The Democratic Party is getting religion. So say America's leading news outlets, which have been running story after breathless story in recent weeks about Democratic efforts to woo religious voters with "God talk" and outreach to faith communities.

Democratic attempts to attract churchgoing voters who lean Republican have elicited unusual excitement from media commentators. Journalists who sneered at George W. Bush's invocation of Jesus as his favorite philosopher and derided Republican religious outreach as shameless pandering are swooning at the sight of Barack Obama preaching from a pulpit and John Edwards confessing his "deep and abiding love for [his] Savior, Jesus Christ."

The prospect of religious voters helping Democrats win the White House has made some secular liberals rethink their opposition to religion in public life. Pundits and activists who spent decades lamenting the pernicious influence of religion on politics can be found praising that same influence now that its power may be harnessed by politicians who support their causes.

Yet the new religious tolerance goes only so far. Religious believers who cannot be converted from their conservative ways still find themselves denounced as theocrats when they defend traditional morality or take politically incorrect stands in the public square, even when they do not rely on sectarian appeals to do so. The mere suspicion of religious motivation often is enough to spark outrage among the same activists and pundits who profess newfound respect for religion.Advertisement

We saw this dynamic at work last month, when President Bush vetoed a bill expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. In explaining his veto, Bush criticized the bill for forcing taxpayers to fund the unethical destruction of innocent human life. He cited the proven track record of other forms of stem cell research that do not harm human embryos, and he backed federal funding for research into other methods of producing pluripotent stem cell lines that could yield the benefits of embryonic research without the ethical pitfalls. Except for his speech's "God bless America" signoff, Bush never mentioned God, religion or faith.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by contrast, steeped her rhetoric in emotional and religious appeals. After citing support from religious leaders and lauding embryo-destroying stem cell research as "biblical in its power to cure," Pelosi blasted Bush for his "cruel veto" that "says 'no' to the hopes of millions of families across America." Her response did not address the scientific arguments and ethical concerns Bush had raised -- rational concerns he shares with millions of Americans -- yet most pundits excoriated Bush, not Pelosi, for dragging religious beliefs and irrational arguments into the debate.

The incident was a reminder that the secular left's mantra about religiously derived principles and arguments having no place in political debates has been amended but not scrapped. It seems that you can invoke God, but only to support politically correct causes.

So the same Catholic bishops that are feted as prophets for defending illegal immigrants are derided as neanderthals for opposing euthanasia. Evangelicals lauded for battling environmental pollution are ridiculed for fighting pornography. Observant believers of all faiths are praised when their beliefs inspire them to serve the poor but denounced when those same beliefs inspire them to defend the unborn or traditional marriage. Even those who support such causes without religious arguments or inspiration from religious tenets find themselves dismissed as religious fundamentalists.

Democratic politicians and strategists are wise to take religious voters more seriously. But their rhetoric will remain hollow so long as party leaders and activists extend serious consideration and genuine tolerance only to a select group of religious believers: those whose views on hot-button issues parrot the party line.

-- Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.