White evangelicals supported the Iraq War at rates sharply above other Americans

Evidence

In 2002, ordinary evangelical Christians were “the biggest backers of Israel and Washington’s planned war against Iraq”: 69 percent of conservative Christians favored military action, a full 10 percentage points higher than the general population. In 2003, once the war commenced, 87 percent of white evangelical Christians supported Bush’s decision to go to war, compared to 70 percent of Protestant mainliners and 59 percent of secular Americans. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 422

Categorization

• XREF: The 87% vs 59% secular gap echoes later sociological work on evangelical Trump support; connects to the book’s own Part II argument about political alignment outpacing theology.