Here's an issue that I've only recently identified, but which I think many problems have stemmed from. This, I think, gets to the root of alot of it. The problem is the difficulty of hermeneutics in America.
Look at it this way: The New Testament is a series of inspired letters written by people who were basically mocked, oppressed, thrown in jail, and persecuted for their faith. Paul writes some of the best books from a prison cell! These letters are written to churches in which the members are ostracized from their community and life would generally be a great deal easier if they simply renounced their faith. The members of these churches are a minority group.
Exegesis, in the strict sense, asks, "What did the text mean for the original audience?" Hermeneutics, in the strict sense, asks, "What does it mean for us?" It's where lessons and principles are brought from the specific ancient situation to bear on our current situation. Do you see the difficulty?
The reality is that our situation is radically different, in some ways the opposite of the churches Paul wrote to. In many contexts in the US, people are ostracized if they are NOT a professing Christian. I'm not sure how much I've ever suffered for my faith outside of making myself look awkward or "sounding" close-minded. It's actually quite easy to, at the least, bear the name of Christ in America.
So, what do letters to poor, suffering, minority (in worldview) churches have to do with American Christendom? I think increasingly more and more, we will be able to identify with sex-crazed Corinth, the persecuted church that Peter wrote to, and the common theme that runs through many of them of holding fast to a faith that makes you a true minority. I really think that my generation is seeing a shift to a more secular, "spiritual" America. More and more the letters will ring true as a call to hold fast under persecution, stay pure as everyone around gives themselves away, and to remain in the faith when many others abandon it for idols of all kinds.
