Religious youth shift party affiliation

updated 10:16 a.m. ET April 25, 2008

CHICAGO - Beau Underwood is putting his faith in politics.

He's a 22-year-old at the University of Chicago Divinity School, an active member of the Disciples of Christ and — in his spare time — he's showing candidates that the path to political righteousness doesn't always veer right.

Underwood and a growing number of other young, left-leaning believers are entering the political arena as campaign aides, lobbyists, grass-root activists and engaged voters.

They are trying to expand the focus of faith-based politics beyond the religious right's hot-button issues of abortion and gay marriage. And they are placing social justice issues, like poverty and war, at the intersection of their moral and political decision making.

"The religious voice in politics is not one unified voice," said Underwood, a self-described moderate who has worked as an aide on several Democratic local and congressional campaigns in his home state of Illinois.

"There are times when the media paints a very narrow picture of the religiously minded voter as being very conservative and fundamentalist," Underwood said. "People and groups who don't fit that stereotype aren't given the same amount of attention."

But this election year the tide may be turning. Liberal, religious voters are making their voices heard. And the youngest voices are often the loudest, as a new generation of believers begins to reshape the public discourse on faith in America.

'Major shift under way'
"In three decades I've never seen this sort of student-youth involvement," said Jim Wallis, author of the best-seller "The Great Awakening." "I do think there's a major shift under way."

The shift of young faith-based voters both dramatic and complex. "They're leaving the Republican Party in droves, but they're not automatically Democrats," Wallis said. "They're not going to jump in the pocket of the Democratic Party the way they did with the Republican Party."

A study in February by the Barna Group, a firm specializing in researching data on religion and society, shows the dynamism of this upheaval. It found 40 percent of likely born-again voters planned to vote Democratic this year, compared with 29 percent who planned to vote Republican. And, perhaps most surprising, large percentages of born-again and evangelical voters remain undecided compared with previous election years.

"The youth of America today is very divided," said Esther Winne, 18, a Christian conservative from Lancaster, Pa., who originally backed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination but now favors Sen. John McCain. "I think we're looking for change. I think we're looking for something new. But I think people are looking in different places."

This is a notable change from the 2000 and 2004 elections, when the so-called religious bloc anchored GOP victories.

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