Abortion vs. Homosexuality for Young Evangelicals

The Obama campaign is, wisely, targeting young evangelicals. When talking about social issues of interest to evangelicals, we tend to lump abortion and homosexuality together. But the politics are actually different, especially among young evangelicals.

Basically, young evangelicals are just as conservative as their parents on abortion but significantly more liberal on homosexuality. A few point of proof:

John Green at the Pew Religion Forum reports:

Abortion: 62.3% of white evangelicals overall are pro-life; 69.2% of those under the age of 30 are pro-life. Pretty similar.

Homosexuality: 65.4% of white evangelicals say homosexuality should be discouraged while 54.9% of those under 30 believe homosexuality believe that.

A Beliefnet.com survey found the same thing:

Abortion: 63.9% of those over the age of 60 said ending abortion was very important; 66% of those under 29 agreed.

Homosexuality: 61.8% of the oldest group said "stopping gay marriage" was very important, while only 34% of the younger group said so.

Finally, Barna Research found:

Abortion: The percentage of "born again Christians who believed abortion is a "major problem":

Age
18-21 -- 69%
42-60 -- 72%
61 + -- 67%

While the breakdown for those saying "homosexuality" was a major problem was:

Age
18-41 -- 35%
42-60: -- 52%
61+: -- 71%

So what's the relevance of this? I'm not weighing in on the question of whether Obama has moved to the center too much, or on the substance of his positions on abortion vs. homosexuality. My point for Obama (or McCain) is that if the goal is appealing to young evangelicals, a candidate needs to have a centrist position on abortion, but not necessarily on gay rights.