Page on Obama's call to close the religion gap with Democrats

Clarence Page, from ajc.com: "Sen. Barack Obama's call for Democrats to close the religion gap with Republicans shows a keen grasp of the obvious. The tougher question is how this gap is to be closed.

As Obama noted in his much-talked-about speech at the Call to Renewal's 'Building a Covenant for a New America' conference of religious liberals on June 28 in Washington, the biggest gap in party affiliation among white Americans today is 'between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.'

The speech, which Obama has posted on his Web site, was well received but also widely misinterpreted. Some members of the Democratic Party's progressive wing worry that Obama is going to lead moderates to sell off pieces of the party's soul. Quite the contrary, it sounds more like an appeal to help the party rediscover its soul and improve its delivery of its message.

The right-wing voices such as Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell or Obama's former GOP opponent, Alan Keyes, will continue to hold sway, Obama said, if Democrats 'don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for.'

Conservatives openly ridicule the prospect of evangelicals returning to the Democratic Party they used to support. But, in private, it probably worries them as much as Democrats are haunted by the prospect of black voters returning to the party of Abe Lincoln."