WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani tried to find peace with a restless bloc of the Republican Party Saturday, telling religious conservatives not to fear him for his stand on issues such as abortion or expect he would change purely for political advantage.

The GOP presidential candidate won praise for simply showing up before an audience that has been casting about for the best social conservative in the Republican field. But two former governors, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, shared the limelight with the former mayor, handily winning the top two spots in a straw poll of “values voters” conducted by the conservative Family Research Council.

Mr. Giuliani sought common ground with Christian conservatives by casting himself as an imperfect man who has asked for guidance through prayer. He recalled crossing himself during his first day of law school after 16 years of attending Catholic schools.

He offered assurances that despite his support for abortion rights, he would seek to lower the number of abortions. He pledged that if elected, he would appoint conservative judges, support school choice, and insist on victory in Iraq — all issues important to the audience at the Values Voter Summit.

The straw poll, conducted online and at the conference, placed Mr. Giuliani in eighth place, second to last. The top vote getter was Mr. Romney, who unlike Mr. Giuliani, worked actively to encourage supporters to vote for him. Mr. Huckabee was close behind, but won overwhelmingly among voters who cast the ballots onsite at the event.

In a 40-minute speech that drew respectful applause, Mr. Giuliani invoked, as he often does, Ronald Reagan’s admonition that “my 80% friend is not my 20% enemy.”

“My belief in God and reliance on his guidance is at the core of who I am, I can assure you of that,” Mr. Giuliani said. “But isn’t it better for me to tell you what I believe rather than change my positions to fit the prevailing wind?”

It was among his better received lines.

“He won simply by coming,” the president of the Family Research Council, which sponsored the three-day conference, Tony Perkins, said. “He helped himself; he certainly didn’t lose any ground.”

But his reception was in stark contrast to the ovations for Mr. Huckabee, a one-time Baptist preacher who is a sentimental favorite of many religious conservatives.

Mr. Huckabee mixed humor, biblical references, and the rhythms of a man used to the pulpit as he implored the crowd to put values above politics and not make expedient decisions.

He called for a constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman and decried the “holocaust of liberalized abortion.”

“We do not have the right to move the standards of God to meet cultural norms. We need to move the cultural norms to meet God’s standards,” he said, bringing the crowd to its feet.