Bakker chose a different strategy [in the 2004 election]: She voted for the director of a relief and development NGO as a write-in candidate. She didn't feel like there was a place for her in the last election. And like Reside, she sees abortion as a stumbling block. "Democrats alienate most evangelicals on the abortion issue," Bakker says. And though the Democrats' concern for social justice is admirable, party leaders sometimes fail to recognize the public consequences of individual moral choices. "Bedroom issues are still important," she says.
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For those who have moved away from the conservative faith of their youth, commenting on evangelicalism in politics can provoke ambivalence. When a current or former evangelical critically assesses the Religious Right, she is also speaking of communities of faith that formed and shaped her.

This can leave even well-adjusted theological emigrants feeling homeless. "Sometimes I feel like I'm living in two worlds," says Bakker. As a doctoral student at a mainline Catholic school, she "plays the gadfly" in liberal religious and academic circles - and also in conservative circles. She is not at home with many aspects of conservative theology. But when she is attending mainline churches, she misses the vibrancy of evangelical faith.