LOS ANGELES (MCT) — President Barack Obama has taken plenty of heat in conservative Christian circles for a remark he made in 2006 in which he said that that United States was no longer “just” a Christian nation, but was religiously diverse. Now, it turns out, he has allies for that view: evangelical Christian leaders.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the National Association of Evangelicals said that when it surveyed selected evangelical leaders about whether the United States was a Christian nation, 68 percent said no.