It seems to be working. Guide-One has sold 60,000 FaithGuard policies since it launched the free add-on to its regular auto insurance coverage last year, many of them sold directly to parishioners at church.

Forget the image of the dusty old Christian book store. The business of selling to Christians has reached a whole new plane. And nothing, and everything, is sacred. Corporate America is finding religion -- in music, movies, radio stations, banks, biblical theme parks, anti-abortion mutual funds, health clubs, and even faith-based towns.

"If you can target zip codes, you can target Christians," remarked Alan Wolfe, a political science professor at Boston College and director of the Boisi Center on Religion and American Public Life.

Christian subdivisions are sprouting up across the country, and at least one entire Catholic town is rising out of a farm field near the Florida Everglades. Tom Monaghan, founder of and a devout Catholic, has pumped a chunk of his fortune into Ave Maria Town in Immokalee, Fla. The community will have 11,000 homes, its own schools (including a 5,000-student university) and, if Mr. Monaghan gets his way, porn-free television and drugstores that refuse to sell contraceptives.

For investors, there are now dozens of faith-based mutual funds to choose from, including ones that shun companies linked to abortion and pornography or that offer employee benefits to unwed partners.

Last week, Hollywood got into the act. Following in the footsteps of major publishers and recording labels, unveiled FoxFaith, a division devoted to producing as many as a dozen Christian films a year.

According to a sweeping new study by Baylor University -- American Piety in the 21st Century -- one-third of Americans, or 100 million people, now identify themselves as Evangelical Protestants. Half of all Americans go to church at least once a month, and 85 to 90 per cent say they believe in God.

The market for Christian products -- including books, movies and music -- is worth $7.5-billion (U.S.) a year and is growing much faster than overall retail sales, according to Packaged Facts. The market for services may be even larger. And the most fervent consumers are Evangelicals, 54 per cent of whom spend at least $50 a month on Christian products.

But it isn't just the scale of the market that has Madison Ave. saying Hail Mary. Prof. Wolfe said Evangelicals themselves are embracing the notion that they are a powerful subculture.

The emergence of a distinctly Christian market has paralleled a political and cultural coming out. In George W. Bush, Americans have their first born-again President. Mr. Bush, who often speaks in overtly religious language, told a group of conservatives earlier this month that the United States is in the midst a "Third Awakening" of religious fervour, not unlike the periods 1730-60 and 1800-1830.

At Holy Land, the quest for knowledge comes in the form of daily live re-enactments of the crucifixion, plus scale models of Jerusalem, Herod's Temple and Christ's tomb. The park was opened in 2001 to capitalize on the tens of millions of tourists who flock to nearby Disney World every year. Mr. Hayden said it's now becoming a destination in its own right for faith-based tour groups, drawing more than 200,000 visitors a year.

"You can live in a Christian community, send your kids to Christian schools, watch Christian movies and vacation at Christian resorts -- even get your hair cut in a Christian barber shop," Mr. Wolfe said.

Mr. Wallace of GuideOne Insurance insisted that's not the case with FaithGuard. Three-quarters of its customers may be regular churchgoers, but the policy is open to all.

This is cache, read story here