Free Republic

I’ve read with interest Francis (Frank) Beckwith’s book, Return to Rome, because like him, I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic, attending parochial schools through my primary grades and a preparatory school run by a Benedictine monastery throughout my high school years. And, like Dr. Beckwith, in my teens I turned away from the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity altogether but was converted in my early twenties and began attending a Protestant Evangelical church. And for the past thirty seven years I have been a committed Evangelical Protestant. I was also quite interested in reading Dr. Beckwith’s book because he...

A report from the Pennsylvania Pastors' Network reveals that approximately 20 percent of evangelical pastors in the Keystone State are "not in sync" on significant moral and doctrinal issues. The report contains information compiled from a phone survey conducted by United in Purpose on behalf of PPN. The survey asked evangelical pastors from across the state to respond to 20 questions pertaining to topics such as abortion, same-sex marriage, the authority of the Bible, and how a person can be spiritually saved. The results of the survey are being released in several parts over time. When asked to respond to...

The evangelical "Pray for Reform: 92 Days of Prayer and Action to Pass Immigration Reform" campaign called on Congress in a press call on Wednesday to pass meaningful legislation in the next 92 days, throwing further support behind the current momentum in Congress to finally pass a immigration reform bill. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, explained in the press call that the number 92 is significant for evangelicals because the Hebrew word for immigration is mentioned 92 times in the Old Testament. "This number represents the biblical call to welcome the stranger. I'm...

Protestants with a strong religious identity continue to increase as Catholics with a strong religious identity continue to decline, according to a March study by the Pew Research Center. The proportion of Catholics reporting strong religious affiliation declined by almost twenty percentage points over the last few decades, from 46 percent of Catholics in 1974 to 27 percent in 2012. Protestants reporting strong religious affiliation increased more than ten percentage points during the same period, from 43 percent to 54 percent. The contrast between Protestant and Catholic trends is not as straightforward as the numbers suggest. The data tell us...

New York City, N.Y., Apr 24, 2013 / 04:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York will receive the 2013 William Wilberforce Award this weekend from a group of Christians for his leadership in standing up for religious freedom. “I resonate with Cardinal Dolan as much as any public religious leader in our country today,” Dr. Timothy George, chairman of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview which is bestowing the award, told CNA April 16. “Cardinal Dolan has just been tremendous, he's one of the major leaders not just of the Catholic Church in the United...

It happened by chance. Jay Crenshaw didn’t plan on changing his views on illegal immigration. His experience with an illegal immigrant changed him. It happened when a Colombian friend was arrested for driving without a license. That friend was a white-collar professional who’d lived in Florida for years. He was an active member of Crenshaw’s Orlando church and was supporting his mother and brother. He also happened to be living in the country illegally. Deportation loomed. Crenshaw, an attorney and self-described conservative Evangelical Christian, found himself knee-deep in a friend’s personal crisis, not a national-policy debate. Torn between the...

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Evangelist Greg Laurie filled in for Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren during worship services over the weekend and is the first of a string of well-known Christian leaders scheduled to speak from the pulpit while Warren continues to grieve his son's passing. The list of pastors planned includes Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, Pete Wilson, David Platt, Craig Groeschel, Wilfredo De Jesús, and Doug Fields. During the sermon series featuring the pastors, they are scheduled to answer the question, "What Does it Mean to Follow Jesus?" Chan, an author and popular speaker at Christian conferences, is planned...

According to the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, evangelical Christians are now a national security threat. I’m talkin’ at the top of the list folks. As Gomer Pyle used to say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” eh, Christians? Under the New Rules enacted by these agencies under this administration’s tutelage the following acts are now to cause red flags of “terrorism” to fly, alerting cops and military personnel to a new group[s] which could start blowing crap up like the other group that we can no longer speak the truth about. So, herewith, I guess, are some of...

The American Family Association, a conservative nonprofit, has responded to the U.S. Army labeling evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as "extremist," by saying that the issue all comes down to views on homosexuality. "This categorization is incorrect and unfounded. We do not hate any person or group of people; we love homosexuals enough to tell them the truth about the consequences of homosexual behavior," Tim Wildmon, president of AFA, said in a statement. The family group blames the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center for spreading misinformation to the U.S. army, which resulted in evangelicals and Catholics being listed among...

Defense Department materials classifying Christians as extremists reflect the ideology of the boss. Whoever put together the recently reported Defense Department materials classifying Catholics and Evangelicals as extremists can be excused for simply reflecting, if a bit overenthusiastically, the ideology of the boss. Obama’s anti-Christian secularism is the order of the day. Why wouldn’t that philosophy seep into DOD materials? The military is dismissing this slide show for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation, which placed the Catholic Church in the same category as al Qaeda, as an isolated incident. An Army spokesman told the press it “was produced by an...

Last week we reported on the Army EEO briefing that described evangelical Christians and Catholics as “extremists” alongside the likes of the KKK and al Qaeda. That incident occurred in Pennsylvania. Today, Todd Starnes reports that an Army officer at Ft. Campbell, KY sent an email to subordinates using similar descriptions and epithets. “Just want to ensure everyone is somewhat educated on some of the groups out there that do not share our Army Values,” read an email from LTC Jack Rich to three dozen subordinates at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. “When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army...

Can Latino evangelicals help Republicans take a bite out of the Democratic advantage with Hispanic voters? Maybe. As my cover story “The Latino Reformation“ this week suggests, Latino evangelicals are a group that has strong conservative social values—meaning the Republican Party should find them very attractive. They prize the nuclear family. They are largely against abortion and gay marriage. They also tend to be wealthier than Latino Catholics, and they are more likely to have been born in the United States.

Sunday worship at Calvary Foursquare Church in Silver Spring, Md., starts in an empty parking lot. The congregants usually arrive on foot with well-worn Bibles in hand. They come in groups, Latino mothers and toddlers, grandparents and friends. "Que Dios te bendiga"--May the Lord bless you--each one says, offering hugs and kisses to everyone they meet. They board a refurbished school bus painted with a Bible verse and the church's Spanish name: Iglesia Cuadrangular el Calvario. When it pulls out into the busy street, I hop in my car and follow.

Senior pastor Kenton Beshore said the first sermons on the plight of illegal immigrants didn't go over well with many members of his evangelical church, which sits on a 50-acre campus in Orange County and has a 3,400-seat sanctuary, sports facilities, restaurant and a man-made lake. "We took a hit on it," said Mr. Beshore. "We had people who walked out and whose giving went away." It was part of the reason the church ended 2012 with a $500,000 budget shortfall, he said. But much has changed in the two years since—both at Mr. Beshore's 14,000-member Mariners Church and at...

Defense: As the Army removes crosses from an Army chapel in Afghanistan that offends Muslims, a training instructor lists evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism. It has been said that there are no atheists in foxholes, but like so many things askew in our politically correct modern-day universe, there are apparently some. An atheist U.S. soldier made a formal complaint about the steeple and crosses on a chapel located at Forward Operation Base Orgun-E. "We can confirm that those items were removed from the chapel," said a spokesman for the ISAF Joint Command. "These items were removed...

Everyday I think I've heard it all from the whack left and then the next day they surprise me again. The services are being loaded up with Obam's puppets obviously. This crap has the smell of pre-war Nazi Germany. Catholics and Evangelical Christians are the same as Al Qaeda and Hamas??? The next civil war will make the first one look tame unless this feces can be flushed...

We all know them, the kids who were raised in church. They were stars of the youth group. They maybe even sang in the praise band or led worship. And then… they graduate from High School and they leave church. What happened? It seems to happen so often that I wanted to do some digging; To talk to these kids and get some honest answers. I work in a major college town with a large number of 20-somethings. Nearly all of them were raised in very typical evangelical churches. Nearly all of them have left the church with no intention...

Appearing on the Christian Broadcasting Network this week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said something that is likely to continue the distancing of himself from the staunch neoconservative types like Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer who have actively blasted the senator for civil libertarian views. Speaking with CBN’s David Brody, Paul said that Republicans and evangelical Christians too often seem eager to go to war. “Part of Republicans’ problems and, frankly, to tell you the truth, some in the evangelical Christian movement, I think have appeared too eager for war,” Paul said. “When people come to me and they’re lobbying for...

Hispanics in the United States are becoming evangelicals at a rapid rate Time Magazine reports this week. "Latino evangelicals are one of the fastest growing segments of America's churchgoing millions," said Elizabeth Dias, the  author of the report.Time calls  the  phenomenon "The Latino Reformation".Dias's account is Time's cover story in its April 4 edition."They call themselves Evangelicos," Time's managing editor Richard Stengel told MSNBC."They are Latino Americans who have embraced an evangelical form of Protestantism." Related Survey: U.S. Protestant Hispanics more religious than CatholicsSurvey: 7 in 10 US Catholics happy about Pope Francis "They have forsaken Catholicism for all kinds...

Brazilian Evangelical Caucus Condemns Venezuelan Dictator for “Homophobia” By Julio Severo Rep. João Campos (PSDB-GO), who heads the Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus in the Brazilian Congress, introduced a proposition against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Nicolás Maduro The proposition, which condemns the dictator for “homophobia,” was passed unanimously March 4 in the Human Rights Committee (HRC) of the Brazilian House of Representatives, where Pentecostal minister Marco Feliciano is the president. As reported by GospelPrime, Campos’ proposition came in answer to the recent demonstrations against the permanence of Feliciano in the HRC presidency. The demonstrations have been provoked by the ruling Workers’...

Soldiers in the U.S. military have been told in a training briefing that evangelical Christians are the No. 1 extremist threat to America – ahead of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, KKK, Nation of Islam, al-Qaida, Hamas and others. “Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,” said Col. (Ret.) Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization. It also...

A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania, Fox News has learned. “We find this offensive to have Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church to be listed among known terrorist groups,” said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.” The incident occurred during an Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief on extremism. Topping the list is Evangelical...

Today's young evangelical Christians, or "millennial" evangelicals, are too influenced by the culture and do not practice deep thinking, or a "life of the mind," several young evangelical leaders argued at a Monday panel hosted by The Institute on Religion & Democracy. Millennial evangelicals are too influenced by "Oprah-doxy" rather than orthodoxy, Eric Teetsel, director of The Manhattan Declaration, complained. "Orthodoxy," Teetsel said, "requires the cultivation of what my professors at Wheaton called the 'life of the mind.' When considering an issue, orthodoxy lays out first principles and are non-negotiable truths, with the Bible as a touchstone, creating a framework...

Ed Morrisseyflagged this Politico piece earlier but I want to pay special attention to Huck's comments. Gabe Malor called BS on them on Twitter this morning. I think he's right. Huckabee's latest shot across the party establishment's bow: “The last two presidential elections, we had more moderate candidates, so if anything a lot of conservatives went to the polls reluctantly or just didn’t go at all,” said Huckabee in a separate interview. “If all of the evangelicals had showed up, it may have made a difference.”…Huckabee, like Santorum, was a bit incredulous at the attempt to fault social conservatives when...

..if you say a word enough, over and over again, it loses its meaning. It even begins to sound a little different. Jesus morphs into Cheesus – the es getting steadily elongated. Those who talk about Cheesus do so with a creepy sort of chummyiness. This is what evangelicals call "a personal relationship", by which they mean that Cheesus has become their boyfriend or best mate. ..Once again, the evangelicals are in the ascendency in the Church of England. Rowan Williams never spoke of Cheesus. He had way too much gravitas. Which was why so many non-Christians respected him. ..Which...

OTTAWA, Ontario, March 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s largest Evangelical network has slammed Manitoba’s proposed anti-bullying legislation (Bill 18), saying it would “violate the religious freedom of religious schools” by forcing them to promote sexual concepts contrary to the Bible. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) said in a press release today that the most up-to-date data paints a different picture of bullying in schools than what is often portrayed by mainstream media. “While we might think from the media coverage that children are most often bullied for reasons relating to sexual orientation or gender identity, students are actually most...

A shot across the bow of Beltway Republicans on Gay Marriage Day at the Supreme Court.Alternate headline: "Huckabee's running in 2016." When asked if he believes the Republican Party will change its position and support gay marriage in a Wednesday Newsmax interview, Huckabee remarked, "They might, and if they do, they're going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk."..."And it's not because there's an anti-homosexual mood, and nobody's homophobic that I know of," he continued, “but many of us, and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington Post...

Federal investigators are probing allegations that Rep. Michele Bachmann, or members of her staff, inappropriately used money raised during her presidential campaign, her lawyer and former campaign staffers said today. Bachmann has not been formally accused of any wrong doing, but staffers said they had been questioned by federal authorities. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics. Bachmann's attorney confirmed to ABC News.com that Bachmann was being probed by the OCE, but denied any wrongdoing. "There are no allegations that the congresswoman engaged in any wrongdoing," campaign lawyer William McGinley told ABCNews.com in a statement....

Two of the nation’s leading evangelicals are throwing their weight behind President Barack Obama’s push for universal background checks for all gun buyers, a measure that faces stiff opposition in both the House and Senate. Rev. Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, and Dr. Richard Land from the Southern Baptist Convention told TIME Magazine they supported the proposal. “As ministers, we agreed together that we could stand on a united front for universal background checks,” Graham said. “We think that’s reasonable and responsible.”

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – When Rob Bell signed copies of his latest book March 10 at Schuler Books & Music, two Flint women who came out to see him said the Mars Hill Bible Church founder's teaching had opened their minds about God and made them question whether their same-sex relationship would damn them to hell. Bell, who followed his visit to Grand Rapids with other public promotions of "What We Talk About When We Talk About God," told an audience Sunday, March 17, in San Francisco that he supports same-sex marriage. You can hear it at about the 42:30-mark...

First Latin American pope offers opportunity to 'rethink differences' and 'join hands in mission.'Argentina's evangelical leaders were just as surprised as anyone when Jorge Mario Bergoglio, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, was revealed Wednesday as the new Pope Francis. But they were not surprised when his first words broke from papal tradition. In a move that Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano called "unprecedented and shocking," before Francis offered the world the traditional papal blessing, he asked those watching to first pray for him. Such a request is one of Bergoglio's trademarks, said Juan Pablo Bongarrá, president of the Argentine Bible Society....

The 2004 presidential election was the Republican party’s high-water mark with Hispanic voters. George W. Bush received between 40 and 44 percent of the Hispanic vote that year. Bush lost Hispanic Catholics to John Kerry, but he overwhelmingly won Hispanic evangelicals, 69 percent to Kerry’s 29 percent. In 2008, the numbers changed dramatically. Barack Obama secured the votes of 74 percent of Hispanics, while John McCain won a paltry 22 percent, despite having been the GOP’s spokesman for comprehensive immigration reform. Sixty percent of Hispanic evangelicals supported Obama, and just 36 percent McCain. Four years later, Obama’s support among Hispanics...

Evangelist Luis Palau, who knows and has prayed together with Pope Francis on several occasions, called the new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics a friend of evangelicals who is respectful of all sides of Christianity. "I exploded," Palau told oregonlive.com, of his reaction after his son, Kevin Palau, president of the Luis Palau Association, shared the news that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pope this week. "I just couldn't believe it. In the last election, he was in the running but he told me he felt led by God to remove himself from the...

New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow is scheduled to speak at a megachurch in Dallas whose pastor has spoken out against Muslims, Jews, Mormons and members of the LGBT community. Tebow is listed as a special guest at one of the First Baptist Church's morning services on April 28, according to its website. The church is led by Evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress, who has previously denounced non-Christian religions such as Islam, Judaism and Mormonism. Leading up to the most recent presidential election, Jeffress warned parishioners that re-electing President Barack Obama would "lead to the rise of the Antichrist," according to...

The usual suspects pushing immigration reform have a new ally in the fight this time — the religious right. Ralph Reed’s group, the Faith and Freedom Coalition. released a letter Tuesday that outlines broad goals for reform, like keeping families together, reforming the visa system and securing the border. High profile leaders are also weighing in. Mathew Staver, vice president of Liberty University, the college started by former TV minister Jerry Falwell, is on board. Focus on the Family is supporting immigration reform for the first time in its history — even using its radio broadcast that reaches millions to...

Because of the bias of the liberal press, Steve Chalke’s recent endorsement of permanent gay partnerships and the extreme unorthodox views of the ‘Accepting Evangelicals’ group, to which he belongs, have had an unhelpfully disproportionate amount of media coverage. Many Christians are understandably confused. I received this letter this week which I think is not an atypical experience. I am publishing it anonymously with permission and have removed the name of the church. ‘My husband and I worship at a leading conservative evangelical Anglican church and we value the teaching we receive there. Our adult children come from different angles,...

The battle over gun control has exposed a truth the mainstream media is apparently too shy to mention: A bunch of far right white mostly southern paranoid extremists are preparing for armed revolution and apocalypse. They speak treason: literally. They are preparing to “defend” America from America with arsenals of weapons and stockpiles of ammunition. Their “enemy” is everyone in America not like them. They think the world is ending and/or that the government is out to get them. That doesn’t mean it will happen. But expect violence and assassinations. Their ideology is made up of equal parts racism, evangelical...

With the government set to debate ‘gay marriage’, I am constantly asked on social media why I cannot, like ‘other more loving and tolerant Christians’, accept same sex ‘marriage’ as an expression of love and commitment between two people of the same sex. Several people have referred me to an article in the Independent last week titled ‘Happy and Clappy and out of the closet: Evangelicals who say gay is OK’. The implication is that if some evangelicals are welcoming same sex marriage then evangelicalism per se should not be a barrier to others moving in the same direction. Many...

There is only one U.S. religious group, propelled in part by an enthusiastic group of young followers, that is expected to grow to 100 million adherents by the middle of the century. Yet to hear some critics focus on generational shifts showing declining Mass attendance and doctrinal commitment among white Catholics, one might think the Catholic Church is slowly sinking in the U.S. religious landscape. So which is it for the nation’s largest religious group, growth or decline? The answer is some of both in a church that, as it has through much of its history, reflects the changing face...

<p>Congress: The first black Republican senator in three decades will be a spokesman for Tea Party conservatism and a proud member of the party that was founded to fight slavery and made the civil rights revolution possible.</p> <p>Though he'll inevitably be dismissed as a "token" or worse, Rep. Tim Scott, the next Republican senator from the former slave state of South Carolina, and the first black GOP senator since Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, shatters once again the stereotype of the GOP as a party of racists and sexists.</p>

IT hasn’t been a good year for evangelicals. I should know. I’m one of them. In 2012 we witnessed a collapse in American evangelicalism. The old religious right largely failed to affect the Republican primaries, much less the presidential election. Last month, Americans voted in favor of same-sex marriage in four states, while Florida voters rejected an amendment to restrict abortion. Much has been said about conservative Christians and their need to retool politically. But that is a smaller story, riding on the back of a larger reality: Evangelicalism as we knew it in the 20th century is disintegrating. In...

Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president this year, received the lowest level of support among evangelicals of any Republican presidential candidate since Bob Dole in 1996, according to a report by Barna Group, a Christian polling organization. Romney received the support of 81 percent of evangelicals, compared to 88 percent for John McCain in 2008, and 83 percent and 85 percent, respectively, for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Only Dole received a lower level of evangelical support at 74 percent in Barna's polling. Barna's results differ from other polls showing Romney received a higher proportion of the...

Evangelical Protestants have become more devoted to their religious beliefs over the last three decades, even as Catholics have become less attached to their faith, new research finds. The denominational differences come even as religious affiliations have decreased overall in America, with the number of people who claim no religious affiliation at all doubling from 7 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2000, said study researcher Philip Schwadel, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Nevertheless, Schwadel said, these unaffiliated individuals seem to be dropping out of religious institutions that they were previously ambivalent about. People who feel...

My open letter to my black Christian friends, written out of respect and solidarity, generated an extremely high number of email responses. They ranged from commendation to condemnation, with one email informing me that neither “you nor I are going to alter prophecy, these things are foretold, we have to pray now GOD will get us out of here before masses get destroyed!” Espiritus offered a unique perspective: “The Black, Youth and Latino ‘vote’ is being used [by the Chinese] for the outcome [of the] 2012 election. . . . Under Komrad Obama, America’s military will be emasculated, our nuclear...

Inside sources close to Rick Santorum are saying the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 GOP contender is already organizing for a run in 2016. On the other side of the aisle, investor Warren Buffett is already touting his choice to succeed President Obama in the White House. A leading evangelical leader who is close to Santorum and asked not to be identified, told The Christian Post on Wednesday that Santorum is "organizing and making all the necessary preparations" for another run in the 2016 Republican primary. "Rick's getting ready organized and is not going to be behind the eight-ball when...

GO AWAY already It's over dude... As you've most likely already heard, the TEA Party right has declared all-out war on Karl 'Boss Hogg' Rove in the wake of numerous recent (expen$ive) GOP disasters in which 'The Architect' played an inglorious starring role. The final straw was likely his lack of willingness to take responsibility for an almost complete lack of success in the 2012 election cycle, instead pointing fingers and making excuses like an Italian cruise ship captain. Rove's flat-out whiffing in almost every race he backed -on top of improbable Romney defeat- would be enough for any sensible...

America, Conservative Christians and Third World Expectations By Julio Severo Evangelicals are “fighting an uphill battle of demographics” on issues such as gay “marriage”, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly told the Los Angeles Times after the election. Last month, he said evangelicals and social conservatives were “rowing against the tide” with their focus on traditional values issues such as abortion and gay “marriage” in their political messaging. His call for “moderation” basically was a plea for Christians to stop their political opposition to such issues in light of Obama’s recent electoral victory. His admonition implies that after...

At an interfaith conference bringing together Jewish leaders and Protestant Christian pastors outside Jerusalem this week, several of the Christian representatives painted a very worrying picture about the future of relations between Israel and the mainstream Church. While an estimated tens of millions of individual Christians around the world love and support the Jewish state, many of the mainline Protestant churches have been actively boycotting Israel, encouraging pro-Palestinian activism and demanding that Western governments stop sending aid to Jerusalem. One of the main Christian representatives at the conference was Rev. Paul Wilkinson, associate minister at Hazel Grove Full Gospel Church...

***SNIP*** [L]et's be honest. We had little reason to believe that Romney was truly dedicated to improving our social and cultural conditions -- indeed, that all-important thing called the human condition -- because he talked endlessly about his business experience. Most Americans don't like their bosses and have trouble with landlords and creditors. Talking about one's business experience is not usually a good way to win them over. On election day, it became clear to me that the Republican Party had been led into Purgatory by the Laodicean wing. In case you aren't familiar with Revelation 3:14-17, here is what...

Simply based on CNN raw totals counted so far (no projection for votes not counted) Romney has 18,573,603 votes from Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tenessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. McCain had 18,402,511 in those states. By the way, in 2004 Bush had 17,746,072 votes in those states. Obviously there is no official definition of "Bible Belt" and PARTS of many other states would fit (Virginia, Colorado Springs, southern Indiana, etc.), and PARTS of the states I included as "Bible Belt" are definitely not full of Evangelicals. Obviously the voting age population has grown over...