Evangelicals show unease with the GOP

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061030/1015794.asp

Evangelicals show unease with the GOP
After decades of support, many Christian conservatives now are disappointed in the performance of the Republican Party.


Of the many disturbing trends for Republicans this campaign season, one of the most troubling is the drop in support among white evangelicals.

The number of Christian conservatives with a favorable view of the party has plummeted from 74 percent to 54 percent between 2004 and this year, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Evangelicals make up more than one-third of GOP voters.

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Christian conservatives have been here before - disappointed that Republicans they helped elect failed to enact the evangelical agenda - yet they have consistently returned to the GOP. Even as they question the current Republican leadership, evangelicals are far more supportive than other Americans of President Bush and the party, the Pew Center found.

"There's a lot of discontentment," said Marvin Olasky, editor of the Christian newsweekly World and a framer of the "compassionate conservative" language used by Bush. "But unfortunately for most conservative evangelicals, there's no alternative."