In 2008 race, US religious vote fragmenting

By - Agence France Press
Monday, March 31, 2008 - Web Link
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March 31, 2008

The Republican Party and the religious right have been brothers-in-arms for nearly three decades, but values voters are fragmenting and Democrats are now refusing to cede the spiritual vote.

The alliance between the evangelical movement's muscular Christianity and the God-fearing tub-thumping of the Republican right reached its apogee in President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004.

But in this year's history-making presidential election, the powerful coalition that propelled president Ronald Reagan and the "Moral Majority" to Washington in 1981 could be breaking up.

Republican candidate John McCain is held in intense suspicion by evangelicals. But Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton also wear their faith proudly, and "progressives" are now speaking out to reclaim Jesus Christ's teachings for their own political beliefs in social justice.

Geoffrey Layman, author of "The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics," traced the fraying of the evangelical-Republican coalition to the Iraq war, new Christian leadership, and the Democrats' soul-searching after John Kerry's defeat to Bush four years ago.

"It certainly fits with what Democratic leaders have been talking about ever since the 2004 loss: we really can't let Republicans be the only religious party in American politics," said Layman, a University of Maryland professor.

"And for a new crop of evangelical pastors, moral values doesn't just mean being against gay marriage, or abortion, or stem-cell research," he told AFP.

"It also means helping the poor, protecting the environment, and fighting for justice."