Spurred by the issues of gay marriage, abortion and the war in Iraq, religious voters took on an unusually bare-knuckled political role this year in a contest that pitted a born-again Christian against the third Roman Catholic nominated for president.

The election was too close to call early Wednesday morning, with Bush leading Kerry 249 electoral votes to 225 as of 4 a.m. CNN exit polls showed Republicans made strong gains this election among those who attended church “weekly” and “more than a weekly.” Bush won the support of 56 percent of weekly churchgoers, an increase of 23 percentage points over 2000. He gained the support of 61 percent of those who attended church on a “more than a weekly” basis, an increase of 42 percentage points from the 2000 election.

“It’s much more intense this year than in the immediate past,” said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, Ohio.

Mary Ann Kenney, a devout Catholic who attends Mass at St. John’s Church in Kingsbridge, in the Bronx, cast her ballot for Bush. The 60-year-old hopes a Republican victory would mean a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.

“I support the president 100 percent,” she said.

Father Vincent O’Keefe, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, voted for Kerry. A self-described Democrat and a big fan of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, O’Keefe chose Kerry even though he disagrees with the senator’s position on abortion.

“Abortion is a dreadful evil,” he said, but added that he wouldn’t judge a candidate on a single issue.

The entire spectrum of voters across the religious landscape, from evangelical Protestants to conservative Catholics to reform Jews and Muslims, will be waiting along with Kenney and O’Keefe for the final results.

Exit polls showed that Bush increased his share of the Catholic vote from the 2000 election, from 47 to 51 percent. Jews also increased their votes for Bush by five percentage points over 2000, from 19 to 24 percent, according to CNN.

Gil Traub, 55, a registered Democrat with conservative leanings, voted for Bush.

“As a Jew, it doesn’t bother me that Bush is reflective when it comes to religion,” Traub said. He supports the president’s proposal to privatize Social Security and thinks Bush would pick good justices for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Liz Greenstein, 38, a director of development at a local nonprofit organization voted for Kerry because, as a Jew, she thinks Bush has crossed the line separating church and state.

“I abhor everything that Bush stands for,” she said, adding, “What do you call John Ashcroft having prayer meetings at the Justice Department?”

According to an August poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 85 percent of Americans say religion plays an important role in their lives. In the same poll, 72 percent of registered voters told Pew that “it is important to them that a president has strong religious beliefs.”

Dr. James Fisher, co-director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University, said Kerry was plagued by attacks from other Catholics throughout his campaign for his support of abortion rights and his opposition to a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage.

With the help of the Christian Coalition, Republicans hoped to recapture a large portion of the 4 million evangelical Christians who stayed home in 2000, according to party operatives. The coalition, the largest Christian grassroots organization with more than 2 million supporters, emailed millions of voter guides to “conservative, pro-family voters,” Drew McKissick, the group’s political director, wrote on its website.

“There was too much at stake in this presidential election,” wrote Roberta Combs, President of the Coalition on the group’s website, “for God’s people to stay home.”

Bush’s support among regular church-going or conservative Catholics and Protestants was also helped by the administration’s faith-based initiatives, including a new Catholic health plan offered to federal employees, which denies payment for services not consistent with church teachings on abortion and contraception.

Jim Wallis, president of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement devoted to fighting poverty, is delighted that things have changed in the religious landscape.

“The old conversation dominated by the religious right and focused on just one or two issues is over,” he said.

Email: gr2130@columbia.edu