Al Gore's announcement that Orthodox Jew and U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman will be his running mate has religion writers working overtime. The New York Times focuses on the reaction among conservative evangelicals, quoting Jerry Falwell as saying, "I think the vice president made an excellent choice." Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tells the paper, "American evangelicals respect persons of great moral substance and conviction, and we certainly share with Senator Lieberman a great moral heritage to which we are both committed, in terms of the Old Testament -- the Hebrew Scriptures -- and, most essentially, the Ten Commandments." Other things Lieberman shares with many evangelicals is support for school vouchers, action against religious persecution abroad, and a vocal dislike of violent and hypersexual entertainment. But Lieberman is also a supporter of abortion (he voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion) and gay rights. So, notes the paper, he's unlikely to sway many evangelicals to the Gore ticket. As Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, tells The Charlotte Observer, "It has more to do with position on the issues than one's particular personal faith." New York Post columnist Rod Dreher, in a piece for Beliefnet (which differs from his NY Post column) comes to the same conclusion: "They may sincerely wish mazel tov to Joe Lieberman, a morally serious man and a sometime ally. But vote for him? What are you, meshuga?" (Other Beliefnet articles on Lieberman are available here.) Almost every major paper in the country has an article explicitly on Lieberman's faith. Here are a few by USA ...