How is the economic news playing across the religious spectrum? The Associated Press takes a gander this morning:

In Parma, Ohio, an organizer for Barack Obama arrived at a recent “Catholic house party,” a campaign-sponsored chat about values, prepared to answer questions about abortion.

The conversation instead lurched into the battered state of the local economy — not surprising in a community where laid-off Ford auto workers are now greeters at Wal-Mart.

Across the religious spectrum, from atheists to evangelicals, the economy ranks as the top issue on voters’ minds — a scenario that usually works in Democrats’ favor.

Now, with U.S. financial systems in turmoil and the government rushing to fix it, Democrats sense an opportunity to highlight the economy as a values issue and attract middle-of-the-road religious believers who were central to George W. Bush’s winning coalition in 2004.

For years, more liberal faith leaders have tried to elevate fighting poverty at home and abroad onto the values agenda. What’s changed is that an increasing number of voters are seeing suffering not just in the streets but in the mirror.

Barriers remain to both major parties if they seek to appeal to religious voters on the economy. You’re either for or against gay marriage or abortion rights, but no one supports foreclosures and layoffs. Differences arise over solutions, and analysts say it can make more sense for campaigns to make general pitches on the economy than faith-based appeals.

Then there’s the mind-boggling complexity of things like the $700 billion government bailout Congress is considering this week just as the presidential race is heating up.

“This is daunting, complicated stuff even for sophisticated voters,” said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio. “You can make values arguments about the economy. But you’d have to be subtle and complex and require a good bit of discussion — not the sorts of things presidential campaigns are given to.”

Green released a study last week saying 51 percent of voters quizzed over the summer — well before the current crisis — ranked economic issues like jobs and taxes as their top priority.

Black Protestants (61.5 percent) and Latino Catholics (58 percent) ranked economic issues as their highest priority, while Jews (43 percent) and evangelical Protestants (46 percent) ranked them slightly lower but still more important than foreign policy and social issues.

In 2004, just 18 percent of evangelicals ranked the economy as their top issue. Other groups, like mainline Protestants, also are much more concerned about the economy now.

But despite the seismic changes on ranking the issues, Green found remarkably little movement among faith groups’ presidential preferences. Even with a sour economy and a Republican in the White House, Obama was polling about the same as ’04 nominee John Kerry among faith groups. More recent surveys show the same thing.

Green said it’s possible voters had yet to hear cogent solutions on the economy from either Obama or Republican rival John McCain and were holding to past voting patterns.

Groups independent of the Obama campaign are trying to seize on the economy as a values issue in efforts limited in scope and budget but nevertheless new for progressives.

You can visit the link for more details about how this is playing out. Interesting stuff. Very interesting.