US Elections:Born-again Christians have little enthusiasm for either of the presidential candidates, writes Andrew Ward.
AS EVANGELICAL Christians gathered for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis last week, veteran pastors said they had never known such excitement about a presidential election.
Unfortunately for John McCain and Barack Obama, they were talking about the contest between six rival candidates to become president of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest evangelical group, with 16 million members.
When conversation turned to the US presidential election, the mood was gloomier. Four years after helping deliver a second term for George W Bush, evangelical voters are struggling to summon enthusiasm for the 2008 race. "We feel like we're in trouble," said Raymond James, pastor of a Baptist church in Tampa, Florida. "There isn't a candidate that represents our values."
A quarter of US voters consider themselves evangelical, or "born again", Christian, and in 2004 almost 80 per cent supported Mr Bush. But they failed to unify around a candidate in this year's Republican primaries, allowing McCain to win the nomination with backing from moderates and independents.
The Arizona senator is viewed with deep suspicion by many evangelicals because of his mixed record on social issues, including support for stem-cell research. When running against Bush in the 2000 primaries, he famously described evangelical leaders, such as Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, as "agents of intolerance".
McCain has tried to repair relations by highlighting his "pro-life" voting record, strengthening his opposition to gay marriage and by promising to appoint conservative federal judges. But most evangelicals remain unconvinced. "Right or wrongly, we viewed Bush as one of our own," said Michael Griffith, a Baptist pastor from Arkansas. "We don't feel the same way about McCain."
Whereas Bush won in 2004 by energising the conservative base, McCain is more inclined to reach out to swing voters. He is gambling on his ability to fight the election on centre ground without losing the evangelical voters who form the bedrock of Republican support. Based on dozens of interviews at the Southern Baptist Convention conference, the strategy appears to have a chance of working. While dissatisfaction with McCain was universal, almost everyone said they would vote for him to stop Obama.
Richard Land, head of the group's ethics and religious liberties commission, said evangelicals were horrified by Obama's "extremely" pro-choice record. "I'm hearing people say, 'McCain was not my first or second or even third choice. But I'd rather vote for a third-rate fireman than a first rate arsonist on the issue I care about.'"
Winning evangelical votes, however, is only half the battle. In 2004, evangelicals played a crucial role in mobilising voters for Bush. Many from solidly Republican states took holidays to volunteer in swing states such as Ohio and Florida. It is hard to imagine them doing the same for McCain. "Even if most evangelicals vote for him, they are not going to work very hard to bring other people along," said Cal Jillson, political scientist at Southern Methodist University.
Pastors at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting said McCain's choice of running mate would be crucial in determining the level of enthusiasm. A social conservative, such as Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher, would help build trust. A moderate choice, such as Florida governor Charlie Crist, in contrast, could spark rebellion.
While McCain is struggling to energise evangelicals, there is one subject that could yet fire them up. California's supreme court last month struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, freeing homosexuals to marry. Republicans hope the ruling will rally evangelical voters just as a similar decision by the Massachusetts supreme court did in 2004.
But it is far from clear whether gay marriage will prove as potent an issue this year. Evangelicals have a lower average income than mainstream Christians, making them particularly sensitive to the economic downturn. A recent opinion poll in the battleground state of Ohio found that 42 per cent of white evangelicals ranked jobs and the economy as the most important election issue, with just 14 per cent putting abortion and gay marriage top.
According to a national poll published last week by Calvin College in Michigan, 24 per cent of evangelicals plan to vote Democrat in November, up from 19 per cent in 2004. It is not only economic forces that are weakening the Republican stranglehold.
Many younger evangelicals have grown frustrated by the movement's narrow focus on abortion and gay marriage and are pushing to broaden the agenda to include more left-leaning issues such as poverty and climate change.
"Young evangelicals are recognising that Jesus would care more about the 30,000 children who die every day because of hunger and disease than about gay marriage," says Jim Wallis, a prominent moderate evangelical leader.
Obama met 30 Christian leaders in private on Tuesday as part of his efforts to reach out to religious voters. But Land believes his appeal among evangelicals is strictly limited.
"Younger evangelicals are demanding a broader agenda but research shows they are also more strongly opposed to abortion than their parents," he said. "They are simply not going to vote in significant numbers for a pro-abortion candidate." - (Financial Times service)