All Evangelicals are conservative Republicans, right? Evangelicals are a political force for the Right, right? That’s what the media would have you believe. This is not true. The Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) and Faith in Public Life (FIPL) discovered that the major network’s exit polls only ask Republican primary voters to identify themselves as “born-again or Evangelical Christian.” The same question does not appear on Democratic exit polls.

CAPAF/FIPL commissioned Zogby International to fill in the gap of our knowledge by doing post-election polling in the states of Missouri and Tennessee. The results are stunning for all those who have bought into the idea that Evangelicals are a mindless voting bloc for the Republican party, and that Evangelicals are only concerned about abortion and same-sex marriage.

One out of three voting white Evangelicals, voted in the Democratic primary. Indeed, 19% of all voting Democrats in Missouri, and 29% of all voting Democrats in Tennessee were white Evangelicals.

What are white Evangelicals concerned about? In Missouri, 30% of white Evangelicals ranked jobs and the economy as the most important issue, while only 14% ranked abortion and same-sex marriage as the most important issue. In Tennessee 34% of white Evangelicals ranked jobs and the economy as the most important issue, while only 19% ranked abortion and same-sex marriage as the most important issue.

So not only are 1/3 of voting white Evangelicals voting for Democrats, but as a group, they are twice as concerned about economic matters as they are moral matters (if we take MO and TN as representative of the nation as a whole). This is extremely significant. Of all Christian groups, Evangelicals are the most conservative, both theologically and morally. When that group is twice as concerned about their own pocketbook as they are about issues of moral justice, we are in trouble!