Southern Baptists and Bush

Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006

Baptist group still backs Bush, official says
By ROSE FRENCH
The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention says an overwhelming majority of Baptists still support President Bush and his handling of the Iraq war.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Richard Land said exit polls showed that about 84 percent of Southern Baptists voted for Bush in 2004. The Iraq war hasn't significantly eroded that support, he said, despite recent polls that show Republicans losing ground with moderate evangelicals.

"I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Iraq yet," said Land, president of the Washington-based Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy division.

"It would be foolish to say anybody's pleased," Land said. "I don't think the president's pleased with the progress of the war. Clearly, he would have wished things would have gone better. So do I."

But, Land added: "I still think Iraq is one of the more noble things we've done. We went there to try to restore freedom and to bring freedom to the Middle East."

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this month indicated that 42 percent of white evangelicals disapprove of the job Bush has done as president.

But Land says that Bush has lost less support from Southern Baptists than "virtually any other constituency." The Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with more than 16 million members.

"I don't think there's any question that the vast majority of Southern Baptists still strongly support this president and his policies," Land said.

Southern Baptists have been among the most vocal of conservative Christian groups in support of the Bush administration.

www.sbc.net

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/15638339.htm