But he wasn't (isn't) a conservative, either. A considerable part of his earthly ministry was to point out the hypocrisy of both the liberals' accommodation of the culture (the Sadducees) and the conservatives' (the Pharisees) hypocritical insistence that the Law be maintained... at least in public, and as it applied for others.
The Episcopal Church (which was just pitched out of the worldwide Anglican Communion for all practical intents and purposes) clearly exhibits the danger these two groups can do to the Church. The liberal Episcopalians don't seem to stand for anything except niceness, and they hate people who aren't "nice". Throw out most of the teaching about how we are to live our lives, but be nice.
The conservatives take what's left, and turn it into an orgy of mammon. I remember as a teenager in a very conservative Episcopal church the plans that were made to lock the doors to the church on a Sunday morning because there were rumors that some blacks were going to try and break up our all-white God party. It's sobering to realize that as Jesus/God hung on that cross, he could see what we were doing in his name.
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