NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- There aren't any white Protestants on the presidential ballot this year -- a first in American history.
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By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during an RNC Farewell Victory rally on August 31 in Lakeland, Fla.
By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during an RNC Farewell Victory rally on August 31 in Lakeland, Fla.
Instead, race features two Catholic vice presidential candidates, a Mormon Republican and African-American mainline Protestant.
Perhaps lucky for all of them, voters care more about issues such as social justice or gay marriage than they do about denominational brands.
That's particularly true for Republican Mitt Romney and his running-mate, Paul Ryan, who hope to woo evangelical voters that share their values rather than their theology.
It's a situation that probably would have baffled famous evangelicals such as the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. He used the issue of abortion in the 1970s and 1980s to turn evangelicals into a powerhouse voting bloc among Republicans.
"If you had told Jerry Falwell back in 1980 that by 2012 that there would not be a white Protestant on the ticket -- he would have died right there," said Shaun Casey, professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
But the same dynamic doesn't bother David French of Columbia, Tenn., a blogger at EvangelicalsforMitt.org. He wants a candidate who shares his values, not his theology.
"The real questions are, is this person pro-life? Are they pro-marriage? Is this person really conservative?" French said.
The answer to all three of those questions is yes for Romney, he said, and that's more important than the fact that some evangelicals see Mormonism as heretical.
He also said that Americans in general no longer worry about denominational labels. French, for example, grew up attending a Church of Christ and now attends a conservative Presbyterian church. A Pew Forum study in 2008 found that 44 percent of American have changed faiths at least once.
"We are moving well past being obsessed with religious affiliation or denominational labels," he said.
Casey disagrees. Having a Mormon and Catholic on the ticket is a risky for Republicans, he said, because both groups have been seen as suspect in the past by evangelicals.
Casey, who did faith-based outreach for Democrat Barack Obama's campaign in 2008, says the prospect of voting for a Mormon candidate may keep some evangelicals at home.
"I am not looking for a record evangelical turnout this time," he said.
Downplaying denominations
According to CNN exit polls in 2008, about three quarters of evangelicals voted for Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee for president. During the election, McCain touted the fact that he attended a Baptist church.
A quarter voted for Obama, who joined a United Church of Christ in his 20s.
Among the evangelicals who voted for Obama was John Lamb, a Southern Baptist from Nashville. He plans to support Obama again.
His main concern is immigration reform.
"I am dismayed at the lack of concern for the poor and for disenfranchised immigrants in this country," he said.
Lamb doubts that denominational labels make much difference to voters. He points out that former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were Southern Baptists, and evangelicals opposed them both.
But it's not just the voters who downplay denominational identity.
A recent study of voting patterns in Congress found that legislators follow ideology and party affiliation, no matter what their religion.
Bill D'Antontio, a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America, looked at roll call votes on abortion from 1977 to 2010.
Before 1980, the votes followed denominational lines. Mainline Protestants from both parties voted pro-choice. More than half of Catholics from both parties voted pro-life, according the study, being published in a new book called "The Religious Factor in Congress: 1960 to 2010."
After 1980, the pattern changed. Most Democrats became pro-choice, and most Republicans became pro-life.
"Party now trumps religion," D'Antonio said.
Issues beyond faith
In recent years, Democrats have tried to appeal to evangelical voters on the issue of social justice.
That makes sense, said Maria Pally, author of "The New Evangelicals: Expanding the Vision of the Common Good."
Pally said today's evangelicals care about issues such as the environment, immigration reform and poverty. That's because of their hands-on approach to ministry.
"When the ordinary person in the pew starts working in prison ministry program or food pantry, or goes to to Haiti or Uganda and works to prevent malaria or build houses -- their priorities change," she said.
Still, Democrats' appeals to evangelicals have largely failed. Pally said that's because abortion remains an important issue to evangelicals.
Polling numbers show that a growing number of evangelicals support Romney.
Robby Jones, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Public Religion Research Institute, said evangelicals were skeptical about Romney at first. In October 2010, about 40 percent of evangelicals had a favorable view of the Republican candidate.
Once it became clear that Romney was Obama's opponent, that number shot up to 68 percent, said Jones.
Worries about religion
Evangelicals haven't always been willing to ignore a candidate's denomination. The pendulum has swung back and forth on how much religion matters.
In 1960, the famed preacher Norman Vincent Peale, best known for his book "The Power of Positive Thinking," and other Protestant ministers started a group called Citizens for Religious Freedom. Their main goal: to keep John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, out of the White House.
Peale feared that a Kennedy victory would lead to a Vatican takeover of America, said Casey, author of "The Making of a Catholic President," a book on the 1960 election.
But in 1880, using religious affiliation as a strategy didn't work.
The campaign ads were clear:
One of the main candidates was a heretic. A vote for him was a vote against God.
But Baptist voters chose Thomas Jefferson, the heretic.
Those early evangelicals felt Jefferson's opponent, John Adams, had too much religion in his politics, said Thomas Kidd, author of "God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution."
"The main issue was religious freedom," said Kidd. "They were worried Adams would set up an official state church."
So Baptists voted for Jefferson, the candidate who shared their values, not their theology.
