What influence are evangelicals having on foreign policy issues?
Evangelicals are having a big impact on foreign policy, but in different ways. Just like all blacks aren’t the same, all Hispanics aren’t the same, it depends where you were. We have different evangelical blocs that are influencing different parts of foreign policy. The fundamentalist tradition that I am out of says, “Stand with Israel at all costs.” It’s one of the ways you measure, just like abortion: Do I understand that Christians are grafted on? That God gave Israel to the Jews? And we [evangelicals] are stronger, in many cases, in support of Israel than the national Jewish population is in support of Israel. A different type of foreign policy [issue is] human rights questions. Different branches of the evangelical church will be more concerned about human rights. Then you have the religious liberty question, which unites the more liberal and conservative branches of the evangelical church. That would be Sudan and Egypt and Syria; even in the constitution of Iraq, where it’s becom
