Social conservatism is a political ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. The accepted goals and ideologies related to preserving traditions and morality often varies from group to group within social conservatism. Thus, there are really no policies or positions that could be considered universal among social conservatives. There are however a number of general principles to which at least a majority of social conservatives adhere, such as support for puritanical morality and traditional family values, often based on a specific understanding of Abrahamist values, and opposition to sexual permissiveness.
As an application of these general principles, social conservatives in many countries generally: favor the pro-life position in opposing euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and abortion; oppose both eugenics (inheritable genetic modification) and human enhancement (transhumanism), while supporting bioconservatism; support abstinence-only education, school prayers, gun ownership, capital punishment, and define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, thus opposing same-sex marriage (some may even support a constitutional ban on gay marriage); disapprove of affirmative action; support the continued prohibition of recreational or medically non-beneficial drugs; oppose prostitution and brothels, polygamy, divorce, civil unions, gay adoption, same-sex parenting, federal funding for birth control, premarital sex, sodomy, incest, and non-marital sex; advocate traditional gender roles; and object to pornography and what they consider to be indecency and promiscuity. Some may also oppose the teaching of evolution in public schools, preferring creationism.
Read more about Social Conservatism: Overview, Social Conservatism and Other Ideological Views, Social Conservative Factions of Political Parties
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or conservatism:
“You may cut off the heads of every rich man now living—of every statesman—every literary, and every scientific authority, without in the least changing the social situation. Artists, of course, disappeared long ago as social forces. So did the church. Corporations are not elevators, but levellers, as I see them.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says, forsake not your calling, outrage no institution, use no violence, rend no bonds; the State is thy parent. Its virtue or manhood is wholly filial.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)