How Did Evangelicals Vote?

Or perhaps they just didn’t like McCain. He isn’t the most fundamentalist candidate the GOP has ever run.

Fundamentalists can be found in all religions…but the group of christians that we tend to refer to as fundies do usually belong to the evangelical sects. The evengelical sects basically believe in the authority and infallability of the bible. Not all of the members are fundamentalists, but a large number are.

This data is referring to all members of evangelical faiths, and so refers to fundamentalist and progressive members of the sects alike.

I doubt you would find much support for Obama if this were a fundamentalist map as opposed to evangelical.

Now…this is only when referring to individuals. Many of the sects that are evangelical would also be considered fundamentalist because of their doctrine and leadership. So confusing the two is much more allowed when speaking at an overview level…though there are some non-fundy evangelical sects. In other words, most of the evangelical sects are also fundy sects…but not every member is a fundy.

Mike; I disagree with your statement.

McCain’s lack of fundamentalism would seem to have been more y than compensated by that of Palin.
It certainly was the case among the most religiously nut crowds.

I think these results rather show that Evangelists are relatively moderates.
Hence, they were more susceptible to the reasoned arguments that convinced most voters than were the fundamentalists that could only see the election through the prism of their biblical interpretation.

Simon, on what basis can you say evangelicals are moderates? And “more” susceptible to reasoned arguments?

Evangelicals are not any one thing. There are evangelicals who are socialists, evangelicals who are moderates, evangelicals who are reactionary Republicans. But there are trends, especially in regions like the South, where there is more political peer pressure in evangelical churches and the majority of evangelicals in those areas seem to be Republican because of their socially conservative ideas.

I know what they say about antidotes not being data and all, but I am an expert in what my friends voted for in the election according to their facebook statuses. Most of my friends voted for Obama. I had one former Ohioan who voted McCain because he just can’t help being a Republican (I think he’s Catholic), one former roommate who was mad that McCain the war hero wasn’t elected (She’s religious, but I can’t tell you the flavor), and one absolute self-appointed Catholic saint who voted McCain because she thinks Obama kills babies.

Of my religious friends who voted for Obama, I can think several Catholics and many Protestants.

Of course, it just happens to be one of those things where I tend to prefer people whose political views are allied with mine. I wouldn’t say I seek them out, per se, but I find it difficult to befriend people who are so different than me to the point of frustration.

More interesting info on Beliefnet here, including these tidbits, from their survey:

# Half of McCain voters believe Obama is or was Muslim, with 31.7% saying “He used to be Muslim and still has too many connections to Islam.”

# Many more Obama voters believe McCain ran an unchristian campaign, rather than vice versa.

# Among the most religious voters, Obama supporters believe that education is the best way to reduce abortion, while McCain supporters prefer bans and restrictions on abortion.