In yesterday's NY Times, John Broder did a story on the efforts of Barack Obama to reach out to evangelical voters entitled "Obama Courting Evangelicals Once Loyal to Bush".

This story is on the crest of a wave of more stories from the media of Obama's outreach strategies to evangelicals.  The media is testing well placed assertions (more on this momentarily) that evangelicals, and particularly younger evangelicals, are open to Obama and his message.

Two key points to be aware of:

1.Obama's campaign has strategically hired evangelical political operatives with grass roots experience and is wisely embracing the role of faith in the public square while openly reaching out to evangelicals.

2.These operatives have effectively sold the media on the idea that Obama is winning and can win over large blocks of evangelical voters.

Here is my read: Don't believe the hype!

Today's evangelical voters can be grouped into 3 general categories:
Conservative, Progressive & Liberal.

The liberals will vote for Obama and the vast majority of conservatives will hold their nose and vote for McCain.  The progressives will be the block to watch and I predict that initially many will be and are attracted to Obama, but when they get to know his policies better, the majority will stay home as opposed to choosing the lesser of two evils.

Finally, here is the real story:
A large portion of conservative evangelicals have sold their soul to the Republican Party because of a "lesser of 2 evils" mentality and the temptation of access & influence.

Here is the good news - a growing number of younger evangelicals are focused on creating solutions to moral problems such as poverty & hunger, genocide, disease, human trafficking, creation care & human rights in addition to an ongoing commitment to the sanctity of human life and family values.

If this movement were to unify in non partisan action it could create a wave of real and sustainable change that would force the political parties & legislators to jump on board and thus dramatically change political action in this country.

What are your political concerns?

Ken Coleman is a political guru, the voice of the Catalyst Podcast and world renowned blogger at Life Is Sport