Matt Ayers is excited about his first opportunity to vote in a Republican primary and has “narrowed down” his choice tomorrow to Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney. “They both stand for what we stand for,” he says. “I’ve got to make up my mind.”

He is a Southern Baptist and a student at the fiercely conservative fundamentalist Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. After graduation he plans to set up a business running Christian camps.

Even at an institution that tolerates little theological doubt and has, in the past, condemned Catholics and Mormons as followers of a “cult”, it is possible to detect some of the same indecision that has characterised this topsy-turvy Republican race through the early-voting states.

Mr Ayers, 20, says: “I’ve got an obligation to God and my country to vote the right way as I think.” Is Mr Romney’s Mormon faith a problem? “I believe he is a Christian — but I would not be sure about all Mormons.”

Some of the students have decided who to back.

“I’m going to vote for Huckabee,” Nakita McClennan, 18, says. “I believe he stands for no gays. The Bible clearly states there shouldn’t be relationships between men.”

At Bob Jones, where men must have short hair and women must wear skirts, a ban on inter-racial relationships was lifted only in 2000. And even now heterosexuals of whatever race are not allowed to hold hands until they are engaged. Is that not a bit late to find out if you like your fiancé’s hand? “You must learn to love it,” Miss McClennan explains.

The Republican problem in this election is that despite indulging in serial dating, it has not yet learnt to love — let alone firmly clasped the hand of — any candidate.

Mr Huckabee won in Iowa, John McCain in New Hampshire and Mr Romney this week in Michigan on very different platforms.

The bones of this fractured Republican coalition continue to grind against one another before tomorrow’s primary in South Carolina.

The division is apparent even in the geography of the state: driving north from Charleston, with its colonial-era buildings redolent of old money and plantations, you pass through rolling red-clay terrain, where the military has a big base at Fort Jackson, before heading on to the “up-country” around Greenville, where social conservatives dominate.

The so-called values voters are expected to account for half the primary turnout tomorrow, but they may not be as homogenous for Mr Huckabee as they were in Iowa. The Southern Baptist pastor and former Arkansas Governor has sought to widen his appeal by talking about the pain afflicting middle-income families. Yesterday he was endorsed by André Bauer, the Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina, who said that the candidate was a “sound choice for senior citizens”.

Mr Romney, who has previously campaigned on a socially conservative message, has been busy reprising his economic theme of Michigan: promising to fight for every job in South Carolina’s furniture and textile industry.

Mr McCain, who has taken the lead over Mr Huckabee in recent polls, is strongest among the 400,000 military veterans who inhabit the state. Eight years ago, this former Vietnam PoW was defeated by George W. Bush, with whom he shared the military vote. On a campaign stop this week he said: “We were not at war in 2000.”

Cindy, his wife, makes frequent references to their sons’ military service. But he knows that the veterans’ vote is not enough to win here.

Some of his events have been disrupted by protesters waving the Confederate flag. They are still angry that he once called for “a symbol of racism and slavery” to be removed from the Capitol’s dome. Yesterday, in the same Capitol building in Columbia, where the Confederate flag now flutters from a pole outside, a group called “South Carolina Family Issues for McCain” was launched. He released a statement saying that “critical issues of the day” included “defending the sanctity of human life and upholding traditional marriage”.

Mr McCain is still regarded with suspicion by many religious conservatives, whom he once denounced as “agents of intolerance”.

Doug Smith, the deputy speaker of the state legislature, said: “There were a lot of very vocal groups at the fringes — be it about the flag, immigration, Christian values — who don’t like John McCain. It’s time to move on from these issues and talk about his honesty — which is what we need.”

Mr McCain has no plans to speak at Bob Jones University — as Mr Bush controversially did eight years ago — even though he once promised to “tell them exactly what I think of them”.

There are limits to straight talk, even in South Carolina.

Campus life

— Dr Bob Jones Sr founded Bob Jones University in 1927 to “grow Christlike character that is Scripturally disciplined”

— The university refused to admit black students until 1970, and inter-racial relationships were forbidden because it claimed they supported the agenda of the anti-Christ

— The university has maintained a strong stance against Catholicism. Bob Jones Jr described it as “a Satanic counterfeit”

— The Rev Ian Paisley holds an honorary doctorate

Sources: Beliefnet, Bob Jones University, Agencies

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