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'Divided by a Common Faith'
Evangelicals in the United States are increasingly estranged from their counterparts everywhere else.

...Few Americans seem to realize that the church in other industrialized countries is not nearly as divided over this issue. In fact, most evangelical leaders in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand—in contrast to their American cousins—were opposed to the war. What accounts for this surprising difference between many American evangelical believers and their global siblings?...

...How did evangelicals in other English-speaking countries view the war in Iraq? The Evangelical Alliance, the largest umbrella organization in Britain, representing more than a million evangelicals and nearly 7,000 churches, has spoken out in opposition to the war. Joel Edwards, the general director of the Alliance, wrote in a statement published February 2003, "We urge… President Bush and Prime Minister Blair to resist the temptation to declare war unilaterally...." Their statement began, "At a time when the world is widely presumed to be in a ‘countdown to war’ with Iraq, the Evangelical Alliance has reiterated the continued need for diplomacy to try and settle the dispute without a conflict which could destabilize the already delicate balance of international power."

Simon Jones, editor of the Third Way magazine, a Christian publication in Britain, said, "I’ve found Christian comment here in the UK to be almost unanimously anti-war.... In fact, I have found it difficult to find people who could write in favor of military intervention. Generally speaking, Christians here are determined to remind non-Christians that the theology that drives George Bush...is not something that the UK church identifies with."

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and a number of Anglican bishops in the United Kingdom have been highly critical of the Bush/Blair war in Iraq. One of the most vocal is N.T. Wright, the bishop of Durham and an evangelical scholar. Wright criticized George W. Bush and Tony Blair as political leaders "who still invoke the name of Jesus to support plans that look much more like those of Augustus." He also criticized Israel’s "savage" policies towards Palestinians....