogue is to be a “Cafeteria Catholic” and pick and choose which tenets of the Faith to follow. My experience is that it’s much more difficult to hold a constancy of belief and purpose than to vacillate or flip-flop when popular opinion is in opposition to your core beliefs and values.
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I believe the underpinnings of our judiciary and legislation is Morality (I’m defining morality loosely as the interpretation between right and wrong and not a religious code). Since we believe our morality is correct, we want those beliefs to be reflected in our Laws and in the Courts rulings.

So with regard to abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research, and the Institution of Family, I support the Church’s position on these issues and that’s reflected in my politics. How people can go to Church on Sundays and support candidates who lack or have moral beliefs in opposition to that of their Church is beyond me. Many of my friends support candidates who they believe will put more money in their pocket and don’t care where they stand on moral issues (but I believe that’s a large number of Americans—exhibit "A" is the tolerance for all the pork barrel spending).
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With regard to issues of gun control, I believe only wimps need handguns. I’ve argued with many a friend that any civilian carrying a concealed hand gun should be required to carry it in a pink purse. However, civilians should be allowed to own hunting rifles. Gun racks in the back of a pickup are okay. If you must carry a handgun then carry it as a side arm…wild, wild, west style or in a pink purse.

With regard to medicine…injecting free enterprise in this realm is extremely questionable. I think back to field maneuvers with the Guard and a First Sergeant who asked if anyone had any medicine for a headache. Being prior military I stocked nearly every pharmaceutical I could carry. I had Advil and gave him a couple of pills. He asked me how much he owed me. I told him nothing…it was not my place to profit from his illness. He responded, “But how about the folks that sold you those pills. They made a profit.” It got me to thinking that profiting from someone else’s misery is Free Enterprise, but that doesn’t make it right.

With regard to illegal immigration…the reality is you can’t pay most American enough money to work in the Fields picking oranges and tomatoes. I’ve debated this topic with dozens of people and every person I ever debate when I ask if they would actually do the work they always respond, “No, but I’m sure someone else would.” Even when you expand the question to “Do you know anyone who would do that work?” the answer is always the same “No, but I’m sure someone would.” The reality is if produce doubled, tripled or quadrupled in price there would be Americans tearing down the fence between the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> and the <ST1:pU.S.
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I believe my charge is to make the world a better place for my children and their children and their children… If politics is a means to that end then so be it.