brer, thanks for your reply. Perhaps I've been misunderstood. My overall point is that "losing" the religious right will ruin the party, rather than revitalize it. This is because a great many of the "true conservatives" you speak of are also part of the religious right. Losing them would only give greater control to the so-called neo-cons. Furthermore, abandoning "social conservative" positions on homosexual marriage, sex education or abortion would lose millions who aren't especially religious.
It's true that the Religious Right hasn't been so good at getting the Republican Party to effectively address their more obvious agenda items (abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc). But what is often missed is the fact that the Religious Right has other, not so religious, goals, both as a movement and as individuals. Religious conservatives were among those pressuring Bush to appoint more conservative/libertarian justices to SCOTUS. And I think most conservatives and libertarians agree that he has at least made some major improvements to the Court. This has been a major goal of the RR for some time, seen in many of the mailings I've received, and heard in the RR talk shows to which I listen. I've even heard about in sermons, I think. The RR is also very vocal on education reforms, and in opposing McCain-Feingold, the Fairness Doctrine, and hate crime laws. These are areas where they are very close to conservatives and/or libertarians. The same would be true of educational vouchers, faith-based initiatives, trade with China (where Christians are persecuted), and other issues which divide the Religious Right, just as they divide Republicans in general.
In areas other than social or religious issues, the religious right also tend, in my judgment, to be just as "true conservative" as non-religious conservatives. Religious conservatives are just as likely to favor lower taxes, liberalized gun laws, border enforcement, etc. and to oppose the Kyoto treaty, the U.N., the welfare state, etc.
The point, again, is that the religious right are not some fringe group of fanatics. Most of them are mainstream conservatives with the standard conservative helping of libertarianism.