I think it actually started back in the 50s. The second red scare. The time when "under god" was added to the pledge.

This, it's been going on for decades. Growing up in a hick town everyone literally believed they were outnumbered and under attack by "teh gheys" or some crap. They literally believed the devil was winning and judgment day was nigh, they still do in fact. 9/11 was when most Christians got to express their intolerance of other religions and atheists more freely, and politicians found themselves obligated to the votes these people cast a bit more.

And adding "In God we trust" to your currency. We've got Darwin on ours. Pwnt.
You have made my impression of southern states look sane by comparison to the reality you describe. I didn't see that one coming...

You get Vestin's Star of Approval :] ! That's one of the more awesome ways to approach a debate.

You might want to do some research as that's a pretty absurd characterization. Back alley abortions are extremely dangerous and can easily lead to death or serious injury to the mother. Typically these will use coat hangers or toxic chemicals to induce a still birth. Sometimes the mother will be beaten. I know that there are some natural herbs found around here that were historically used to induce abortion.

But, the point is that these are for the most part things which one could reasonably consider to be reckless endangerment. They're far more dangerous that the medical options that would otherwise be used.

It's ultimately really insulting to try and pass this off as some sort of absurd grab at liberty when it's really just a matter of common sense that people shouldn't be having such procedures done by people who have no relevant training.
It's been like that for a lot longer than that. Definitely by the time of the Red Scare, but I think it was even earlier, I can't recall when precisely it was that we decided that it was OK to put "in god we trust" on our money. I think that was probably about the start of it.

But, the country has always had very strong religious convictions, it's just that for much of that time, it wasn't so focused on evil.

Don't everyone forget that we put "under god" in the pledge of allegiance back in the day as well (50s I think). Most people think it's always been there and are terribly offended at the idea of thumbing our noses at the founding fathers by changing it, lol.

Pathetic. That is what is wrong with our country. Pro-life can suck my ass.

The problem is that religion is a disease which is extremely catchy and most of our children are infected with it at birth.

So what? It's the same situation like youd try to punish people who tried to comit suicide. It' their problem, leave them ALONE.

Hurrdurr.

I appreciate that the US has been established as a Christian-centric country for some considerable time now (at least 'considerable' given the general lack of US history for it to be a portion of). But I was referring to what I perceived as an marked increase in fanaticism in the US following 9/11.

Possibly, I think it's mostly just more obvious since 9/11. Because of the perceived threat by Islam, they're more vocal about it, but even before that it was there. It used to be more obvious with the rampant lynchings of Jewish people in the South and gay men pretty much everywhere.

It's just that it's much better documented these days, and crackpots like the doomsday grandpa from two months back get near instant worldwide attention because it's such crap that generates click revenue on webpages.

The average % of self-proclaimed christians is actually down the last 50 years.

That's true. That's probably also why Christianity in the US (if not elsewhere) seems more extremist now. The saner Christians have had to face up to the fact that the Bible's teachings and reality are incompatible. So ever increasingly the nutters are now running the show.