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The Young Evangelical Difference
Submitted by jcussen on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 8:08pm.
Story summary:
For some time now, there has been a great deal of discussion over whether younger white evangelicals differed from older white evangelicals in their political attitudes and priorities. Now comes a fascinating and important pre-election survey suggesting that younger evangelicals are indeed somewhat more inclined to vote for Obama and to hold more moderate views on gay marriage -- though they are still, on the whole, pro-McCain. The survey, conducted for PBS's Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, found that overall, McCain led Obama by 71 percent to 23 percent among white evangelicals. McCain's lead was even larger, 73 percent to 22 percent, among white evangelicals over 30 years old. But among those under 30, McCain led by only 62 percent to 30 percent.
The Young Evangelical Difference
Washington Post
9-30-08
For some time now, there has been a great deal of discussion over whether younger white evangelicals differed from older white evangelicals in their political attitudes and priorities. Now comes a fascinating and important pre-election survey suggesting that younger evangelicals are indeed somewhat more inclined to vote for Obama and to hold more moderate views on gay marriage -- though they are still, on the whole, pro-McCain.
The survey, conducted for PBS’s Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, found that overall, McCain led Obama by 71 percent to 23 percent among white evangelicals. McCain’s lead was even larger, 73 percent to 22 percent, among white evangelicals over 30 years old. But among those under 30, McCain led by only 62 percent to 30 percent.
On the whole, these are good numbers for McCain (though it’s worth noting that the sampling period, Sept. 4-21, includes the weeks of McCain’s strong post-convention bounce).
Yet these numbers also suggest real change among younger white evangelicals in a more moderate or progressive direction. And they indicate that Obama’s relative strength among younger voters extends even into one of the G.O.P’s bastion constituencies. Put another way, if McCain had the same margin among all evangelicals that he has among the young, he would be in significant political trouble.
The survey of 1,400 adults included an oversample of 400 evangelical Christians ages 18-29.
Three other findings are notable:
Younger evangelicals are significantly more hostile to President Bush than older evangelicals. On a “feeling thermometer” scale, 57 percent of evangelicals over 30 give Bush warm ratings, compared with only 39 percent of younger evangelicals.
The survey also found that 58 percent of young white evangelicals support some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples, including 26 who support allowing same-sex couples to marry. By contrast, only 46 percent of older white evangelicals favored some legal recognition of same sex couples – and only 9 percent of them favored granting same sex couples full marriage rights.