As an ardent student of the right-wing media machine, I am always amazed at how a gentle message of humility, peace, and salvation has been co-opted so often throughout history by the rich and powerful in favor of war and much to the loss of the weak and powerless.
I recently read the "Left Behind" books (yes, all 12 of them) and found some interesting answers there.
The "Left Behind" books are a nice encapsulation of the millenial radical evangelical mindset being foisted on Americans nationwide. In the books, you clearly get a worldview in which Californians (and therefore liberals) are all waco and wrong, any Christian who will not take a literal interpretation of ALL of the bible is evil, religious tolerance is a vehicle of the anti-christ, and the United Nations is also a vehicle of the anti-christ.
Each of these points directs a reader to the same emotional and mental endpoint: anyone who disagrees is evil and we, the righteous, are the defenders of Faith and Truth.
If you listen to the language of Libaugh, Hannity, Frist, O'Rielly, and Bush this same message of hyper-protectivity of OUR TRUTH is evident in every word, and every word is centrally coordinated through intensively radical groups and media outlets. click here for a great evaluation of the right-wing's successful media and political coup
All of these messengers have been very successful in creating a culture of ignorance, anger, bigotry and revenge? But those who listen are so deeply committed to the cause that it transcends reason. The "Crusaders" take it as a badge of salvation to ignore facts in favor of faith. They go so far as to have created the myth of the "downtrodden christian" to keep the re at a fever pitch. Click here for a great frame of the abused christian myth.
With wingers so devoted to their cause beyond any and all reason, what seems obvious to others as an abuse of religious faith for political purposes goes on as an extention of power. As much, in my opinion, to the detriment of American Christianity as to the obvious detriment American Democracy.
So the question then becomes... How can you save the "saved"?