Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has drawn support from an unlikely source: young evangelical Christians, observers say.

Michael Dudley is among born-again Christians who plan to support the Illinois senator should be become the Democratic nominee, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.

I think a lot of Christians are having trouble getting behind everything the Republicans stand for, said Dudley, a 20-year-old Republican and a sophomore at Seattle Pacific University.

A September 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, found that 15 percent of white evangelicals between 18 and 29, a group that traditionally votes Republican, say they no longer identify with the GOP.

Shane Claiborne, a Philadelphia Christian activist and author of Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, calls Obama's young evangelical supporters political misfits.

It's not about liberal or conservative, or Democrats or Republicans, he said. I don't think it's a new evangelical left. ... There's a new evangelical stuck-in-the-middle.

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