Politically speaking, what’s up with young evangelicals? Evangelicals are 26 percent of the U.S. population, a quarter of them under 30, and, as the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life reports, “Not since 1972 has generation played such a significant role in voter preferences as it has in recent elections. Younger people have voted substantially more Democratic,” a pattern that “may well continue in 2012.”
For starters, evangelicalism is an approach to Protestantism that can be practiced in many denominations. It emphasizes a renewal of faith toward an inner, personal relationship with Jesus; the mission to bring others to that relationship; the cross as a symbol of salvation…