As a liberal and, more or less, secular person, I feel no particular affection for the organized religious right or for conservative Christian theology (these not being identical despite some modern overlap.) But perhaps we can exert some influence within the more-or-less Christian world through some creative thinking and planning, especially if people like me (including me) get smarter about how to approach communities where liberals have not had as much success over the years. Commentary from evangelical Christian Kossacks especially welcome but everyone please feel free to participate, including by pointing out defects and errors if any below.
I don't expect to be able to change Christian theology or fundamental moral teachings and don't want to. If my Christian neighbor thinks I am going to hell because I don't worship where and whom he worships, that neither picks my pocket not breaks my leg, in the words of Thomas Jefferson.
But we do encounter organized political opposition from the right-wing of Christendom; the Republican party - once the home of better men like Ike Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater and even Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan (yes, I said it) - is now in a joint venture with evangelical demagogues, with an eye towards a de facto merger.
At the local level, however, I think that we can do a lot to meet this community where it lives and at least blunt some of its demonization of liberal and secular people. I propose the following not as a program but as food for thought towards better ideas.
1) Liberal Money. When we buy goods and services or leave tips in restaurants generally, but especially in small towns, if we stamp our money with a rubber stamp marked "Liberal Money" we force the owner at the end of the day while running counts on the till to recognize that the liberals whom his minister may vilify are helping to pay his mortgage and the braces for his children. This is also effective in getting a more skeptical eye out of local chambers of commerce, whose instincts often lean Republican, to demand a more moderate, respectful tone. We need not spend a dollar differently, just stamp our money. (In the age of the debit card, I will leave it to others to determine how to work that one.)
It also has a side benefit of getting people to associate a short-term good feeling from the word "cash" with the vilified word "liberal," improving the latter.
2) Good Liberal Neighbors. Liberals are often charitable, though by percentage of per capita income many conservatives are more so, esp. when you count in church tithes. Nonetheless, imagine the effect on the image of liberals if 12 volunteers showed up at the local soup kitchen, church-run or not, wearing shirts that said "Good Liberal Neighbor" or "Your Liberal Neighbor." Imagine if liberal charitable groups and donors organized as liberals, helping everybody, including the right-winger whose house just sadly burned down.
3) Unitarian outreach. The closest liberal equivalent to the religious right is the Unitarian Universalist Association. There are probably under a half million Unitarians in whole country counting non-member spouses; twice as many Baptists live in Georgia alone. Yet the existence of Unitarians and (very liberal) Unitarian theology is a threat to theology of evangelical Christianity, as evidenced by the surprisingly frequent insults against the tiny Unitarian movement by some evangelical Christians. While theological disputes are not my own concern, the groups are diametrically opposed politically. In Maryland's local 18th District, for example, an openly gay man with child and live-in partner is about to walk unopposed from the Maryland House of Delegates into the Maryland Senate. Delegate Richard Madaleno, a former Social Justice chair at the very prominent Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, will become Senator Madaleno, and no Democrat or Republican dares challenge him.
I would encourage Unitarian Kossacks to offer their insights here about how politically liberal Unitarians (NOT the UUA or local churches, of course, under applicable tax laws) can provide a meaningful witness to people who do not necessarily share their theological premises, particularly in the challenging red regions south of Virginia's Rappahannock River.
4) Evangelical liberals. Kossacks whose heritage and/or personal faith are evangelical in orientation may have a great deal to contribute. While I (along with many other Kossacks, according to one Kossack poll some time ago) am basically non-Christian in my outlook, you should never feel obliged to apologize for a fraction of a percentage point about your religion and you should absolutely feel at total liberty tell me to my face if I say something offensive to your faith. While taking a well-formed rebuke is never fun, it is often instructive and leads to growth.
Many Kossacks and other liberals are liberal BECAUSE of their faith and that faith is sometimes theologically quite conservative. I think for example of the late Philip Berrigan and his wife Elizabeth McAllister, who were an amn anti-war activist couple who spent a large part of their adult lives together in jail, facing trial or planning the next anti-war actions. Yet in a Youth and Militarism conference I attended in the late 1980s, Ms. McAllister was outspokenly pro-life to the consternation of some in attendance; as consistent and orthodox Catholics, they would be expected to hold this view. Secular liberals like me may have a lot to learn from you and you should feel free to take the initiative to teach me/us on how to be smarter or at least less stupid.
5) Cultural issues and differences. The stereotype is that liberals sip lattes and evangelical Christians watch NASCAR. The reality is that there are a large number of cultural differences between blue and red America. While no one should have to give up their culture (in my view, anyway), familiarity with the culture of evangelical Christianity can help establish rapport. For example, "witness" is an intransitive verb in the evangelical Christian world, meaning to assert or state one's own religious beliefs; to secular minded English speakers, the verb is transitive and denotes observation of external conduct or events. Non-Christians "witness" with their eyes and ears, but evangelical Christians witness with their mouths. Another are the terms "tithe" and "give offering," the former being often mandatory and the latter being voluntary contributions. Ditto with "saved", "The Great Commission" and other terms These terms are less often used in the same way in the Catholic or Orthodox Christian worlds, where other religious terms derived from other languages may predominate. Significant differences may apply among different ethnic groups as well - not just the historical American divide of black-white but also among Korean-American evangelical churches and many others whose numbers and cultural variety have increased in recent years.
Evangelical Christian friends of mine have decried so-called "Christianese" to me, worrying that it alienates non-Christians from the faith. My only problem with it is when either non-Christians or Christians fail to understand that it is a peculiar dialect of English and treat it accordingly. Learning this language and using it if, as and when appropriate allows one fluency in another culture, which aids general communication whether you are discussing politics or plant food.
It is difficult to characterize the evangelical Christian world culturally beyond some common terminology for religious concepts. There are evangelical Christians in Biloxi Mississippi, but also in Maine and Anchorage as well. Income and education levels vary widely, both being somewhat lower in the rural South but not so strongly so as commonly stereotyped. Learning how local churches in a local community is challenging work, but if you believe in the 50-state strategy and believe in winning, the effort cannot be ducked. Some churches are in tight local networks, some not. Congregational polity - is the church run and its leadership selected by a bishop in another city (Episcopal and others), a self-perpetuating committee of elders (Presbyterian), by fiat of the current minister (some Pentecostals) or by the congregation at large (most Baptists, Unitarians)? This matters a great deal. The Republicans made the effort, made it over a period of decades.
Now may be the time to strike. Karl Rove learned to do this sort of thing, but Republicans are not listening to him so much now. Maybe some folks who have listened to us too much for a while might just. I hope that Kossack that have better ideas than these will put them here. Thanks.