Powerful, unique and unpredictable religious crosscurrents are at work in the US presidential election and could produce subtle but significant shifts that would decide the outcome in what is shaping up to be a very close contest between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Most important are evangelical Christians, one of the most powerful and reliable voting blocs in the Republican party. Many of them are unsettled by Romney's Mormon faith.

Few, if any, Evangelicals will vote for Obama regardless because his support for abortion rights and his new backing of same-sex marriage are an anathema to Christian conservatives. But many fundamentalist Christians consider Romney's religion a sect and not Christian. Furthermore, Romney's positions on certain social issues like abortion have shifted over the years, fueling doubts among some Republicans about his conservative convictions. He now says he opposes abortion.

The question, then, becomes will Christian conservatives go to the polls?

During the Republican primary race, many Evangelicals voted for Romney's more conservative rivals, including Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachman.

"What happens to the conservative evangelical force that supported Santorum and Bachmann? My sense is that a lot of them will stay home," said Katherine Knutson, a political scientist who studies religion and politics at Gustavus Adolphus College.

"This is such a strange election when it comes to religion," Knutson said. "Tensions among various sectors of the religious factions make this a really unusual period."

It becomes all the more unusual in an election year where the economy, not social issues that normally involve religious belief, is the top issue among voters. Right now, Obama and Romney are polling about even and that means the election will be decided in the very few US states that do not reliably vote either Republican or Democrat.

In those states, independent voters will decide which man sits in the White House come January 2013.

The Associated Press

(China Daily 06/01/2012 page11)