Evangelicals for Obama?!

On Sunday, the news flashed across the AP wire..."Evangelicals abandoning GOP." That didn't seem to ring true to me, since the beliefs of evangelical Christians are routinely held in derision by the political left, and Obama's pro-abortion stance is so radical that he could not bring himself to vote for a bill that would recognize a baby in a "failed" abortion attempt as a living human being with the constitutional guarantee of life.

I followed the link to this story, which turned out to be from a Seattle newspaper. In it, the author discusses a bipartisan forum held at Seattle Pacific University and a poll from September 2007 in which it was estimated that 15% of white evangelicals between the ages of 18-29 no longer identify with the Republican party. So follow the footprints...A survey taken long before anyone really knew Barack Obama leads to a bunch of left-coast college kids talking politics leads to a Seattle paper saying that some young white evangelicals support Obama which leads to a national wire service headline "Evangelicals abandoning GOP."

Use the comment section to react to some of the reasons given in the article by young college students for their choice in the upcoming election, particularly:

• I think a lot of Christians are having trouble getting behind everything the Republicans stand for

• Most of us would never blindly follow the old Christian Right anymore. James Dobson has nothing to do with us. A lot of us are taking apart the issues, and thinking, 'OK, well, [none of the candidates] fits what I'm looking for exactly.' But if you're going to vote, you've got to take your pros with your cons
• While the issue of abortion — the sanctity of life — must always be a hugely important issue, we must juxtapose that with other issues that are also very important
• It's changed our perspective. ... Each generation chooses their cause, and ours is AIDs in Africa, or poverty or social justice

• Tyler Braun, 23, a Portland seminary student who opposes abortion and gay rights, said he'll probably vote for Obama because, since he'd would like to see U.S. troops leave Iraq