I think that you've both missed the point. Jesus spoke to his disciples telling them to give to the poor. He did NOT say tax your rich neighbors and make them give to the poor. He laid the burden of charity squarely on the shoulders of the individual. From my experience, the conservative church has done and excellent job of giving charitably, see http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2007/June/200706261522251CJsamohT0.8012354.html
From my point of view, religious conservative's objections to socialism is three pronged.
1. Since charitable giving is an individual responsibility, foisting that responsibility off onto the government is a cop out and an abdication of civic duty.
2. All government agencies have bureaucratic overhead. The government would need more money to provide as much services as a private charity.
3. Then there's the usual conservative stance against expanding government and the fact that the constitution was written to explicitly define the parameters of government power and nowhere does it say anything about welfare.
Now obviously there are a good deal more nuances to the conservative stance, but I think the above points do a nice job of outlining the basics.
Now that I'm done being nice, you guys need to get out a bit a more and read something besides Noam Chomsky. You can't possibly consider yourself an educated citizen unless you at least have at least a vague understanding of the other side of the issue. The culture of individual charity is one of the brightest facets of American culture. It deserves your educated opinion.
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