Religion in the Military

There is much controversy over a Campus Crusade related Video for the Christian Embassy, a ministry to political and military elite. Melissa Rogers's blog has been highlighting this growing controversy. But today she offers a chart that shows that 40% of Active Military personnel are evangelical, though only 14% of Americans are evangelical. At the same time 60% of chaplains are evangelical.

What are some of the explanations? The post doesn't postulate, but I guess there could be a few easy explanations. Is it possible that a large percentage of military personnel come from the South? Baptists are big down there. A sizable number of personnel are African-American, and most Black churches would fall under that same purview. Military personnel tend to be Republican, and evangelicals are a significant block in that group. Interesting statistics, but perhaps not surprising. Besides Jewish groups and Mainline Protestants tend to be more ambivalent about such things as war and military.

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