Such examples are commonly cited by liberal Christians. There is, however, a major flaw in these pleas. Consider:

Liberal and conservative Christians alike agree that Jesus wants them to help the poor. Yet, they can respectfully disagree over whether the estate tax or government-funded day care is what Jesus had in mind. Conservative Christians prefer to address poverty through individual outreach and faith-based organizations; citing Scripture, they believe that Jesus pushed for private means of assistance. For instance, the parable of the rich man getting into heaven calls not for a government program of forced wealth distribution but for the rich man to personally choose to share his wealth. Liberal Christians, on the other hand, favor public-sector solutions, many of which their conservative counterparts find ineffective.

In short, this is a legitimate disagreement over means toward an agreed upon end. Liberal Christian politicians can scream in frustration over why conservative Christians will not vote for them as they invoke social justice. Yet, the mistake is to conclude with certainty that Jesus Christ would prefer an upper-income marginal tax rate of 36 percent instead of 31 percent. Similarly, all Christians agree that Jesus wants them to be good stewards of the earth, but no liberal Christian can presume to know that the Prince of Peace would support drilling for oil in the Persian Gulf but not in Alaska.

That said, there is a point where liberal Christian politicians like Obama and Mrs. Clinton reach irreconcilable differences with conservative Christians: abortion. For pro-life Christians, a second-trimester abortion for the purpose of birth control is far more significant than whether one advocates an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $5.45.

As vocal pro-choicers, both Clinton and Obama are aware of their vulnerability in this area, to the point where Mrs. Clinton has hired a top party strategist to advise her on reaching out to pro-life evangelicals, and Obama has openly admitted that the accusation that he is not a “true Christian” because of his position on abortion—a charge leveled by his 2004 Senate opponent—“nagged” at him.

For now, however, the faith rhetoric by these two leading Democratic contenders—even when sincere—looks like a concerted strategy for 2008. It seems too similar to be a coincidence, and quite unlike anything we heard from Democrats in 2000 and 2004. Whether the strategy will work is another question.