c. 2008 Religion News Service

Poll: Young evangelicals less enthusiastic about McCain

WASHINGTON (RNS) Parents may know best, but when it comes to this year’s election, fewer young evangelical voters are taking Mom’s and Dad’s advice into the voting booth, according to a new survey.

While Sen. John McCain maintains a winning margin among white evangelical Christians of all ages, young white evangelical voters are less supportive of McCain than evangelical voters over the age of 30, according to the poll conducted for the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc.

McCain has the support of 71 percent of white evangelicals, but only 62 percent of white evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 29.

“Evangelical voters have been so solidly Republican in the last 20 years, so if this signals a shift, it could have wide-ranging political implications,” said Kim Lawton, the managing editor of “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.”

Some differences on social issues also were highlighted in the survey. A majority of younger white evangelicals support some form of legal recognition for civil unions or marriage for same-sex couples. Older evangelicals are strongly opposed.

Both age groups remain solidly opposed to abortion.

“There’s been so much discussion about evangelical voters but there’s been very little research,” said Lawton. “This is the first to confirm there are some generational differences.”

Jeff Fralick, a student at Baylor University, the world’s largest Baptist university, may be even more confirmation of a shift.

“I believe that Barack Obama is the best choice for president,” Fralick said. “For my parents, however, it is a different story.”

Fralick has been actively involved in campaigning for the Democratic nominee on the Christian campus in Waco, Texas.

“In the past I feel that they (older evangelicals) have been swayed by the thought that a responsible and religious person voted one way, conservative,” Fralick said of his parents. “They may not agree with it, but they can accept that I am following a good path, though it is different than theirs.”

The nationwide survey included 1,400 adults, including 400 young evangelical Christians, and was conducted Sept. 4-21. The margin of error ranged from plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the overall survey to plus or minus 5.5 percentage points for younger evangelicals.

_ Brittney Bain

Vatican rejects France’s new gay ambassador

VATICAN CITY (RNS) France has reportedly withdrawn its nomination of an openly gay man as ambassador to the Holy See, following objections from the Vatican.

According to French and Italian press reports, the Vatican has refused the required diplomatic approval of several candidates proposed by Paris for the job, which has been vacant since the previous ambassador died in December 2007.

“The first candidate was divorced … another Protestant, and the last not only homosexual but … stably united with an official companion” in France’s form of domestic partnership, the Italian daily La Repubblica reported on Monday (Sept. 29).

According to the paper, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, the Vatican recently agreed to the appointment of Stanislas de Laboulaye, who is currently France’s envoy to Russia.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, head of the Vatican press office, declined to comment on the matter, as did a spokesman for the French embassy to the Holy See.

The hiatus in diplomatic representation contrasts with generally warm relations between Pope Benedict XVI and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has questioned his government’s long-standing policy of strict secularism and called for greater recognition of France’s Christian heritage.

However, the Vatican’s rejection of ambassadorial candidates on account of their personal lives is hardly unprecedented.

Earlier this year, Argentina reportedly withdrew its nomination of former Justice Minister Alberto Iribarne as ambassador to the Holy See after the Vatican objected that Iribarne had been divorced and remarried, in violation of Catholic teaching.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Four students suspended at Quaker school over Obama stunt

NEWBERG, Ore. (RNS) Four students at George Fox University confessed to hanging an effigy of Sen. Barack Obama from a tree on campus and were suspended for up to a year, school officials announced Tuesday (Sept. 30).

The students names were not released.

Other sanctions include community service and multicultural education, which must be completed before the students can return to campus, said Brad Lau, vice president of student life.

The students were singled out during a campus investigation late last week as those responsible for hanging a life-size cardboard cutout from a tree on campus with a sign saying “Act Six reject.”

Act Six is a scholarship and leadership program for Portland students, many of whom are minorities.

“These students were very sorry and deeply grieved by the impact of this event,” Lau said. “Regardless of their intentions, the image of a black man hanging from a tree is one of the most hurtful racist symbols of our history.”

Lau declined to give any details about the investigation or the possible motivation of the four students.

The 3,355-student Christian university, which was founded by Quaker pioneers in 1891, stopped short of dismissing the students permanently. The campus is “a redemptive community, and we allow for the possibility of change,” Lau said.

The FBI is continuing its investigation into possible civil rights violations, including whether the display intimidated minority students in exercising their federal rights, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said.

Vanessa Wilkins, a 19-year-old sophomore in the Act Six program, said she is satisfied with the level of punishment of the four students. “I don’t think they knew how far it would go,” she said. “They didn’t understand the repercussions of their actions. I don’t believe the students thought this all the way through.”

_ Suzanne Pardington

Quote of the Day: “Golden Compass” author Philip Pullman

(RNS) “In fact, when it comes to banning books, religion is the worst reason of the lot. Religion, uncontaminated by power, can be the source of a great deal of private solace, artistic inspiration and moral wisdom. But when it gets its hands on the levers of political or social authority, it goes rotten very quickly indeed.”

_ Philip Pullman, author of “The Golden Compass,” writing in London’s The Guardian newspaper during “Banned Books Week” about the controversy his book attracted in the Catholic Church.

KRE/PH END RNS