Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, whose weekly sermons are seen by millions of television viewers, led the charge with particular fervor. "We should offer to serve the war effort in any way possible," said Mr. Stanley, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. "God battles with people who oppose him, who fight against him and his followers." In an article carried by the convention's Baptist Press news service, a missionary wrote that "American foreign policy and military might have opened an opportunity for the Gospel in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
As if working from a slate of evangelical talking points, both Franklin Graham, the evangelist and son of Billy Graham, and Marvin Olasky, the editor of the conservative World magazine and a former advisor to President Bush on faith-based policy, echoed these sentiments, claiming that the American invasion of Iraq would create exciting new prospects for proselytizing Muslims. Tim LaHaye, the co-author of the hugely popular "Left Behind" series, spoke of Iraq as "a focal point of end-time events," whose special role in the earth's final days will become clear after invasion, conquest and reconstruction. For his part, Jerry Falwell boasted that "God is pro-war" in the title of an essay he wrote in 2004.
David Brooks correctly noted that if evangelicals elected a pope, it would most likely be Mr. Stott, who is the author of more than 40 books on evangelical theology and Christian devotion. Unlike the Pope John Paul II, who said that invading Iraq would violate Catholic moral teaching and threaten 'the fate of humanity,' or even Pope Benedict XVI, who has said there were 'not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq,' Mr. Stott did not speak publicly on the war. But in a recent interview, he shared with me his abiding concerns.
'Privately, in the days preceding the invasion, I had hoped that no action would be taken without United Nations authorization,' he told me. 'I believed then and now that the American and British governments erred in proceeding without United Nations approval.' Reverend Stott referred me to 'War and Rumors of War, ' a chapter from his 1999 book, 'New Issues Facing Christians Today,' as the best account of his position. In that essay he wrote that the Christian community's primary mission must be 'to hunger for righteousness, to pursue peace, to forbear revenge, to love enemies, in other words, to be marked by the cross.'"