SEPTEMBER 23, 2002

FOREIGN POLICY
Evangelicals and foreign policy: new religious might

Evangelical churches in America are growing, and so are their financial resources - giving them more ways to affect the neighborhoods and world around them. At the same time, the way people give money is changing: They're more likely to give to a particular church cause than to give a particular percentage of income. One important way that plays out in congregations is a new focus among evangelicals on international issues - from sexual trafficking to the persecution of Christians to missionary activities to the Middle East and Israel.

"There's no question that evangelicals, particularly religious conservatives among evangelicals, are broadening their political interests," says religion-and-politics expert John C. Green of the University of Akron. Yet in an election year, they're also not likely to abandon staple issues closer to home, such as abortion and education, says Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

In your area, how are churches balancing their desire to affect issues globally and locally? Are churches giving to international causes, missions and projects? How are they working on the Nov. 5 election, particularly in states with hotly contested Senate races? How does this growing segment of American Christianity think it can best use its resources?

Why it Matters
The influence of the Religious Right is closely watched, especially because some once-powerful conservative Christian groups have faced financial trouble in recent years. The spike in attention paid to foreign policy and international issues offers insight into where the growing evangelical community feels it can most effectively affect policy and politics.

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National sources

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• John C. Green is the director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Contact 330-972-5182, green@uakron.edu.
• Sylvia Ronsvalle is the executive vice president of Empty Tomb, which tracks evangelical giving trends. Contact 217-356-9519, research@emptytomb.org.
• Michael Cromartie is the vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-682-1200, crom@eppc.org.
• Rev. Richard Cizik is the head of the National Association of Evangelicals. He says that the evangelical community's shift to international issues - and their ability to affect foreign policy - is a largely untold story. Contact 202-789-1011, rcizik@aol.com.
• Edith Blumhofer is an historian of evangelical Christianity in America, and she can speak to the history of evangelical focus on international issues, from missionary activity to interest in the Middle East. She is the director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College. Contact 630-752-5437, isae@wheaton.edu.

Background

• According to the City University of New York's American Religious Identification Survey, the number of Americans who identify themselves as "evangelicals" more than quadrupled from 1990 to 2001, from 242,000 to 1,032,000.
• Read a Christianity Today article on whether the evangelical community's focus on international issues is a new phenomenon.
• Read a table from the World Evangelization Research Center listing global statistics including the income of American church members and the percentage of the world that is not evangelized - 26.5 percent.
• Read the May 2002 International Religious Freedom Report, assembled by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The U.S. State Department will submit these findings to Congress later this fall.
• The debate about religious involvement in domestic politics is encapsulated in the so-called "Jones Bill," which is scheduled to be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives in late September. The bill would alter churches' tax-exempt status and allow them to endorse political candidates from the pulpit.
• Read an article from the Washington Post on how the American Christian Right is working together with Islamic governments overseas to lobby the United Nations on issues of global social policy. (Username and ID required).
• During the economic expansion of the 1990s, giving to churches actually declined. Read a 1997 report from Empty Tomb that discusses the future of congregational giving and stresses the need for churches to distribute their money to causes in a more organized and focused way.
• The Persecuted Church is sponsoring an International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church on November 10, 2002. The organization, sponsored by an array of evangelical groups, works to stop the persecution of Christians in China, Sudan and elsewhere.