For a group considered to be the Republican faithful, evangelical Christians surprised pundits in a recent poll: Fifty-eight percent said they oppose cutting federal spending that is targeted to help the poor.

Republicans overall are evenly split on that question.

And 60 percent of evangelicals said they favor raising taxes on millionaires, according to a recent survey by Public Religion Research and the Religion News Service.

Raising anyone’s taxes is anathema to a majority of Republicans.

“White evangelicals as a whole remained solidly in the Republican camp in previous elections. However, this kind of opposition to the Republican budget-cutting strategy is significant,” said the Rev. Jim Wal lis, president and chief executive of the progressive evangelical organization Sojourners.

“But to careful observers,” Wallis said, “it shouldn’t be shocking. Many evangelicals, and especially their younger generation, now see poverty as a fundamental biblical issue and believe budgets are moral documents.”

The poll, conducted Nov. 10-14, found that 70 percent of Americans in general oppose cuts to social programs. About 80 percent believe the gap between the rich and poor has widened, and about 66 percent say the government should do more to close that gap.

Yet American ambivalence on this subject shows up in another question, when 71 percent answered that they agree poor people have become too dependent on government assistance.

Overall, Americans are equally likely to believe that Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party, 29 percent for each movement, share their values.

White evangelicals are the most likely religious group to share the values of the Tea Party (49 percent do, and 39 percent do not).

About 32 percent of white mainline Protestants and 26 percent of Catholics identify with the Tea Party.

Occupy Wall Street had the most supporters among those unaffiliated with a religion (38 percent), but they were followed by mainline Protestants (30 percent) and Catholics (29 percent).

Young Americans, ages 18 to 29, identify more with the Occupy movement (34 percent) than with the Tea Party (26 percent).

The poll, based on telephone interviews with 1,002 adults, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com