Wasn't Jesus a liberal?

I have never understood the religous right; the god-fearing Evangelists who just hate those long haired hippies. Not being particularly well versed in the New Testament (most of what I know of Jesus comes from Jesus Christ Superstar), it always seemed to me Jesus was a bit of a hippy. Down with usury, love thy brother, help the poor, etc. Those ideals seem completely antithetical to everything the religious right stands for. We won't even get into the obvious violation of the Ten Commandments by their worship of the idol which is the American Flag. So why are the vast bulk of church-goers Conservatives.

This article about an Evangelist preacher who speaks out against the use of the Evangelical pulpit in the service of conservative politics (read Republicans) is very interesting. There seems to be, in this country, a strange idea that the separation of church and state guaranteed in the 1st amendment is to protect government from religion. This is not true. If you go back and read statements from the founding fathers (as usual, too lazy to go finding sources but I'll try to update this post later), one would find this provision was meant to protect religion from government. There is no more corrupting force in religion than politics. Religion, in any pure form, cannot exist if tied too closely to worldly affairs.

I am very surprised there are not more church leaders trying to lead their flocks away from politics; conservative or liberal. Of course, it is not hard to see why so many do dip their toes in the waters political. Just follow the money trail. Not just direct funding from conservative polititians and think tanks, but money from conservative policies (vouchers for private religious schools, faith based initiatives, etc) and from their congregations. Attacking homosexuality and abortion sells well. Just see how many of the 'mega-churches' are liberal or moderate. Are there any?

I have said previously I do not understand religion whether conservative, liberal, moderate or even personal. I just have never had the need for all that. But I especially do not understand the whole God-fearing, gay-hating, wealth loving conservative evangelical church thing. From what little I have read of the scriptures, it just does not jive. Maybe I've just read the wrong parts.