President Barack Obama, signaling early in his administration that religion belongs in the public discourse, has promised to open a big tent to voices from across the spectrum of belief without crossing boundaries separating church and state.
The Democrat's inaugural pomp was steeped in prayer, and one of his first proclamations included a shout out to "an awesome God." Last week, Obama used the platform of the National Prayer Breakfast to unveil a new-look White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships that features a team of policy advisers from both religious and secular social service circles. Most are ideological allies, but not all.
The question is whether such moves will amount to symbolic window dressing or progress finding common ground on moral issues without stepping on traditional culture-war land mines.
Analysts say the first weeks of the Obama era show there's little question that both major political parties believe religion should be a significant factor in shaping policy. That's disappointing to those on the left who advocate strict church-state separation and unconvincing to Obama's religious critics on the right who believe the president will plow ahead with a liberal agenda regardless of who is advising him.
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