FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Seven GOP candidates fielded questions about faith, morals and conservative issues at the Values Voter Presidential Debate Monday night in Florida.

Frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson gave the event a pass.

Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback and Duncan Hunter were joined by newly declared candidate Alan Keyes and businessman John Cox.

All seven participants said they would work to keep federal funding away from organizations that perform or promote abortions; they all said they would revive an attempt to reform Social Security by offering personal retirement accounts; and all of them said they would oppose a government-run universal health insurance system. They all vowed to increase funding for abstinence education, to veto hate crimes legislation and to oppose embryonic stem cell research. They all agreed multiculturalism "weakens and divides" the country.

All seven also weighed in against Islamic militants.

"It's a theological war. It's not politically correct to say that. It's just the truth," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, for example. "We're fighting a people who will not be satisfied until every last one of us is dead."

Giuliani was in South Florida on Monday. His campaign said he does not attend every debate to which he is invited.

Debate moderator Joseph Farah said the front-runners' absence would cost them support among social conservatives.

He added that none of the Democratic candidates accepted an invitation to participate in their own Values Voter Presidential Debate.

The Brownback campaign took a shot at Romney for failing to attend, calling him "pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-embryonic stem research and pro-taxpayer funding of abortion."

Romney, a Mormon, campaigns on sharing conservative Christian values, territory over which Brownback and Huckabee have battled.

"The only values Romney has consistently cared about are in his stock portfolio," said Rob Wasinger, Brownback's national campaign manager.

Huckabee won a straw poll after the debate.

"We won huge," Huckabee said in a statement. "This overwhelming vote affirms that conservatives are coalescing around one candidate and that candidate is me."

Who Leads 'Values Voters'?

The Values Voters debate panelists are well known conservative activists.

Farah directs the news operation at WorldNetDaily, a Web site favored by conservatives that launched with the backing of a foundation supported by Richard Mellon Scaife.

Phyllis Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, has spent years opposing the Equal Rights Amendment and is the author of numerous books and a weekly newspaper column.

Roy Moore was removed from his post as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court when he refused to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom.

Paul Weyrich co-founded the Heritage Foundation. He has written that U.S. news organizations have been infiltrated by Russian communists and that the House Un-American Activities Committee ought to be revived.

Don Wildmon is the founder of the American Family Association, whose mission statement says it "exists to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth."

Janet Folger is the author of "The Criminalization of Christianity. She said she and her co-hosts "represent God's principles" and chided Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Thompson for skipping the event. "Those who snubbed us, they will not win," she predicted.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper said that about a third of the 2,700 seats at the Broward Center for Performing Arts were empty for event the organizers said was sold out.

The debate was aired on the Internet, some radio stations, and a religious channel available to satellite television subscribers.