Are Evangelicals Truly Conservatives? Part 4

So how does Hart attempt to define conservatism? He does so by saying that while conservatism eludes simple definition, one is able to identify it by considering “the institutions and publications that have sustained political conservatism” (From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin, p. 14):

For some, being conservative is little more than support for small government and free markets. One challenge for this brand of conservatism is that it is usually synonymous with a large and centralized military-industrial complex that sustains the United States not as a diversely federated republic, but as a global superpower. For others, conservatism is a set of intuitions about human relations, the created order, and humanity’s place on earth from which proceed ideas about the scale of government, the rule of law, the inviolability of private property, and the importance of families, neighborhoods, and community organizations. Still others conceive of conservatism as an effort to maintain and defend so-called traditional morality; this morality, accordingly, is not merely old but timeless by virtue of being derived from transcendent truth. The source of these truths can be either the natural order or sacred writings, depending on whether these conservatives are Roman Catholic or Protestant.  From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin, pp. 14-15