Democrats find religion on campaign trail
GOP seems to be avoiding talk of faith
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By Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau
May 6, 2007
WASHINGTON -- This time it may be the Democrats who are getting religion.
Former Sen. John Edwards invoked "My Lord" in the first Democratic presidential debate when asked about moral influences on his life. At a campaign event on the day of the Virginia Tech massacre, he offered a prayer and -- in a pointed break from Democratic candidates' usual wariness of offending religious minorities -- closed with the words "in Christ's name."
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) comfortably works in references to his faith at public appearances. Even before his presidential candidacy, he gave a well-received speech arguing for a greater role for religion in politics and cultivated relationships with influential church leaders, including mega-church pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) included a paragraph about faith in the official biography on her campaign Web site. And in her Senate re-election campaign last year, she drew notice in the New York press for wearing a cross at some public events.
Reversing recent political history, it's the leading Republican candidates who for various reasons have so far been reluctant to speak too much about matters of faith.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a divorced Catholic, holds liberal views on abortion and gay rights. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a divorced Episcopalian, has a tense relationship with leaders of the Religious Right. And former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is a devout Mormon whose religion arouses suspicion among many evangelicals.
"Give the advantage to the Democrats at this point," said Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. "You would have to conclude that the Democrats have a lot more interest in faith than the Republicans based on what they've had to say."
Obama and Clinton both have full-time staffers and Edwards an aide working part time to reach out to religious leaders for political support. The Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), did not start a religious outreach operation until the general election was well under way and did not give a speech on faith until nine days before the election.
"It's almost a 180-degree difference from the Kerry campaign," said Mara Vanderslice, who was director of religious outreach for Kerry and now works as a consultant to Democratic candidates on engaging religious voters. She is not currently working for a presidential campaign, she said.
All three of the leading Democratic candidates are scheduled to appear next month at a forum on faith and values sponsored by Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a liberal evangelical group that concentrates on anti-poverty issues. Religious leaders will question the candidates on their moral beliefs and how they shape their public policy views, said Rev. Jim Wallis, the group's president.
The shift in interest is partly due to the mix of candidates in the current presidential campaign. Clinton, a Methodist, and Edwards, a Baptist, both had strong religious upbringings. Though raised in a secular household, Obama converted as an adult at Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side.
But the focus on faith also reflects political realities. Many Democratic political professionals believe the party's candidates need to do a better a job of showing a clear moral vision and connecting with religious voters.
Most wouldn't elect atheist
Faith has long had a role in American politics. Surveys over the years have regularly found that a majority of the country would not vote for an atheist as president. A 2004 poll co-sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that nearly 70 percent of Americans felt it was important for a president to have "strong religious beliefs."
The last two Democrats elected to the presidency were comfortable speaking about their faith. Jimmy Carter's status as a "born-again" Christian was the subject of much discussion during his campaign. A Baptist by upbringing and a regular churchgoer, Bill Clinton was at ease quoting Scripture and appearing in religious settings.
But by the 1990s, Clinton was the exception. Expressions of faith were rare at campaign events for Democratic candidates. And the party's last two presidential candidates, Kerry and Al Gore, rarely spoke of their religious beliefs in their campaigns.
"I think, generically speaking, Democrats were reluctant to speak about their faith," said former Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), now Edwards' campaign manager. "There was a feeling that the separation [between church and state] should be such that you really shouldn't even talk about it. I think we went too far."
Expressions of faith can be more politically tricky for Democrats than Republicans because their party includes more secular voters and more members of religious minorities, such as Jews and Muslims.
But party leaders were alarmed by the 2004 election returns. The Democrats narrowly lost the presidential election, and one big reason was massive support for Republicans among the large portion of voters who regularly attend religious services. In a close election, even a slight gain in support from such a sizable group could swing the outcome.
A series of internal polls by the Democratic National Committee during the next year concluded that about half the electorate places as much or more weight on their own religious faith as they do on conventional issues in casting their votes. The same polling suggested that many of those "faith voters" were not primarily motivated by such hot-button social issues as abortion or gay marriage but mainly were looking for a clear moral vision from candidates.....
