Introducing Faith in Public LIVE: exchanges between bloggers and noted leaders in faith and public policy. Check back and comment throughout the week as this exchange grows, and visit this space every week to see a new series of conversations and debates.

This first edition kicks off with thoughts from Amy Sullivan, editor of Washington Monthly and author of an upcoming book on faith in politics. She writes about the Casey campaign, the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, and the potential benefits of just showing up. Check back soon to see responses from Thurman Hart of XPatriated Texan and David Buckley of FPL.

Hi Thurman and David--

Thanks for joining me in this first inaugural Faith in Public Life conversation. I have no doubt that our discussion will range in many interesting directions, but I want to start us out by looking at the Pennsylvania Senate race between Democrat Bob Casey and the Republican incumbant Rick Santorum. From almost the moment he entered the campaign, Casey has led Santorum by double-digits, an advantage that appears largely due to Santorum's astonishing ability to alienate voters with a blend of sanctimonious social conservatism and unsavory K Street connections.

But Casey hasn't just sat back to watch Santorum self-destruct (although you could argue that would have been an effective campaign tactic). Instead, he's employed some fairly innovative techniques that have either neutralized Santorum's advantage among religious voters or have actually given Casey an edge. The questions I've been thinking about are whether other Democrats could use those same strategies--and whether they would want to.

Let's take Casey's neutralization efforts first. It's safe to say that Rick Santorum had counted on the groups of conservative clergy and religious activists who were mobilized by the GOP in 2004 to operate as something like a second arm of his campaign this year. Leaders of the Pennsylvania Pastors Network (PPN), the New York Times reported earlier this year, have sought to bring aboard ten field coordinators and plan to focus their efforts on registering "conservative" voters. In March, they invited Rick Santorum to address a training session for activists (he sent a videotaped talk) and they hired a former Bush campaign staffer who coordinated the 2004 campaign's efforts with conservative Christian organizations.

In the past, Democrats would have fumed about this sort of thing, and maybe even filed a formal FEC or IRS complaint. But that would undoubtedly have been gleefully held up by Republicans as proof that Democrats are hostile to religion and want to shut out religious voices. This time, the Casey campaign did something different. After the PPN invited Santorum (but not Casey) to address their members in the spring--in violation of IRS rules for tax-exempt organizations--the Casey campaign contacted the group and said, in effect, it's so great that you're involved in important political efforts. We'd love to come talk to you as well.

That took the PPN aback. They hadn't planned on providing a platform for the Democratic candidate. But it's one thing to neglect to invite both candidates to an event. To ignore a candidate's specific request to come speak after his opponent has already addressed the organization would be a blatant violation of the law. So today (July 31), Casey will be speaking to a lunchtime meeting of the group in Scranton.

The same thing happened with the PPN website. Originally, the group included information on its website about Santorum, the favored candidate. Cue the Casey campaign. Hey, that's great--we'd love to be on there, too. Again, the PPN didn't want to highlight Casey, but they couldn't legally turn down his request and leave up Santorum's information. So rather than give Casey equal space, they took down the Santorum material.

All of this should be comforting to those liberals who have worried that Democrats efforts in the area of religion automatically mean that the party must pander to evangelicals by shifting its social positions to the right. (The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus asked in a column: "What does it profit a party to gain a demographic but lose its soul?")

In this case, the Casey campaign hasn't done anything but engage with a group that was prepared to work solely on behalf of the Republican candidate, and politely ask for equal time (which also happens to be a request that they abide by the law). It's so simple and brilliant that I'm still amazed no one had thought of this before. Democrats can't stop religious conservatives from mobilizing, but they can make sure that those groups don't give Republicans an unfair advantage.

The example of Casey, however, does raise some serious questions for Democrats, because I don't think his campaign can be considered outside of the context of his pro-life stance. I hope we'll move onto that topic in the next few days, because I have wondered--with Casey, Tim Kaine in Virginia last year, and Bill Ritter, the pro-life Democratic candidate for governor in Colorado--whether Catholic Democrats running in redd-ish states nowadays have to be pro-life.

All the Best,
Amy