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Nearly 10 years ago, Michael Horowitz, a Washington, D.C.-based political strategist, figured out a way to draw evangelicals and traditional human-rights liberals into a new alliance. For evangelicals and Jews, he pitched religious freedom and a renewed peace process with the Palestinians. For evangelicals and feminists, he pitched a new abolitionism against human trafficking.

The strategy worked and evangelicals have become crucial in developing many foreign policy priorities in the Bush White House. According to the Religion & Ethics Newsweekly survey in April, evangelicals put a higher priority than the general population on keeping America's military strong, fighting global terrorism, controlling weapons of mass destruction, supporting Israel, and promoting religious freedom abroad.

After 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush backed democracy as a means to transform authoritarian Middle East states. Yet nearly all of Bush's foreign policy efforts in that region are works in progress. One clear breakthrough (the capture of Saddam Hussein) has not yet translated into stability or democracy in Iraq.

Bush has also bet heavily on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and many evangelicals are enthusiastic about that. "President Bush appears to be a great friend to Israel, and he has endured a lot of pressure to back down from that," declared Mitch Glaser, president of the messianic Jewish ministry Chosen People.

Robert Seiple, head of the evangelical Institute for Global Engagement and a Bush supporter, gives the President "high marks" for a visionary grand strategy. But Seiple gives "low marks" for use of intelligence and nuance in complex situations, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict. "I don't think this President has advanced the ball in that regard."

The most tangible foreign policy problems for the administration have been the scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and abusive treatment of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists in detention at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay naval base. After the pictures of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse and torture were released, CT spoke with evangelical professionals in intelligence agencies, the State and Defense departments, and Congress.

What emerged was troubling. Beyond setting Bush administration priorities, evangelicals were significantly involved in drafting policy memos that created the permissive climate in which the abuse of prisoners occurred. Asking not to be named, Christians who serve in federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies told CT that aggressive interrogation of suspected terrorists was no-holds-barred. Bob Woodward, the author of a definitive book on Bush's war effort, told CT, "It was very clear from my interviews that [Bush] felt the gloves were off for the CIA."

In a February 7, 2002, executive order, the President wrote that he wanted prisoners in the war on terror treated "humanely" but also "consistent with military necessity." He also explicitly argued that the Geneva Convention's guidelines for treatment of prisoners of war did not apply to terrorists. Evangelical legal scholar John Yoo contributed to several of the legal memos for Attorney General John Ashcroft justifying much harsher interrogation techniques in the war against terrorism. Yoo declared, "Terrorists have no Geneva rights." (The Geneva Conventions do not address how nations in wartime should handle persons who are agents of hostile, clandestine organizations rather than members of the military arm of a recognized government.)

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October 2004, Vol. 48, No. 10