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Ah, but what about those differences? The Reformed folks, especially in Grand Rapids, tend not to stress personal morality in the same way that, say those Southern Baptists do. This is the reason that Calvin College allows student smoking on campus and other evangelical colleges don't. The reason is largely theological: Reformed evangelicals put a much stronger emphasis on the grace given to believers and on the "total depravity" of unbelievers. These Dutch Calvinists won't expect non-Christian homosexuals to adhere to biblical morality on sexual issues.

Still, Kirkpatrick would have found evangelicals ambivalent about the federal marriage amendment wherever he went, as well as many (an overwhelming number, Weblog imagines) who would have voted for Bush regardless of his vocal support of the amendment. Note, for example, CT's recent online (unscientific) poll, where 28 percent of our readers opposed the amendment.

Quoting Guth shows that Kirkpatrick knows good sources, but it would have been helpful to have some more specific numbers. Here's some fresh ones that just came out on Friday from The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: "Two-thirds of white evangelical Protestant voters (67%) strongly oppose gay marriage; more than half (55%) say they would not back a candidate who does not share that opinion, even if the candidate's other positions are acceptable."

A November poll from the center looked at how religious beliefs shape voters' views on gay marriage.

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March (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48