Young evangelicals' voting habits differ

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By Julia Duin

Young, white evangelicals are slightly less supportive of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain than their older counterparts but aren't wholeheartedly embracing the Democratic Party, according to two recent polls on how they vote.

And 71 percent of young first-time religious voters support Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, compared with the 53 percent who supported Sen. John Kerry four years ago.

These and other data on the voting habits of the young and religious were produced by Faith in Public Life, an organization founded four years ago by several Religious Left leaders. The survey polled 1,250 young adults from ages 18 to 34, from Aug. 29 to Sept. 19. The margin of error was three percentage points.

Their poll, released Wednesday, also showed significant shifts among young Catholics compared with four years ago. It said Mr. Obama is leading decisively among this group 55 percent to 40 percent. Catholics overall supported President Bush by 52 percent to 47 percent in 2004.

Sixty percent of the 18-to-34-year-old Catholics said abortion should be legal in all or most cases compared with 58 percent of their elders, the poll said, and 67 percent preferred bigger government, compared with 41 percent of older Catholics.

The results were the opposite among young, white evangelicals. Sixty-two percent said abortion is a deal breaker in their vote compared with 55 percent of older evangelicals. But less than half (44 percent) of young, white evangelicals saw same-sex marriage as an important voting issue.

The survey also found that 52 percent of young, white evangelicals favored same-sex marriage or civil unions.

"Younger Americans, including younger Americans of faith, are not the culture war generation," said Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research and lead analyst of the poll. "On issues from gay and lesbian rights to the role of government at home and around the world, young Catholics, mainline Protestants and evangelicals are bridging the divides that entrenched their elders and ushering in an era of consensus in which the common good trumps the clash of ideologies."

But among white evangelicals ages 18 to 34, fully 65 percent support the Arizona senator and just 29 percent back Mr. Obama. This is just slightly less than the 69-to-25 gap in Mr. McCain's favor among older evangelicals.

"Changing attitudes among younger voters don't always translate to changing votes at election time," said Amy Sullivan, Time magazine's national editor. "Although younger evangelicals are showing they are more concerned about these issues," such as the economy, terrorism and Iraq, "that is not translating into support for Barack Obama or membership in the Democratic Party. More of them are identifying themselves as independents."

Seventy percent of young evangelicals identified themselves as Republicans, 11 percent were independent and 19 percent were Democrats.

A second survey, conducted by PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, found similar figures. Although Mr. McCain maintains a solid winning margin among white evangelical Christians, white evangelicals ages 18 to 29 are slightly less supportive of his candidacy.

Evangelicals 30 and older support Mr. McCain 71 percent to 23 percent over Mr. Obama, and two-thirds (66 percent) have favorable impressions of the Arizona senator. But the Republican candidate's advantage among the 18-to-29 age group shrinks to 62 percent to 30 percent.

The PBS poll surveyed 1,400 adults, including an oversample of 400 evangelical Christians ages 18 to 29 from Sept. 4 to Sept. 21. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the total survey; 4.1 points for white evangelical Christians, and 5.5 percent for white evangelical Christians ages 18 to 29.

Younger white evangelicals gave Mr. Bush only a 39 percent favorable rating compared with 57 percent of those older than 30. Only 46 percent of Republican white evangelical women rated vice-presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin favorably, compared with 65 percent of older evangelical women.

PBS also found that a majority of young, white evangelical Christians (58 percent) support legal recognition of civil unions. Twenty-six percent support marriage for same-sex couples versus 9 percent of older, white evangelicals.

"People are more concerned about peace and prosperity than they are about same-sex marriage and abortion," Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay said. "We just don't see that same energy today [against same-sex marriage] that we saw in 2004."