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Evangelicals not easily swayed by either presidential candidate are seeing this year's vote as being for "the lesser of two evils."

Some Christians don't want to vote for Republican John McCain but detest Democrat Barack Obama's stance on abortion. Some Christians don't want to vote for Obama but don't believe McCain's values are conservative enough.

Contender Mike Huckabee's loss in the Republican primary and economists making references to another Great Depression are factors, leaving many of the self-described "values voters" in political limbo over who would best lead the country.

"There are a lot of people who don't like either one," said Daniel L. Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest. The seminary is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the country.

Still, "I'll be surprised if we don't have a record turnout this time," Akin said of evangelicals. "I think they're going to hold their noses and pull the lever one way or the other."

The choice between McCain and Obama is clear for millions of supporters, but less so for a large bloc - one in four Americans identifies as an evangelical - that includes Republicans, Democrats and independents who give weight to their faith but are repelled as much as they are drawn to the candidates. The decision for them still isn't easy the week before final votes are cast, especially when issues of race and the Iraqi war are factored in.

Among born-again voters there is a statistical dead heat, according to a new survey from The Barna Group, which follows religious trends. If voting were today, 45 percent of those surveyed plan to vote for McCain and Sarah Palin, while 43 percent expect to cast a ballot for Obama and Joe Biden. Even if McCain were to sweep the 10 percent of undecided born-again voters, according to the survey, he would fail to reach the 62 percent who rallied for President Bush in 2004.

"Well, it's a choice of the lesser of two evils," said the Rev. Jeff Case, pastor of Sumner Baptist Church on Sumner Church Road. "Lots of people are saying that. I don't think they're saying John McCain is evil and Barack Obama is evil. ... What they mean is that they are not satisfied, that we don't have a decent set of candidates on either side to choose from."

The abortion issue is major for Case, whose views largely mirror those of McCain's running mate, who doesn't approve of abortion unless the mother's life is in danger. "Personally," Case said, "I would rather that Palin run for president."

But Case, who considers himself a conservative first and a Republican second, supports McCain. From the pulpit, he only urges people to vote their conscience.

Same goes for Bishop Ralph D. Graves of the Greater Metropolitan Restoration Center on Merritt Drive, who says he won't even wear his Obama cap on church grounds so as not to violate the separation.

"I've had people tell me that Christians cannot vote for Barack Obama," Graves said. "I tell them they're wrong. Some people say they don't have anybody to vote for. I tell them it's wrong not to vote. When it came to the Bush election, a lot of pastors said to me, how can you vote for John Kerry, he supports gay rights? ... With anything we have, there are some things we like and some things we do not like. So, they put Bush into power only to find, 'Oh, we made a mistake.'"

Akin, the seminary president, recently sent out a personal e-mail to staff and friends titled "Why Faithful Evangelicals Cannot Vote for Barack Obama." He admonishes them to "become more informed about the candidates and how you can vote on Election Day in such a way that glorifies Jesus." He says more people should speak up.

Graves dismisses such campaigns against Obama as unfortunate and says he supports Obama because he believes he is true to his Christian roots.

"If Jesus had lived in our time, he would have been criticized harshly by church people," Graves said. "He was a radical. What I'm saying about Barack Obama is that we as church people have a tendency to forget the faith we embrace came from a nonconformist and yet we want people to conform. ... I want a person who is going to be fair with all people," Graves said.

Many faith voters have long lists of issues beyond the traditionally popular ones, and traditional ways of rallying them just won't work.

"There's much more of a sense that this is the world we are placed in ... and the issues before us, whether war, the economy, the environment, are so central to our Christian faith that we have to get out there and vote," said Kurt Fredrickson of Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., one of the largest multidenominational seminaries in the world.

Still, settling on a candidate is not an easy process.

"I'm working on an e-mail back to a friend of mine who is struggling with this and saying, 'I'm voting for Ron Paul,'" said Bronni VanDerwerker, a stay-at-home mother in Greensboro who settled on McCain because he picked Palin. Her friend was referring to Paul, a Republican congressman who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican this year. He also was drafted by a third-party group this year.

"I'm telling her that every vote for the third party is a vote away from McCain, and we lose on the pro-life issue," VanDerwerker said.

She knows others who are still on the fence.

"A lot of people are saying I'm not comfortable voting for 'the lesser of two evils,'" VanDerwerker said. "I know other people that are professing Christians who are pro-Obama, and I think they're letting their pocketbook make that decision."

Sandy Thomas, a nurse from High Point, had thought of voting for the third-party candidate, too. Although she is not an evangelical - she's Jewish - she is a values voter and her thought process for picking a candidate appears to be the norm this election.

"At first I wasn't going to back Obama because of his minister," she said, referring to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose angry rhetoric has been called racist. "But he went to great lengths to distance himself from his minister's views."

She says she also can support Obama's willingness to be more inclusive of all faiths.

"I just bristle every time someone says this is a Christian nation and needs to be protected and kept as such," Thomas said. "This is not a Christian nation. It was intended to be a refuge for people of all faiths."

Such values voters haven't been as cohesive as a single voting bloc in recent elections, yet the candidates haven't lost sight of the fact that their votes could swing the election.

The Kennedy-Nixon campaign of 1960 offered similarities in terms of choices and changing paradigms for evangelicals, said Bill Leonard, a Baptist historian and the dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University.

"As a Catholic, Kennedy was terribly frightening, especially to Protestants in the South who feared that his religion would interfere with his oath of office or would privilege Catholics," Leonard said.

"Kennedy had that famous meeting with ministers in Memphis about his commitment to the Catholic church and what that would mean," Leonard said. "That was a kind of turning point."

Something similar took place this year, Leonard said.

"Look at what Obama did - both he and McCain went to see (Southern Baptist Pastor) Rick Warren," Leonard said. The candidates explained their religious views on issues such as abortion and the environment, in interviews that were YouTubed around the world.

Eventually, Kennedy and Nixon split the religious vote.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com