GREENVILLE, S.C — .-- The Christian heart of the Republican Party beats fiercely on the broad boulevard where one finds both the gated entrance to Bob Jones University and the headquarters of His Radio network, home to an AM Christian station and a sister music station, "FM With Love From Jesus."
But the two bastions of Southern evangelism mirrored the split in the ranks of conservative voters before the state's Republican primary Saturday.
Host Tony Beam of the network's "Christian Talk" became a warrior for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee from the moment he turned on his microphone at 6 a.m. Thursday.
"We need a leader in America who has the core value system that's built on the eternal truths of the Bible," Beam told listeners. "We need a lighthouse, a guiding force to get us in the right direction."
Prominent conservative and Bob Jones University dean Robert Taylor made an opposing pitch on the university's radio station earlier in the week. "Mitt Romney is the only candidate who shares our values and can win in November," Taylor said. "That's why it's so important that conservatives rally around him."
Since Ronald Reagan was anointed by the Christian right here in 1980, Republican candidates who have won South Carolina have gone on to win the presidency, giving rise to the maxim that the road to the White House runs through the state.
Evangelicals have an opportunity Saturday to remind party leaders about their record as kingmakers. But conservative leaders have turned against each other in a split that may further undermine the political power of evangelicals who, with the decline of the once-formidable Christian Coalition of America and other groups, have lost influence within the GOP.
"There's a battle for the heart and the soul of the Republican Party," Beam said. "I'm very concerned."
Taylor, like other prominent activists on the right, said Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, had a better chance of beating a Democratic candidate in the general election than Huckabee or Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator also seeking to appeal to evangelicals.
"Romney has the temperament and the talent," said Taylor, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Bob Jones University. "There's a gridlock in Congress, and we need an executive who can function as a CEO."
In October, Bob Jones III, chancellor of the institution that bears his grandfather's name, set off a firestorm within the evangelical community when he endorsed Romney, who is a Mormon.
