A new study suggests that young, white Christian voters have warmed toward big government while cooling toward social litmus tests.

"Younger Americans, including younger Americans of faith, are not the culture war generation," said Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research, which did the survey.

"Young Catholics, mainline Protestants and evangelicals are bridging the divides that entrenched the older generation."

The study also suggests that while Sen. John McCain maintains the loyalty of weekly church attendees, Sen. Barack Obama has captured those who attend once or twice a month -- a group that split between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

Overall, it found Mr. Obama leading Mr. McCain 50 percent to 42 percent.

Sponsored by Faith in Public Life, which promotes broadening the religious political agenda, the study surveyed 2,000 adults, with an oversample of 1,250 young adults that included cell phone interviews.

Mr. Obama led 51-40 among Catholics -- a group that President Bush narrowly won in 2004. But Catholics 35 and older supported Mr. McCain, 46-45, while 18- to 34-year-old Catholics supported Mr. Obama, 55-40.

Mr. McCain led Mr. Obama, 68-25, among white evangelicals, with those under 35 supporting him almost as strongly as older ones. While only 35 percent of all young adults support Mr. McCain, 65 percent of young, white evangelicals do.

But after decades in which big government was regarded as evil, the survey showed young voters, especially Catholics, want more government services, particularly for the poor.

Two-thirds of young Catholics preferred bigger, activist government, as did 44 percent of young white evangelicals. Just 41 percent of older Catholics and 23 percent of older evangelicals want more government.

The largest voter shift since 2004 was among those who attend worship once or twice a month -- about 16 percent of voters. While 49 percent supported Mr. Kerry, 60 percent support Mr. Obama.

"There is no generation gap among those who attend religious services most often," the study said. Those who go at least weekly favor Mr. McCain, 55-38.

Other polls have shown that voters view the Democratic Party as unfriendly to faith, but this one found that Mr. Obama is overcoming that. Forty-nine percent of voters viewed Mr. Obama as friendly toward religion, while 45 percent saw Mr. McCain that way.

Catholicism had a bigger generation gap than evangelicalism, especially on abortion. Sixty percent of young Catholics believe it should be legal in most or all cases, compared to 51 percent of older Catholics. Forty-four percent of young Catholics support gay marriage, while just 26 percent of older Catholics do.

"The younger evangelical story is a more complex one," Dr. Jones said.

The survey found that young evangelicals are even more opposed to abortion than older ones. While 55 percent of older evangelicals say abortion is very important to their vote, 62 percent of those 18 to 34 say so. But half of young evangelicals rank health care as high as abortion and two-thirds say they would vote for someone who differed with them on abortion.

While just 34 percent of older evangelicals support some form of legal recognition for gay couples, 52 percent of young evangelicals do so. Personal ties may explain that, Dr. Jones said.

"A much higher level of young evangelicals have close friends or family members who are gay or lesbian. It was 37 percent ... compared to 16 percent among older evangelicals," he said.

Support for gay marriage jumped when opponents were asked if they would support it "if the law guaranteed that no church or congregation would be required to perform marriages for gay couples." Support jumped 10 points among all evangelicals and 17 points among all Catholics.

Although the survey was completed before the financial crisis reached its height, the economy was by far the leading concern among all religious groups. Abortion, which has been a crucial voting issue for many evangelicals, ranked sixth out of 10 issues for them.