"Perhaps they are simply more conformist than anything else. Just like American patriotism these days: a mile wide and an inch deep.
I hope that these anecdotes are true. My gut feeling is that they are true, because I've been saying for a long time that the religious right is just a toothless old bogeyman. The problem is that the religious right uses polls that say that most Americans are "religious" to justify their campaigns. All signs point to the the fact that the views of the religious right have little support in the general population. For all their fire and brimstone about liberals and homosexuals, the people who hold these heretical views are the same people who say they are religous."
No quarrel here about the depth of religious feeling in the U.S. On the other hand, the anger and resentment that channel into "religious" fervor seem real enough to me. Maybe the religious right is an old bogeyman, but the self-righteousness and infinite sense of "imperial" entitlement expressed by many Americans will find a convenient outlet. Today the religious right; tomorrow???
Joanna