My troubling America

My view as a socially liberal 34 year old American is troubling at best. In recent years I have listened and watched debate after debate, conversation after conversation to people and organizations make a case for not helping people. Statements like 'why should I give my hard earned money to lazy people who don't want to work' and 'welfare only motivates people not to work'. But even more troublesome to me is the growing anger over religious freedom. In an ironic way I think the two are related. Let me recap a recent conversation I had with a conservative, I think it will illustrate my point very well.

I receive an email claiming Obama refused any religious decorations on the White House Christmas tree. In the email it goes from the ornament thing (the entire thing is proved incorrect at snopes.com) and makes the huge leap that Obama is destroying Christianity in America and want to make it godless. 

I tell the person who sent it to me that the email is false and the guidelines have not changed as to Christmas ornaments on the Christmas tree in the White House.

The conversation then shifted to the idea that the larger point that over the last decade there is has been a war on religion that has resulted in the rise in teen suicide.

Offered as proof wikipedia does state that the teen suicide rate has risen in the last decade. It however does
not state the reason is erosion of religion in the US.

Ok, so let's recap what just happened there. A concocted email is sent out and circulated making false claims about Obama and Christmas. Conservatives are OUTRAGED. The email is proven to be false. Here is where the truth rears it's ugly head. They really do not care about Obama per say. There point is a larger one and part of an agenda. They want Christianity shoved down our throats. So they attribute every social ill to things like prayer being taken out of schools and people suing to have government funded nativity scenes taken off the public square.

What they really want is America to be declared a Christian nation and for Christians to be elevated above everyone else and dictate laws and social policy. I think this flies directly in the face of what out founding fathers wanted. Conservatives are all about majority rule, mostly because they are the majority. I think it would be a different story if they were not. This troubles me greatly, especially for the future that my children would have to live in, if in fact I have children someday.