While McCain meets with evangelical venerables like Billy and Franklin Graham in an attempt to smooth his awkward relationship with evangelicals, Obama seeks a demographic that CNN is now calling “an important swing voting bloc” —- young evangelicals.

They’re more pro-life than their parents, but they’re breaking with the religious right and the GOP. Some of them are more interested in the environment, the war, and health care than they are in gay marriage or stem cell research.  Even decided voters can be difficult to categorize.    

Diana Smith, 27, is a New York resident who is actively involved in her Presbyterian church. She supported Clinton but now she’s “slowly going for Obama.”

Her registration: Democrat, because she read they send out less junk mail. “I’m not like a clear-cut Democrat or a clear-cut Republican. But in this world they make you pick a party, so if push comes to shove I feel more close to Democrat I guess … but fiscally I’m very Republican.”

Her top three issues: The environment, poverty and health care, the issues she says affect her most and the issues she thinks Jesus would care about, too. “I know that Jesus said visit the sick, feed the hungry. … I feel like I’m not going against my faith by putting those issues at the forefront.”

Abortion: “I think that comes down to a woman and her doctor. … I’m very pro-life. I believe abortion’s killing and it’s wrong but I don’t think it’s the government’s place to step in and say you can’t do this,” until the baby can live on its own without its mother.

Gay marriage: She doesn’t think opposing it would be at the top of Jesus’ priority list: “Jesus never mentioned homosexuals at all.”

McCain: “More of the same.” She respects his competency and his military record, but “He’s older. He’s in his seventies. And at this point we need drastic change.”

Ben Stafford, 23, lives in Parma, MI, and even identifies himself as a Presbyterian, too. But he describes his politics as libertarian and he’s definitely not voting Obama.

His registration: Independent, although he once started a Teenage Republicans group and volunteered as a page at the 2004 GOP National Convention.  Now he thinks the GOP has lost its commitment to Constitutional principles: “I’d rather work to advance ideas and principles of liberty than work to advance candidates who will become corrupted by the game of politics.”

His top three voting issues: Free market economics, abortion, and limited government spending.

His faith and politics: “I don’t like to use politics to advance my faith,” but he says his political beliefs come from reason and a Christian worldview. If we’re all God’s image bearers and are unique, “How can the government go around making decisions for us and trying to decide things for our lives?” he asks.  “The depravity of man tells us that government can’t solve things for society no matter how hard it tries.”

His candidate: McCain. “I’m just not a big fan of him but I think he’s much better than the alternative. He knows nothing about economics. He’s limited free speech with the McCain-Feingold bill. He’s wishy washy on the Bush tax cuts.”

The religious right: “It appears they’re trying to accomplish their agenda through politics, not the church of Christ, which surprises and disturbs me. … They do seem really single issue and I think that turns a lot of people off. They want to pop the baby out of the womb and then they seem to stop caring about it. They forget about the next 70, 80 years of the baby’s life. .. There’s more to good government than abortion.”