Thanks for making this point. I used to be a bit down on conservative Christians myself, just because of the way I was treated by a "cabal" of Pat Robertson supporters at precint conventions back in the 80's. However my outlook steadly changed as I observed conservative Christians transition the political/coalition building learning curve, to the point where someone like Ralph Read, coming from the "divisive" Christian Coalition of the 80's, is now one of the Pubbies most valued activists.
We secularists have plenty of opportunity to defend our conservative Christian brethren, I assure you. They should hear what is said behind their backs. The knee-jerk, spittle-flecked vituperation directed against them is sometimes unbelievable (maybe that's just because I live in a college town). I have never passed on a opportunity to strenuously confront hateful libs with their bigotry in this regard, and to remind them that they are attacking tens of millions of Americans with such comments (the bulk of them among the ordinary, hard-working, community oriented classes that pretend to have such "compassion" for).
And contrarily, I'm far less inclined to defend them than I was, say, 2 years ago, largely because of my involvement in crevo discussions. Christian creationists need to understand (and they don't seem to understand) that for scientists, this is a bedrock issue. Pushing a sectarian dogmatic view of origins into public schools and universities will alienate a large fraction of scientisits, many of whom are naturally conservative and would otherwise be inclined to support them on a score of other issues. For the well being of conservatism in general, this is really destructive.
I've come to realise that they don't have compassion for anyone that (they think) doesn't "need" them.