Two parties in the pews

THE DEC. 1 appearance of US Senator Barack Obama at the World AIDS Day summit signals one possible, and hopeful, future for American politics. The summit, hosted by best-selling evangelical preacher Rick Warren, was itself significant; who would have thought 20 years ago that evangelicals, who then barely acknowledged the existence of AIDS, would now be leaders in calling public attention to its ravages -- particularly in Africa?

By inviting Obama, over considerable conservative Christian protest, Warren took the step of declaring that conservative Protestantism is no longer a synonym for the Republican Party. By doing so, Warren accomplished two things. He allowed Christians who have always resented the capture of their faith by right-wing politicians to rediscover that Jesus was an advocate for social justice. He also opened political space for Democrats such as Obama to bring their own prophetic voices to the public arena.

None of this suggests that Rick Warren is becoming a Democrat; Obama shared the podium with Senator Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican. Nor does it mean that Warren can anoint the next Democratic nominee for president; for all his popularity, Warren sways few votes among the liberals who vote in Democratic primaries. But we are unlikely ever again to be told that one party stands for faith and that the other is ungodly. For that, we can thank the founding pastor of California's Saddleback Church.

Alan Wolfe is director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.