coming up -- the key role of evangelicals in the gop primary process. who are they supporting and why? >> it is important just because there are so many of us. but we don't all think alike, and we don't all support the same person. and as huge demonstrations mark the first anniversary of the arab spring in egypt, we talk with a reporter and middle east expert just back from cairo. also, what must be the biggest congregation in the world -- in seoul, south korea. the yoido full gospel church claims 800,000 members.

welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. gop presidential candidates are campaigning heavily in florida this week, many reaching out to religious conservatives ahead of tuesday's primary. evangelical voters are expected to have a smaller impact there than they did in south carolina, but they still play a key role. we'll have more in a special report on evangelicals and the primaries coming up. in his state of the union address this week, president obama spoke of an economy based on the american values of fairness and shared responsibility.

the president said he would work to cut trillions from the federal budget. he also said the wealthiest americans must pay more in taxes. "now you can call this class warfare all you want. but asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? most americans would call that common sense." >> in the republican response, indiana governor mitch daniels accused the president of trying to divide the american people. thousands of antiabortion activists gathered in washington this week for the annual march for life. it marked the 39th anniversary of the supreme court's roe v. wade decision, legalizing abortion nationwide. also this week, several prominent religious leaders blasted the administration's recent decision to require contraception coverage in the new healthcare law. religious institutions like churches are exempt from

providing that coverage, but the obama administration refused to extend the same exemption to religiously affiliated organizations, such as hospitals, charities and universities. catholic archbishop soon-to-be-cardinal timothy dolan, head of the u.s. conference of catholic bishops, vowed to fight the requirement. he called it unconstitutional and said it will force people to choose between violating their consciences or giving up their health insurance. the majority of evangelical christians are politically conservative and republican. political analysts agree a candidate can't become the gop presidential nominee without strong support from evangelicals. but so far this primary season, conservative christians have been divided over which candidate to support. some evangelicals say they can't support mitt romney because of his mormon faith. and as the florida primary approaches, many are still

undecided. kim lawton reports. >> announcer: at a megachurch in orlando, evangelical christians gathered to pray for the nation. the meeting was organized by a group called the response, which has been holding similar sessions in other early primary states. they say they're praying because they are well aware of the importance of the upcoming election and of their own role in helping to choose the republican nominee. according to exit polls, two-thirds of the gop primary voters in south carolina last week described themselves as born-again or evangelical christians. 44% of them voted for newt gingrich. mitt romney and rick santorum each got 21% of the evangelical vote. here in florida, conservative christians make up about 40% of likely republican primary voters. >> it is important just because there are so many of us.

but we don't all think alike. we don't all support the same person. >> reporter: and that division among evangelicals has been a major factor this primary season. although one-time presumed front-runner romney does have some support within the evangelical community, so far, many rank-and-file conservative christians haven't rallied around him. some believe its at least in part because of romney's membership in the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints -- the mormons. >> mitt romney's mormonism is a concern of mine, because i have a concern as an evangelical christian that i should not promote what my faith teaches is a false religion. >> reporter: warren cole smith is associate publisher of the christian news magazine "world". he wrote a blog in which he said if romney believes what the mormon faith teaches, he is "unfit to serve" as president. >> you could start with the doctrine of the trinity, what theologians would call their christology, in other words, their understanding of who

christ is. and you wouldn't have to go any farther than that to identify very quickly some differences between orthodox biblical christianity and mormon theology. >> reporter: mormons hold several views which set them apart from roman catholic, orthodox and protestant christians. not accepting the doctrine of the trinity, mormons believe that jesus and god were separate physical beings. founder joseph smith taught that traditional christianity had fallen away from the teachings of jesus, so additional and continuing revelations, like the book of mormon, were needed to restore the true faith. the lds church may hold different views from the mainstream, but mormons are deeply offended by the suggestion that they are not "real" christians. joanna brooks is senior correspondent for religiondispatches.org, an interfaith online magazine. >> the name of jesus christ is in the name of our church. so, you know, mormons do tend to feel like we're being profoundly misunderstood when we're classified as not being

christian. >> reporter: and does it matter in a presidential race? >> it is a position of such high visibility in the world that, yes, having a mormon in that particular chair would have the effect of promoting mormonism, of normalizing mormonism culturally both here in the united states and around the world. >> mormons are actually pretty cautious about the scrutiny that might come to faith as romney runs and if he were to win the presidency. at the same time, you know, perhaps over the course of a romney presidency, people would finally get used to the idea that mormons are fairly normal members of american society. >> reporter: the lds church has not commented on romney's campaign because it doesn't want to appear to be interfering in the election. however, the church has released a series of ads highlighting the variety of people who hold the mormon faith.

this primary season, romney has avoided direct discussion of the faith issue. he has been doing a lot of outreach to evangelicals. >> i am convinced that if we have a president who will tell the truth and live with integrity and who knows how to lead and rebuild an economy, who will then draw on the patriotism of the american people, we will be able to restore those values and keep america as it has always been, the hope of the earth. >> reporter: in florida, evangelical republican cathleen kwas is supporting romney largely because of his economic experience. >> i'm not electing him to be the pastor of my church or anything like that. i think he's a moral man. i think he's a strong husband, a good father, and i'm sure we share a lot of the same, you know, ethics and values. and you know, the mormonism isn't -- i don't even think about that. >> reporter: charisma media ceo steve strong is among other evangelicals who say they are

reluctant to support romney because of his policies, not his faith. >> i have no criticism of governor romney personally other than the fact that you have to question how conservative he is by some of the things he did in massachusetts. thankfully his flip-flopping, in my opinion, was flip-flopping in the right direction. that is a factor, but for me that is more of a factor than what church he goes to. >> reporter: if not romney, who? in the south carolina vote, many evangelicals appeared to accept gingrich's argument that he is the candidate with the best chance of winning. >> we must have somebody who knows what they believe, is prepared to defend what they believe, and will do what it takes to defeat obama. >> reporter: evangelicals appear divided over whether gingrich's marital past will be a factor. >> i think newt gingrich's past is a huge issue. and it isn't so much that he could be forgiven. forgiveness is the essence of christianity and we've all been

forgiven. but it shows his character. and not once, but a couple times. i have no doubt he's changed. no doubt. but it is troubling. >> i don't hold newt gingrich's past against him. i do believe he made mistakes in the past and that's not influencing me now. i think he has had a change of heart, but i just believe he's not steady and calm and i think he's fairly progressive and so the moral thing isn't what's going to sway my opinion. >> reporter: earlier this month, a group of conservative christian leaders urged unified support for santorum. strang decided to join them. >> because i want to make a statement that character is important and not think that we have to give it to somebody just because all the pundits say that they have the election wrapped up and they are the ones that can beat president obama. i think that it is unknown. >> reporter: but given his low standing in the polls, many evangelicals do wonder about santorum's electability.

susan berdet says she wrestled a lot before finally casting her absentee ballot for santorum. >> i do want someone to beat our present president. badly. but i want it to be the right person. i just felt that rick santorum represented my beliefs. >> reporter: santorum has been urging other evangelicals to also vote their values. >> it's not about winning or not winning. it's about how you want to win. do you want to win by being just a little better. or do you want to win with a mandate? >> reporter: polls show that despite any misgivings in the primary, in a race between romney and obama, the majority of evangelicals across the country would vote for romney. but they may not be enthusiastic about it. >> the real question is will evangelicals both turn out in large numbers and be energized as volunteers and financial supporters of mitt romney. it doesn't take a majority of evangelicals to stay home, it just takes a few million

evangelicals to stay home or to choose to not get as actively involved in this race, to cost mitt romney the presidency, should he become the republican nominee. >> reporter: with all the decisions looming, many evangelicals say they will continue to pray for wisdom. i'm kim lawton in orlando. in other news, in egypt this week, one year after the beginning of protests that toppled president mubarak, tens of thousands again took to the streets. meanwhile, the lower house of the new parliament was sworn in. the majority of members are not young demonstrators but members of two islamist parties, which now hold almost three-quarters of the seats. we talk today with kate seelye, recently back from egypt. she has reported from the middle east for many years, and is now a vice president at the middle

east institute in washington. kate, welcome here, and it's great you're back, and how did it feel when you were in cairo this time? what did it feel like? >> well, you know, i sensed, bob, a kind of empowerment and excitement that i haven't seen in egypt for a very long time, and i've been reporting there for years. egyptians overthrew a dictator. they're now politically empowered. they found their voice. they're engaged. but at the same time there are new fears and anxieties. the country has been very unstable the last year. the tourism industry has collapsed. investment is down, and people are hurting economically. in fact, there are people today who are much worse off than they were a year ago. so there are fears. >> in those demonstrations that we saw pictures of, there were divisions, weren't there? some for one thing, some for -- >> yes, it's interesting. we're seeing sort of a different take on the revolution. there's one group that came out the other day, and they were celebrating, celebrating these

newfound freedoms, and those were many of the people who did very well in the recent parliamentary elections. but there was another group, the young protesters who triggered the demonstrations last year who feel that the revolution is not over, the goals of the revolution have not been met, the ruling military council is still in office, and they are determined to keep protesting, so two different views of the same revolution. >> what does it imply about the future for people there that in this new parliament there are three-quarters of the members who are islamists? what does that say? >> that's right. well, first let me explain who they are. there are two groups that did very well, the muslim brotherhood, a mainstream islamist group that has been around for 80 years doing charitable work and is very popular among the egyptian electorate and got 47% of the seats, and then a hardline, very conservative islamist group, the nour party. together, as you said, they make up nearly 75%.

there is a concern that they will impose an islamist agenda on egypt. but the hope is that once in office, once held accountable they will both move more to the center, and that won't be the case. >> what about the minority of christians in egypt? what's the future for them? >> well, they are worried. they have been facing more sectarian divisions. they've been the victims of more attacks on their churches, and they're worried with an islamist-dominated parliament in office. their hope is that when egypt starts to draft a new constitution, which it will do over the course of the next six months, that their rights and their freedoms will be guaranteed in this constitution, they will be safeguarded, and that is their best hope for the future. >> and the women are a little nervous, too, aren't they? >> they're a little nervous as well, and once again they are looking at this constitution and saying this is the chance to safeguard our rights. >> kate seelye of the middle

east institute. many thanks. welcome home. >> thank you so much. now, what must be the largest church in the world -- the yoido full gospel church in seoul, south korea, with 800,000 members. it's part of the pentecostal movement, preaching traditional christian doctrine, the gifts of the spirit, both the prosperity gospel and the social gospel and, not least, the importance of women in the church. lucky severson tells the story. >> reporter: there are big churches, and then there's the yoido full gospel church here in seoul, south korea. it's the mother of megachurches, with the largest congregation in the world. on a typical day 200,000 will attend one of seven services

along with another 200,000 300,000 watching them on tv and in adjoining buildings or satellite branches. while some other churches may be losing members, this one just keeps growing. the main sanctuary here holds 21,000 worshipers packed to the rafters seven times every sunday. each service has its own orchestra, its own choir, its own pastor. there are hundreds of assistants. there need to be. each service is translated into 16 different languages for visitors. karen kim is a pastor with the church's international division. she says she was shocked when she first moved here from australia. >> i think when you've got people this size, like you have to have structure, and you have to have organization, because otherwise people would be getting killed. like, you can't just let it all just take care of itself. like, there has to be like organized rosters of volunteers and things like that to get people in and out of the service, or these people would literally die and get crushed. >> reporter: the level of

organization here is striking. senior pastor reverend young hoon lee explains it this way. >> our church operates like orchestra. every day we make perfect harmony and fantastic symphony. >> reporter: even though the first christian missionaries arrived in korea in 1784, the so-called "hermit kingdom" continued to be buddhist until about 60 years ago. that was about the time pastor david cho founded what became the yoido full gospel church, which now has missionaries of its own in 67 countries. >> people don't come to our church because i'm holy person, i'm spectacular christian. no. they come because i supply their need. i meet their need through the word of god. >> reporter: actually, pastor cho is one of the most revered evangelists in korea. he was a buddhist until he rejected his religion when he was near death from tuberculosis.

he says that's when jesus christ appeared to him in the middle of the night and told him to preach the gospel. so he did. when the country was suffering in poverty and desperation after the korean war, he preached the gospel of hope through prayer. >> every morning at 4:30 people come to church, and they pray for one or two hours, and prayer mountain prayer, and all-night prayer meeting on friday evening. >> reporter: prayer seems especially important to this congregation. each day buses leave the big church for the ride up to prayer mountain, which includes a sacred cemetery on a hillside. it overlooks a complex of buildings with a church, a hotel, and tiny, individual prayer rooms barely big enough to kneel and pray, which some do for hours. from a distance you can hear the sound of wailing coming from the top of the cemetery -- people speaking in tongues. >> it's very important to their

faith, and speaking in tongues is a way that they communicate with god and that they allow god to communicate through them, and it's evidence of the spirit working in them and them being filled with the spirit. >> reporter: from only five members in 1958, yoido full gospel, which is affiliated with the pentecostal movement, grew to be the largest congregation in the world with over 800,000 members. some satellite congregations have been released to become independent branches, although they're still connected to the big church. there is more than one reason yoido grew so big and so fast, but pastor cho believes women have a lot to do with it. >> god gave me the idea because until that time women were despised, actually, in society. they were not given any important position, and the spirit of the lord said, "why don't you use women?" so i announced that i would start cell ministry and use women as the leader, and many men protested. they felt very bad about that,

but i forced my idea. the women were so very happy, and they dedicated -- they were excellent workers. >> they make up the majority of the membership in the church, and they really like to do a lot of volunteering. historically, in church history pentecostalism has been one of those areas and those branches of christianity that has been more open to women pastors. one reason yoido has grown so big is because of its fundamental message, that if members give to god, he'll give them prosperity, the same message found in numerous megachurches in the u.s. >> many people are accusing me that i'm preaching the gospel of prosperity, but i'm not afraid of being accused, because if gospel could not bring prosperity to other people, suffering people, what can you do for them? because gospel must bring prosperity in our spirit, soul, and body and lives. if gospel bring destruction to us, why should we believe in prosperity?

>> reporter: but pastor cho says personal prosperity is good only if people become rich as well in their spirit and soul. >> people try to bring happiness from their circumstances by being rich, by arriving there to a position in society. but those things soon pass away. they need eternal hope that is coming from inside out, not from outside in. >> reporter: tithing is a fundamental part of church doctrine. >> most members give tithes to the church -- 10%. with that money we help all the poor people in our society. >> reporter: with so many members and so much in tithes, the church could be a powerful political influence in south korea. but pastor lee says the church does not want to become politically active and instead puts more emphasis on the social gospel -- helping the poor, like this project outside the church where volunteers collect and dispense clothing for those in need.

>> they have a lot of those projects. i think not just in our church, but i think churches around the world are starting realize that the debate between, you know, the social gospel --- just the gospel. you can't have one without the other, because you both, and they need to work hand-in-hand if you're going to make a difference in our world. >> reporter: in the 1960s, korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, with an annual per capita income of about $60. today it's around $30,000. south korea is prospering. pastor cho says he knows the reason. >> jesus christ. that is the only answer we can give. you come and try to study the reason of prosperity. you can't find out any reason, because we don't have a good politician so far. we don't have great business people. >> reporter: and if christianity is a factor in the prosperity of south korea, yoido is a significant contributor.

60 years ago there were about 50,000 christians in south korea. today it's more than 10 million, and almost one in ten were baptized in the yoido full gospel church. i'm lucky severson in seoul, south korea. finally, in an age of information overload, pope benedict xvi has extolled the importance of silence. silence in which to reflect and communicate with god, silence to separate the important from the insignificant. the pope noted that sometimes the most authentic communication takes place in utter silence. for instance, between people who are in love. appropriately, the pope's views on silence were written, not spoken. he himself is said to be a very good listener. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on twitter and

facebook, find us on youtube, and watch us anytime, anywhere on smart phones. there's also much more on our website. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from celebrations of the chinese new year in new york, the year of the dragon, which began on monday. ♪