Dubbing them "an interesting group to watch over the next three months," Reuters' Ed Stoddard examines why Latino evangelicals may be swing voters on two fronts this election year.

With their votes more up-for-grabs than in previous years and their concentration in swing states, Latino evangelicals "could be a key vote in both battleground states and battleground faiths," Stoddard reports. His analysis comes as Latino Christian leaders are meeting in California to discuss how they can best exercise their growing political capital in 2008.

Latino evangelicals' importance as a voting bloc, however, isn't as much about geography as their commitment to a broad values agenda.

Over at The Immanent Frame, Calvin College's Joel Carpenter astutely examines the way immigration is diversifying Christianity. Carpenter argues that as "Christianity is increasingly made up of people and movements from every part of the world, some things may change in evangelical Christians’ outlook." He sees this playing out with concerns on poverty, human rights and immigration growing while more traditional evangelical views on family are reinforced. Carpenter writes:

Among Latinos, the one politically important group today with a large immigrant population, these trends are already clear. Latino evangelicals support government programs to help the poor and vulnerable, but also strong “pro-life” and “traditional marriage” social views.

And, as far as party ID is concerned, he says "neither party at the moment lines up as a perfect match for the group’s concerns." To that end, Stoddard identifies "windows of opportunity" for each candidate:

McCain can appeal to this crowd with his opposition to abortion rights and talk of action on climate change, though the hardening of his views on immigration reform are probably not a winner here.

Obama, on the other hand, talks easily about issues of faith and poverty and his own personal spirituality.

Latino evangelicals are champions of a broadening agenda that is making more and more room for compassion issues. As this group does grow in political stature, their work will be key in opening up the values debate and making the common good a reality.