If Senator Edwards' gay marriage answer from tonight's debate is any indication - our Prez candidates are getting in touch with their God more and more. And while the JRE answer is one that I cringe when I hear - it is the perfect one to win over the heartland.

"The Democrats are so fired up, you could call them the new Moral Majority. This time, however, the emphasis is as much on the majority as on the morality as they try to frame a message in terms of broadly shared values that don't alarm members of minority religions or secular voters."

I don't know if its actually happening but if I were a candidate in need of a little God language the first place I'd be looking is to newly elected Rep. Nancy Boyda who brings both authenticity and honesty to her conversations with people of faith.

"It has become an article of faith among party leaders that it was sheer strategic stupidity to cede the values debate to Republicans for so long; that most people want to reduce abortion but not criminalize it, protect the earth instead of the auto industry, raise up the least among us; and that a lot of voters care as much about the candidates' principles as about their policies. "What we're seeing," says strategist Mike McCurry, "is a Great Awakening in the Democratic Party."

The piece correctly assigns a large movement in the Evangelical world as well with new mainstream leaders with larger congregations than that of some of the more right wing churches who now feel safe to come out of the closet as a more moderate or even progressive pastor. With the death of Wingnut Jerry Falwell there is more of a possibility for popular pastors like Rick Warren or Joel Osteen to bring in their positive message of faith, hope, and possibilities that match very well with the democratic platform. Add to that the ever increasing use of outreach through technology to reach a kind of e-sanctuary in iChurches all over the country.

And efforts to show the old time right wing Christianity as a square, suburban, republican, show off rather than an honest, intuitive, emotional, connection that folks don't feel the need to shove in everyone's faces:

Too - the Catholic church is coming back in touch with its peace and justice roots. Rather than talking about the big two issues they are now addressing issues that are dealt with a little more often and more seriously - immigration, war, and stewardship.

""But if you take the abortion issue off the table," Richard Land, the Southern Baptist Convention's political guru predicts, "then a lot of these other issues get oxygen they aren't getting now, such as the environment and social justice and racial reconciliation, all of which Evangelicals care about."

Those of us who live in areas of the country where we encouter faith based voters have seen year after year of national party democrats who fail time and time again to frame our issues in a faith based way. Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy put a change to all of that where in a key element to his plan he placed "faith based outreach" coordinators in important states across the country to communicate a democratic message to a faith based community and further to work with these pastors to look at issues on which we agree to develop solid policies to actually help people.

A good friend of mine was one of those organizers in the 2006 Election. And on his first few months on the job what he found was staggering. A series of church pastors who threw their arms around him pleased as punch to see that someone other than the right wing was doing the talking.

"there are more than 22 million voters [pollster's call] "freestyle Evangelicals," worried about not only their eternal souls but also their kids' schools, their car's fuel efficiency and the crisis in Darfur. In the past, those voters may have leaned Republican in part because the G.O.P. has been far smarter about presenting itself as friendly to people of faith while painting the Democrats as a bunch of sneering, secular coastal élites."

My favorite TV/Film writer Aaron Sorkin wrote a great movie called The American President and in one of the final scenes the President has a throwdown with one of his staffers - presumably this Deputy CoS... And the Pres begins to say something about if people want to believe whatever it is his opponents are saying and the Dep. CoS interrupts him and says: "They don't have a choice! Bob Rumson is the only one doing the talking. People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand." And the President says, "we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference."

While this is a great film and Sorkin is a profound writer - his point has taken over ten years to sink in to our party. If you fail to step up and fight for the political souls of voters - if you fail to step up and call out those who incorrectly label you then you might as well sign the ballot over to someone else. Politics is a contact sport - not a friendly exchange of ideas. That went out with corsets and tea time.

At the faith forum with the Prez candidates Edwards explained how he reconciled his belief in evolution with what he was taught as a Southern Baptist - creationism,

"The hand of God today," he said, "is in every step of what happens with me and every human being that exists on this planet." Clinton shared the content of her prayer life with the audience: "You know, sometimes I say, Oh, Lord, why can't you help me lose weight?" she said to sympathetic laughter. "Sometimes, you know, it's praying for discernment, for wisdom, for strength, for courage."

And what about young people? I've spoken several times about the many concerts and evangelical parties where young people of faith come to praise God and sign up for the GOP. Randy Brinson is the creator of a Rock the Vote style drive called Redeem the Vote, "which used Christian radio and music festivals to reach out to and register young people of faith."

"Brinson's success made him a hero to social conservatives, but his approach also made him a renegade. More than a third of the young people he registered were Democrats, and that was fine with him..."

Ya'll know I've been shouting at the moon for the last few months about ways to communicate to this same crowd or to rock out our own progressives in a comparable way. Or heck all of the above. Cultural revolutions have been the fad for every generation and anything to rebel against traditional parental units is preferred. Why aren't dems out registering at faith based rock concerts?

Here is the schedule for The Call, go get some of them to come to our side. Right wingers protest or pray outside of women's clinics - they take action in our schools. Why aren't we outside registering voters, spreading our positive message of progress and faith based values?

If Democrats rediscover a voice they lost a generation ago, they may find they are preaching to a much larger congregation. "The lessons Democrats have learned here is that they can engage [Evangelicals] on these issues," says former DNC chairman David Wilhelm. "We haven't won 'em over. But they are listening."