Bush and the Evangelicals
Beliefnet.com co-editor Steven Waldman has an interesting column on National Review Online that plausibly describes Bush's appeal to evangelical voters even though he's actually been comparatively tepid in his support of evangelical causes.
There are other, more pedestrian reasons evangelicals love Bush. Evangelicals tend to be conservative, so they like his policies. After all, they mostly voted for the very non-evangelical Gerry Ford over born-again Christian Jimmy Carter. But the connection between Bush and evangelicals is deep and personal — indeed, it's grounded in their reading of how God transforms men and chooses leaders.
It's a short, neutral column worth reading by Bush backers and detractors alike.
By the way, Beliefnet.com is a site I wish I had more time to explore fully. It's a "multi-faith e-community" that represents a wide range of religious faiths, including a number of flavors of institutional and alternative religions.