It is not often that U.S. President George W. Bush finds himself in trouble with his evangelical Christian base. On the whole, the president, an avowed Christian of a fundamentalist bent, has won praise from that community for his policies on everything from the Middle East to abortion and gay marriage.

During his recent visit to Britain, however, Mr. Bush made a remark at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that provoked sharp criticism from evangelical Christian leaders in the United States. To many others around the world, in contrast, the remark was both welcome and reassuring. One felt the same sense of relief on hearing it as one felt after the president's pointedly conciliatory visit to a Washington mosque after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Toward the end of the news conference on Nov. 20, a reporter noted Mr. Bush's frequently expressed conviction that "freedom is granted by the Almighty." He then asked the president to comment on the view held by "some people who share your beliefs" that Muslims do not worship "the same Almighty" as Christians. Palpably in the air were the ugly comments of U.S. Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who had made headlines not long before for saying of a Muslim Somalian warlord: "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." He had also said, with reference to the U.S. mission in Iraq, that "we in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God, have been raised for such a time as this."