In the early part of the noughties, Rev Jerry Falwell declared on national television that the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US were the result of "throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked."

"We have sinned against Almighty God, at the highest level of our government, we've stuck our finger in your eye," agreed Pat Robertson, who was hosting Falwell on his 700 Club programme.

The mockery of the hellfire-breathing duo was swift and unrelenting. Robertson and Falwell, brand names of the religious right, had become embarrassments to evangelicalism. They had outlived their usefulness, and were too old, musty, and unabashedly nutty for the new evangelical cool.

As their stars were fading, evangelicalism's emerging celebrities were employing savvy public relations specialists and rebranding themselves as your best friend, your entertainer, or your shrink – not the mouthpiece for a vengeful God. By the time Falwell died suddenly in 2007, a "new" kind of evangelical had seized the virtual pulpit of America's attention.

The re-branding was the product of evangelicalism's survival instinct in the face of the parody-ready Falwell prototype. One of America's leading evangelicals is now Rick Warren, whose mega-bestseller, The Purpose-Driven Life (2002), begins: "This is more than a book; it is a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey that will enable you to discover the answer to life's most important question: What on earth am I here for?"

The new evangelicals write books not about how God will smite you, but how God loves you and wants nothing more than your greatest personal, spiritual, and material fulfillment. The middle of the decade saw the publication of televangelist Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential (2004) and TD Jakes' Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits (2007). Joyce Meyer's Seven Things That Steal Your Joy: Overcoming the Obstacles to Your Happiness (2004) and Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone (2005) are equally at home at Bible study and coffee klatch, in the church bookstore and at Wal-Mart.

Even with the makeover, though, evangelicalism isn't all smiles and gratification. Warren recently gave in to pressure to denounce a proposed bill in Uganda that would make homosexuality punishable by death in certain circumstances; while condemning the notion of criminalising gay people he still maintained homosexuality was unbiblical. (The new evangelicals hope to "cure" homosexuals rather than consigning them to hell.) He still considers abortion a "Holocaust," even as he says he doesn't take sides in political debates.

The new evangelicalism presents itself as being about a different kind of politics; unlike Falwell and Robertson, the new evangelicals operate in the realm of hearts and minds, not political precincts.

As the decade closed, though, a group of prominent evangelicals partnered with Catholics in signing the Manhattan Declaration, which promised civil disobedience of laws that supposedly violated their religious freedom by granting rights to gay people or reproductive freedom to women. A call to revival of the culture wars, the declaration highlights how the evangelical rebranding hasn't stuck: as much as the movement tries to present itself as a path to personal fulfillment, it still aims to be a means of political dominance.