One rather surprising thing I've run into here are pentacostals who are strongly feminist, pro-choice, pro gay marriage, pro left wing econ policies, and otherwise resemble the secular liberals I meet in NYC, both in views on policy and personal life, but are born again pentacostal. Didn't know they existed.

Welcome to the Heartland, Marek!  "There are stranger things...."  Pentacostals are essentially estatic mystics who go for direct spiritual experience.  Thus, while most might formally think that they are literalist-fundamentalists, they give primacy to their direct experience and are therefore much more malleable.  Some of the Pentacostals were among the first in this region, including Arkansas and Oklahoma, to integrate their congregations.  Baptists are a different story.  A recent quote from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette will give you a bit of the flavor. The subject is ongoing managerial disfunction at the Arkansas Cosmetology Board:

Rep. Daryl Pace, R_Siloam Springs....Pace described the board as the "biggest bunch of not-getting-along people I've ever encountered except for my own Baptist Chruch."

Local humor, to boot.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."