Black and white evangelicals, who preach from the same Bible and hold many of the same values, consistently vote for opposite political parties. Seventy-seven percent of historically black churches (which includes black evangelical churches) identify as Democrats. In 2004, 79 percent of white evangelicals voted for President George W. Bush. Randall Balmer and Lisa Harper explain that the fundamentally different historic experiences of black and white evangelicals outweigh issues of abortion and gay marriage in determining how these groups vote. Our guests talk about the historic segregation and political divide of the evangelical church and what it means for this election, with the country’s first African American presidential candidate.

Guests: Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, and author of “God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush,” and Lisa Sharon Harper, author of “Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat” and executive director of New York Faith and Justice