Hard Times For Protestant Churches?

I'm really interested in hearing thoughts regarding this issue.

If America is becoming more conservative (as I'm often told), then it seems to be a trend unrelated to trends at mainline Protestant churches. This is confusing to me, especially coming out of a presidential election where the victor's 'secret weapon' was his appeal with the Religious Right. Are there more RRs these days, or are they just more vocal?

Further, if these church declines truly exist, do you think that any of the churches mentioned below have considered that embracing (or holding on to) polarizing causes and/or platforms may be chasing potential members away? Are present members becoming more insular and less interested in welcoming and knowing those that are markedly different from themselves?

From The Christian Post:

Membership Declines in the United Methodist Church

The worship roll has been growing but membership has still been declining in the United Methodist Church. According to tentative statistics compiled by the denomination’s communications team, church membership declined by more than 71,000 in 2004 despite the addition of 15,000 United Methodists to the rolls... The decline in membership marks a longstanding trend within historic mainline Protestant churches. For the last three decades, millions flooded out of these mainline churches, including the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, the American Baptist Churches, and the United Church of Christ. On average, mainline churches have lost about 10 percent of their members every five years.

From The Charlotte Observer:

...Four out of the last five years, Southern Baptists have seen a decline in baptisms. A report declares the denomination is in the midst of an "evangelistic crisis" after years of stagnation. "This convention is going to expose where we are on the issue of reaching people," said the Rev. Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Are we in a position that can be corrected by connecting with the people, or have we slid into a position that may not be corrected?" ...In a report published this spring titled "A Resurgence Not Yet Realized: Evangelistic Effectiveness in the Southern Baptist Convention Since 1979," he wrote: "Simply stated, the Southern Baptist Convention is reaching no more people today than it did in 1950. We have concluded that evangelistically the denomination is on a path of slow but discernible deterioration." ...Rainer said many Southern Baptists aren't sharing their faith with others or inviting them to church. Almost a third of Southern Baptist churches reported no baptisms in 2003. In that same year, one person was baptized for every 43 members.

In other business expected to come up at the annual meeting: Southern Baptists are being urged to vote on resolutions at the convention that would denounce public schools for their "toxic spiritual nature" and recommend parents remove children from schools with gay student clubs. The resolution targeting gay clubs has drawn support from dozens of state affiliates of conservative groups such as Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America and the American Family Association.