c. 2008 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ With primaries or caucuses in 24 states, the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primary could very well produce the next presidential nominee for both major parties _ but how much of a factor will religion be?

Super Tuesday will test a candidate’s appeal to evangelical strongholds in the Bible Belt, Roman Catholic bastions in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as pockets of religious minorities on both coasts.

“It’s about as close to a national primary as we’ve ever had,” said John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “It’s going to cover the full range of religious diversity in the U.S.”

As in previous elections, faith will certainly play a major role on Super Tuesday, but with so many candidates and so many contests, it can be hard to say how. Religion News Service polled a half-dozen experts in religion and politics to find out what they’ll be looking for come Feb. 5.

Clyde Wilcox: Can Democrats attract moderate evangelicals?

Leading Democrats, including Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have made concerted efforts to woo moderate evangelicals, appearing at megachurches and lacing speeches with religious language. Tuesday’s five open primaries, concentrated in the Southeast, will test that strategy with Southern evangelicals. “I think both Democrats will be able to go head to head with Republicans on values,” said Wilcox, a Georgetown University professor. “Clinton has been writing about the family for a long time, and Obama talks the `God talk’ really well.”

Mark Silk: Can religious minorities dig Obama’s “civil religion”?

For the first time on Tuesday, states with large communities of religious minorities, such as New York, New Jersey and California, will show their muscle. Silk, a professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., says Obama has positioned himself as the heir apparent of the civil rights movement, which Silk calls “America’s civil religion.” Will Obama’s calls for unity draw Jews, Hindus, Muslims and other religious minorities _ including non-believers _ into his tent? “That is Obama’s campaign,” says Silk. “He is running on America’s civil religion and he needs to bring people together.”

The Rev. Romal Tune: Is Obama’s church too liberal for black churchgoers?

The United Church of Christ, the majority-white denomination Obama joined 20 years ago, has made no secret of its support for gay rights, proudly proclaiming itself an “open and affirming church.” Tune, a Baptist pastor and CEO of Clergy Strategic Alliances, said some of the UCC’s “liberal views do not play well with black churches,” where people are more concerned with racial disparities in housing, education and health care. Bishop Harry Jackson,a leading black conservative, said he also has “got some real concerns about the biblical basis of (Obama’s) belief structure.”

Charles Dunn: Is Romney’s Mormonism still a problem for evangelicals?

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sought to put evangelical fears about his religion to rest with a high-profile speech in December, saying that he believes Jesus “is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind.” But Dunn, dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University, said the speech left too many questions unanswered and “evangelicals who know doctrine” are still wary of Romney’s faith. “The religion question is still out there, and it’s his fault in many ways,” Dunn said. “He hasn’t made it a non-issue, and that’s hurting him.”

Samuel Rodriguez: Will its immigration stance hurt the GOP?

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said the immigration issue will cause serious divides among Republicans as the election season continues. There’s a “disconnect” between anti-immigration stands of some GOP leaders and the views of Latino evangelicals and some white evangelicals, he said. “They’re going to lose their Latino votes, and even the white evangelical leadership is going to be hard-pressed to support a policy that is so anti-biblical,” he said. Adds the Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals: “I don’t think you can really think through that issue biblically without examining the idea of the stranger and the sojourner in our midst and what the Bible says about it.”

Laura Olson: Whither the evangelical vote?

If former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s candidacy ends with Super Tuesday, it will prompt questions about what’s next for the so-called “values voters,” says Olson, a political scientist at Clemson University in South Carolina. “Why couldn’t he make it and what does that mean about the future for the values constituency within the Republican Party?” she asked. Unless Huckabee survives with wins in about a third of the Super Tuesday states, Olson said it will be time to ponder why things fell apart.

KRE/CM END BURKE