Obama and Liberals

If we lived in a world where people are exactly pigeon-holed as liberal or conservative, we might be able to characterize an Obama voter as a liberal, etc. But, as you correctly note, people fit on a spectrum not into a hole. So, a given person might be "liberal" on abortion, yet conservative on gay marriage. So, when it comes to a choice in the voting booth, a person might just vote on feelings rather than their traditional political alignment. In the last governor's race, I voted for a candidate I strongly respected rather than one I agreed with.
In the last Presidential election, I characterized Obama as a liberal rather than a progressive and came very close to voting for him. He made noises like a liberal, didn't he? I suggest further that many voters rejected the McCain / Palin ticket because they wanted change and Obama promised change.
I submit that the members of your church fit the modern mold of conservatives even though they voted for a the somewhat more liberal candidate. Their contribution is more characteristic of the Christian right. Can you just imagine Nancy Pelosi or Al Gore working in a soup kitchen? These folks in the church voted their conscience rather than their label.
The folks that insist on indoctrination as the price of food are not even on the liberal-conservative spectrum, they are just kooks.

Differentiating Liberals and Conservatives

The whole notion of how one might distinguish a conservative from a liberal has long fascinated me.  Nevertheless, I can’t say I am making much progress in deepening that ability.  I agree that Haidt’s model doesn’t ring true for me in many respects and that the moral foundation of people throughout the political spectrum (if, indeed, it is really a spectrum) is rather a constant.  Points of emphasis may be different, but we all care about being seen as good and we all want the wellbeing of all.  Loyalty, integrity, prudence, thrift are all values we all hold to, although some hold tighter than others and some are more able to be who they aspire to be better than others.

I disagree about your characterization of liberals.  All of the volunteers at the Pilgrim Community Soup Kitchen were strongly for Obama except for one African-American man who recently retired from a career working for the city (and St. Louis has always been Democrat).  They are liberals who volunteer at a local charity.  The conservative groups who give away prepared food require that the recipient hear a message designed to reform and redeem the benighted souls.

As for the role and size of government: I don’t know anyone who wants big government.  My liberal friends want smaller everything (Small is Beautiful) and that would include government if we could find a better way to provide the services we think should be universally available.  There are some things which just aren’t going to happen if government doesn't do them.  (The guy whose efforts ultimately resulted in the birth of the Internet—no, not Al Gore—worked for the Defense Department but took the idea to IBM and someone else and got turned down before he got government to pony up the development money.)

We both seem to be unclear about the differences between liberals and conservative, left and right, red and blue.  We can discern Republican and Democrat but that is because folks make their own choices.  What is the conservative position on climate change?  That seems to depend on which conservative you ask.  Certainly a conservative is not the same as a conservationist.

Liberals and Conservatives

The conservatives I hang out with do not fit the model. Actually, I find the moral foundation of liberals and conservatives to be much the same. The difference then becomes the methods of turning these values into action. The liberals I know volunteer for fund raising events for local charities while the conservatives volunteer at the local charities. Liberals believe that money and government action are the solutions to social issues while conservatives favor personal involvement.
Liberals then have a more visible footprint where social programs are concerned. They may well think conservatives are opposed to social causes because conservatives oppose large government programs supporting those causes. Conservatives channel resources directly to the causes they support while liberals channel resources through the government.
We could say, "What difference does it make whether funding comes directly from the community or through the government?" The distinction is that organizations dependent upon government for resources must design and continually redesign themselves to appeal to agencies. They generate monstrous piles of paperwork. Not only is there significant waste involved but the agency designs itself to work with more with government than with people. The closer I work with local agencies the more I see how the growth of government negatively impacts the ability of local agencies to provide services.

What Liberals and Conservatives care about

A recent article by Tom Jacobs of Miller-McCune reviews the work of Jonathan Haidt, a moral philosopher and psychologist at the University of Virginia.  He has a very interesting take on what distinguishes liberal and conservatives.  He suggests that there are five fundamental moral impulses:

Harm/care: It is wrong to hurt people; it is good to relieve suffering.

Fairness/reciprocity: Justice and fairness are good; people have certain rights that need to be upheld in social interactions.

In-group loyalty: People should be true to their group and be wary of threats from the outside. Allegiance, loyalty, and patriotism are virtues; betrayal is bad.

Authority/respect: People should respect social hierarchy; social order is necessary for human life.

Purity/sanctity: The body and certain aspects of life are sacred. Cleanliness and health, as well as their derivatives of chastity and piety, are all good. Pollution, contamination, and the associated character traits of lust and greed are all bad.

Put briefly, liberals focus on the first two and conservatives on the last three.  I recommend the review.