Yet too many secular liberals have moved from denouncing religious intolerance to embracing an irreligious intolerance of their own. Too often, liberals mock conservative Christians in ways that would outrage them if Jews, Muslims or others were the target. It is too often acceptable on liberal campuses to create a climate hostile and contemptuous of evangelicals — and that, too, is bigotry.

It also misunderstands faith. In my reporting around the world, I’ve been awed by evangelical and Catholic missionary doctors risking their lives to ease suffering. And remember that it was evangelical pressure that led President George W. Bush to adopt a massive program to fight AIDS around the world, saving millions of lives and turning the tide of the disease.

Many young evangelicals seem tired of the culture wars, wearied by politics, and less interested in hounding gay couples than in helping the homeless, the addicted, the incarcerated. Evangelicals have done sterling work fighting prison rape and combating sex trafficking, and if secular bleeding hearts and religious bleeding hearts can just work together, so much more will be accomplished to improve the human condition.

I hope that the crisis among evangelicals this election year creates an opportunity to build bridges across America’s “God Gulf.”