Across America/Lara Marlowe: You notice the difference as soon as you step off the plane: the near absence of ethnic minorities; the squeaky clean streets; women in modest dress and wholesome, well-behaved children.
It's like going back 40 years in time, to the set of Leave it to Beaver or The Donna Reed Show. For Colorado City, population 250,000, prides itself on being the most Christian city in America, "the Vatican of the Evangelicals".
According to one poll, a quarter of US Christians call themselves Evangelicals. What is the difference between Evangelicals and conventional Christians? "They have a higher vision of the Bible, of what Jesus did for them, and they're Born Again," says Pastor Ted Haggard, who founded the New Life Church in his basement 20 years ago. His "Mega-Church" in Colorado Springs now counts 11,000 followers.
Haggard also presides over the National Association of Evangelicals, which boasts 30 million registered members. The Southern Baptist Convention counts another 17 million, so at a minimum, Pastor Ted says, there are 47 million Evangelicals in America.
They will all vote for their fellow Born Again, George Bush, "because we need good, God-fearing people in government".
Colorado Springs is also a military town. Its five bases include the US Air Force Academy and Norad, the early warning system that tracks every aircraft over the US.
On the ground, Dr James Dobson's Focus on the Family occupies four huge neo-Italianate buildings - a whole zip code area - and employs 1,500 people. Focus publishes magazines encouraging teenagers to wait until marriage, broadcasts the Lord's word on the radio and lobbies Washington to ban abortion and same-sex marriage. "Focus on your own damn family," says a dissenting bumper sticker.
Clutching a microphone, singing and strutting the stage in front of a band, worship leader Ross Parsley begins one of three Sunday morning services at the New Life Church. It's a catchy mix of jazz, rock and hip-hop; if you didn't listen to the lyrics ("And I stand, I stand in awe of you, Holy God to whom all praise is due...") you'd think you were at the Point Depot.
New Lifers sing along to the music. Some jump up and down or dance, but most face the stage in a kind of trance, holding their arms towards the heavens, their eyes closed, swaying gently, high on God.
Pastor Ted devotes a quarter of his sermon to fund-raising. Between $200,000 and $300,000 is dropped in the offering plate every weekend, he later tells me. Evangelicals contribute 10 per cent of their income to the church. But there are always extras, like the 7,500 chairs needed for the new auditorium; Pastor Ted wants every member of every family, including children, to pay for two chairs at $50 each. And they need vacuum cleaners for the new structure. "We don't want that to come out of people's tithes and offerings, so the hospitality people came up with the T-shirt idea . . . If you could each buy 1,000 . . ."
Laughter in the auditorium.
A video shows the late Bill Bright, "who brought more people to Christ than anyone since the apostle Paul". The actor and film director Mel Gibson speaks in a video testimonial. New Lifers are invited to a fund-raising dinner to continue Bright's work, training "5 million pastors for 1 billion Christians". Pastor Ted's sermon, about obedience, wanders into present-day realities.
"It could be that they're gonna kill me some day in an Islamic country," he tells the packed auditorium. "I don't mind dying for Christ."
In his office after the service, a photograph of Pastor Ted with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, takes pride of place. "I am very concerned about the global jihad that radical Islam is launching," he tells me. "If they continue to push and democracies around the world unite to settle this issue, it's gonna be a sad day for fundamentalist Muslims. They'll kill 'em.
"We're right at the beginning of this thing," Haggard continues. "This global conflict of ideology will go on for the rest of our lifetime. One ideology says freedom; the other says Shari'a law."
Pastor Ted believes September 11th and the insurgency in Iraq happened "because they think we're infidels".
His church seems to believe Muslims are infidels. It sends missionaries around the world, including to Iraq. "We try to convert everybody to the cause of Christianity," Pastor Ted explains. "We are advocates for Christ."
New Lifers are also advocates for George Bush. "I don't think John Kerry would be a strong president. I'm discouraging people from having anything to do with him," says Haggard. It is not a question of being partisan, he insists. "Bill Clinton gave the National Evangelical Association everything we asked for. We had total access to the White House. Bill Clinton had a sex addiction, but he's Born Again and Bible-carrying like George Bush. Bush doesn't have a sex addiction."
John Kerry, Haggard says, "doesn't even pretend to be an Evangelical Christian, and it will lose him the election. When John Kerry tries to act religious, it's embarrassing. He mixes up verse numbers when he quotes the scriptures."
Keith Mondy (46), a newly retired air force major, and his wife Lin (45) are true believers. The couple were both raised as Baptists in Missouri, but prefer the more gentle, upbeat atmosphere of Pastor Ted's church, which they attend at least four times a week. Keith even passed up a promotion so they could stay in Colorado Springs.
After the Sunday service, the Mondys take me to a Mexican restaurant with three of their seven children. They join hands to say grace. Over tacos and enchiladas, they tell me about the work of Christian Missionary Alliance, Every Home for Christ, Compassion International and Home School (which keeps Christian children away from the "corrupting" influence of public schools) - all based in Colorado Springs.
Lin says she will vote for Bush "because Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein would be really thrilled to have someone besides Bush in office. If the most evil people you can think of want Bush to lose, then he must be doing something right."
There were numerous attacks on US embassies and facilities in the 1990s "and nothing was done", Keith says. "But since September 11, there's been no attacks on us. I feel more secure because we have shown the world we are not going to lie down and be walked on."
The Mondys feel America has lost touch with the faith of the Founding Fathers. They vote Republican because they know George Bush prays, and "because we feel the government should leave things up to the people and the economy", Keith says.
Now the couple are "waiting till we sense that God is saying it's time" to go abroad as missionaries.
Keith served with the UN observer group in the Sinai, and is studying Arabic with a Palestinian convert to New Life. They might live in the Arab world, which they compare to the dark ages.
At the risk of offending them, I ask the Mondys why they can't just leave people of other religions alone.
"We know the joy of being a Christian," Lin explains. "When we see people of other faiths, we don't see the joy. When they see our joy, they want to know."
Tomorrow: Justice has been a long time coming for blacks imprisoned on trumped-up drug charges in George Bush's home state. Lara Marlowe looks at race relations and the "war on drugs" in Tulia, Texas.