Progressive morality thus reduces to progressive social engineering, which in the absence of an external basis for judgement becomes the ultimate authority. Since the culture war deals with what is ultimately authoritative it is most fundamentally a religious struggle. The explicit religious thought of the opposing sides illuminates their positions generally. Progressive religion looks to our present experience and needs, and treats creed and ritual as a symbolic articulations of those things and our practical response to them. To be true to what made our religious heritage great, progressives say, is to articulate in religious form the aspirations of men today, as saints and prophets did those of earlier times.
Religion thus becomes progressive politics poeticized.
In contrast, conservative religion identifies the content of our religious heritage as revelation with a fixed and determinate content. The understanding, expression, and application of that content may vary somewhat over time, and a new revelation may establish a new tradition, but within a tradition the content of revelation remains unchanged. The differing religious and moral understandings lead to differing understandings of freedom. Conservatives identify freedom with self-government in accordance with natural right. A free government is one that protects the self-government of natural institutions such as families and local communities and of voluntary associations such as businesses.