WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Republican Party and the religious right have been brothers-in-arms for nearly three decades, but values voters are fragmenting and Democrats are now refusing to cede the spiritual vote.
The alliance between the evangelical movement's muscular Christianity and the God-fearing tub-thumping of the Republican right reached its apogee in President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004.
But in this year's history-making presidential election, the powerful coalition that propelled president Ronald Reagan and the "Moral Majority" to Washington in 1981 could be breaking up.
Republican candidate John McCain is held in intense suspicion by evangelicals. But Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton also wear their faith proudly, and "progressives" are now speaking out to reclaim Jesus Christ's teachings for their own political beliefs in social justice.
Geoffrey Layman, author of "The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics," traced the fraying of the evangelical-Republican coalition to the Iraq war, new Christian leadership, and the Democrats' soul-searching after John Kerry's defeat to Bush four years ago.
"It certainly fits with what Democratic leaders have been talking about ever since the 2004 loss: we really can't let Republicans be the only religious party in American politics," said Layman, a University of Maryland professor.
"And for a new crop of evangelical pastors, moral values doesn't just mean being against gay marriage, or abortion, or stem-cell research," he told AFP.
"It also means helping the poor, protecting the environment, and fighting for justice."
The problem is most acute for McCain, whose running clashes with evangelical leaders in the 2000 election, and "liberal" record on issues such as campaign finance reform and immigration, have alienated evangelicals.
According to a poll in the conservative National Review, McCain would lose the Christian vote to either Democratic hopeful by 36 percent to 45. The Republican draws even among Protestants but lags badly among Catholics.
James Dobson, founder of the hugely influential evangelical group Focus on the Family, said last month: "I cannot and I will not vote for Senator John McCain as a matter of conscience."
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee looked at one point to be the new savior for the religious right, but the former Baptist preacher never won more than a narrow band of support in Bible-belt states.
Meanwhile the Democrats no longer escape to a secular refuge whenever religion enters into the political debate.
Obama this month pointed to Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which starts "Blessed are the poor," as being a more fundamental tenet of Christianity than "obscure" passages of the Bible denouncing homosexuality.
And while dogged now by incendiary sermons by his former pastor, the Illinois senator has placed the "audacity of hope" squarely in a Christian tradition that does not embrace left-right divisions.
For her part, Clinton has described how her Methodist faith helped her survive the personal anguish of her husband Bill's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
The former first lady has accepted an invitation to an April 13 event in Pennsylvania called "The Compassion Forum," an inter-faith dialogue taking place just before the state's April 22 primary. Obama and McCain have also been invited, organizers say.
The success today of best-selling books such as "The Great Awakening," by nationally prominent preacher Jim Wallis, also suggests a blurring of the old divide in religion and politics.
"Those on the religious right did it wrong, allowing their religion to become too partisan, too narrow, and too ideological," Wallis writes.
"They were used by politics and did plenty of using themselves -- using both people and issues to further their own agenda. But I believe their day is over, and we have now entered the post-religious right era."
In truth, it is probably too early to tell. America's culture wars have not gone away, but may be taking a back seat to the preeminent issues of the day such as Iraq and the crisis-hit economy.
What hurts McCain is not the prospect of Bush's stalwart supporters all voting Democratic in November. Lower turnout by disaffected evangelicals contributed to the Republicans' defeat in the 2006 congressional elections.
"John McCain doesn't generate that enthusiasm among evangelicals," Layman said. "But then again, if he's running against Hillary Clinton, he may not need to."
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