It seems that the large majority of Christians are conservative. What is it about free markets, low taxes, minimal welfare, lax gun control, and strong crime policies that appeals so strongly to Christians? I'm not saying that Christians should be liberal– I'm only asking why those opinions are so specifically attractive to Christians.
Actually, the issues you mention aren't even the main draw for that crowd.
Back in the late-70's/early-80's, there was a little thing called the "Moral Majority" (led by Jerry Falwell).
The oversaw the teaming up of Religious Fundamentalists, and the Republican Party.
It pretty much went like this:
Falwell to the GOP: "If you get on board with the following agenda, we'll win you the next 2-3 presidential elections"
...of course, the people who are strong supporters of the things you mentioned often have to find creative ways to try to link those things to some sort of Christian value in order to make the different aspects of the platform jive with each other.
At the time all of that was going on, Evangelicals made up 57% of the US population, so Jerry Falwell was able to deliver on his promise. However, that strategy doesn't play as well today as between then and now, that number has gone from 57% down to 37%...as people have opted to either go the route of being religiously unaffiliated, or switch to one of the non-fundamentalist denominations of Christianity.
There aren't many of us free-market, pro-gun, atheists out there. (and most of us who are in that bucket go Libertarian instead of Republican).
Their strategy lately has been to slowly transition away from the religious fundamentalist crowd, and slowly shift that focus to the anti-establishment/tea party crowd.
That's a big issue with the republican strategy over the last few decades...they keep attaching themselves to ideologies and movements that are either on the decline (like fundamentalism), or fads (like the tea party). This forces them to constantly have to try to re-boot and find new partnerships every 5-10 years.
...if I were a republican strategist, I would be focusing on the following ideologies
Pro-Free Market
Limited Government
Gun Rights
...focus on those long-term mainstream things that will appeal to a wider audience. Leave the religious zealousness to a 3rd party entity like the Constitution Party (who, ironically call themselves that even though half of their platform is in direct opposition to the constitution lol...but that's another topic and I digress).
That way, the republicans can pick up some new voters since they'll no longer be alienating half the population...plus, the people who would've only been voting for them for religious reasons are still going to fear-vote for them simply to oppose the democrats anyway...so it's not like they'll lose any votes as a result of detaching themselves from it.
