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While evangelicals largely tried to be supportive of Bush's policies, they were some of the first to speak out against torture. A few, such as Congressman Frank Wolf, were effective in urging Bush to reassess his approach in Iraq.

By the summer of 2005, events in Iraq could hardly have been going worse. Congressman Wolf became greatly concerned about the growing chaos. "I was disturbed by stories of rising causalities among American soldiers," the Virginia conservative said. "And torture is completely wrong." Wolf decided to check things inside Iraq for himself without telling the State Department. At various times, he and his companions went to Iraq, and once traveled the country posing as contract workers. Wolf recalls, "We dressed in old clothes. We lived with Iraqis."

The congressman was shocked by the violence and ruin. At the time, the White House had been proclaiming victory after victory. In October of that year, Bush had said, "Area by area, city by city, we're continuing offensive operations to clear out enemy forces, and leaving behind Iraqi units to prevent the enemy from returning."

Wolf, a canny and respected Washington operator, believed that as a Christian, he had "a moral responsibility to do something." He wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post calling for "an independent and balanced group of respected individuals" to examine the Iraq war effort. He hoped that the editorial would flush out some allies within the administration, which it did. The result was that Bush accepted the formation of the Iraq Study Group, which supported a surge of troops.

The sharp drop in the global economy at the end of Bush's last year in office overwhelmed any good news coming out of Iraq. Bush's inaction regarding rising home foreclosures gave socially liberal evangelicals such as Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine a feeling of being crushed. "The Bush administration was an absolute disaster for poor people," Wallis says. Even social conservatives were not happy: Family Research Council's Tony Perkins says that Christian conservatives need to get "?'fiscal conservatism' back into the national bloodstream. We need a return to responsibility in personal and government finances."

For the bulk of the nation, reeling from recession, Bush leaves presidential office with a severely tattered legacy. At the same time, perhaps paradoxically, Bush's most remarkable contributions were to victims of poverty and disease overseas and sufferers in the U.S. who will be helped by faith-based organizations for years to come.

Tony Carnes is a CT senior writer. Sarah Pulliam is CT online editor.

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Christianity Today spoke with President Bush in 2004 with other journalists. CT also has a section on politics & law and regularly updates a politics blog.

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February 2009, Vol. 53, No. 2