ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that religious participation in the public debate over whether to go to war in Iraq was substantial and varied; religious voices both supported, opposed, and were silent on the proposed war with Iraq. Conservative Protestants provided crucial elements of support for the administration's war plans and had high level access to the administration. Large scale protest mobilization, like lobbying, is the work of coalitions of secular and religious groups and the contributions of constituent groups is difficult to determine. The chapter presents evidence that religious advocates played an active, varied, and important role in the public political discussion that preceded the invasion of Iraq. After describing the general shape of the debate, people consider the variety of types of advocacy in which religious actors participated. Nonetheless, having lost the congressional discursive battle, the debate quickly moved to other venues, the United Nations, the mediated space of the public sphere, and directly into the streets.
