White mainline Protestants are the most important ignored religious group in American politics, a pollster says.
The Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service conducted a poll earlier this year that showed that, in a contest between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, mainline Protestants were nearly evenly divided between the two.
Yet if political campaigns are interested in persuading this group of faithful, it's not obvious.
Mainliners — Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ and others — represent about 16 percent of the electorate and are concentrated in some key battleground states, such as Ohio.
Republicans focus on getting
out the evangelical vote, and both parties work hard to persuade the Catholic swing vote. Conservative Christians gain a high profile stumping for Romney because of their opposition to abortion rights, contraception mandates and same-sex marriage. Other religiously affiliated voters say they feel left out of campaigns and coverage.Faith voters come in all denominations, and they are not monolithic in their political views, said Rev. David Conner, pastor of the Wheat Ridge Congregational Church, United Church of Christ.
"I have a feeling that the Republican platform — not the Republican people — is about government by the rich for the rich," Conner said. "It's not a perspective of faith for me."
Some 48 percent of mainline Protestants consider the growing gap between the rich and poor a critical issue, compared with 33 percent of evangelicals, the PRRI poll found.
"Romney is less in touch with the needs of all the people. And the poor is a big topic in the New Testament," said William Dean, emeritus professor of constructive theology at the Iliff School of Theology. "Obama's policies come closer to addressing the needs of the poor."
Among people of faith, "there are more than one or two hot-button issues" such as abortion and same-sex marriage, and they include ecological health and sustainable economies, said Rev. Peter Sawtell, director of Eco-Justice Ministries in Denver.
"You have two very different theological philosophies and policy approaches by the two parties — and it's even a more dramatic contrast in the two candidates," said retired United Methodist cleric Rev. Charles Schuster of Lakewood. "Both are people of faith. I object to the assumption that faith only lines up with Republicans. People of faith are not all Republicans."
A Lifeway Research survey of pastors conducted in late September and early October found significant differences between mainline and evangelical Protestants. Two-thirds of self-identifying evangelical pastors said they plan to vote for Romney, with 9 percent supporting Obama.
Among mainline Protestants, 54 percent said they will vote for Romney, compared with 28 percent for Obama and 25 percent undecided. (The survey sampled 1,000 clergy members and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.)
"Evangelical Christians are vocal, and their views are taken as representative of the Christian perspective, yet there are certainly many Christians who are not fundamentalists or conservatives," said Rev. Claudia Schmitt, a hospital chaplain in Aurora. "I am supporting Obama because I do believe his policies serve a larger group of Americans."
In the 2008 presidential election, nonevangelical or mainline Protestants chose Republican John McCain over Obama 55 percent to 45 percent, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or twitter.com/electadraper
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