There are many other instances wherein misguided followers of Christ (not just C.Church) serve to undermine Conservatism:

* Creationism/Intelligent design folks help the liberals portray Christians as backward and anti-science
* Variety of WWJD folks interpreting the teachings of Christ to suit their political whims de jour
* Infighting between the various sects of Christianity (Morman vs. you name it, Catholics vs. Protestant, Jehova's witness vs. ...) serving to display the hypocracy of the church sects.

Most of these incidents occur when we try to take Christ's teachings out of their context and "enforce" them to others not in our Church.

I think we will have much more success by just trying to get individuals into our Church first and change their behavior once they are in the embrace of the Christian family.

I see myself to be a Christian conservative as you do. Even coming from the similar starting point, I don't agree that the teachings of the current Catholic Church as compatible with the Conservatism in many of its distictions.

For example, the C.Church teaches charity as a virtue. I (and I would conjecture other conservatives) only see charity as a virtue when practiced for those who _cannot_ help themselves. C. Church and followers have extended the definition to charity to reach across even to those who _will_ not help themselves. This only fosters more such behaviors. Indeed for those circumstances, charity is actually a sin committed against our fellow man.

Another is in C.Church's insistence on celibacy for its priests and nuns. This not only violates the very first commandment of God (be fruitful and multiply), it also is a magnet for attracting deviants to the post of the most sensitive nature.