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Too much religion speak at the convention? Too little?
The basic storyline in many media outlets goes like this: The keynote speakers at the Republican National Convention aren't nearly so conservative as the delegates or the party "base" of religious conservatives (or, for that matter, the candidate). Most religious conservative leaders are fine with that, saying that putting them up on the podium would draw few swing voters.

"The Republican Party is already cast as being captive of the Religious Right, so why aggravate it?" explains the National Association of Evangelicals' Rich Cizik in today's Washington Times.

But some delegates and others are frustrated. "I think they're making a mistake," Pastoral Congressional Prayer Conference head Rod McDougal told The Boston Globe. "We didn't realize they were going to eliminate and censor everything about God. … They need some people of faith up there."

"Since Republicans actually love God-talk, it stood to reason that their convention would be a veritable revival meeting," says Beliefnet editor Steven Waldman. "Instead, it's been more like an ACLU retreat, at least in terms of the use of religious rhetoric from the top speakers. None of the marquee acts on the first two nights so much as threw in a Bible passage. Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were downright Pentecostal compared to John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Still, away from the marquee acts, there's been plenty of God talk. Check out, for example, Sen. Elizabeth Dole's remarks, which didn't make prime time:

Two-thousand years ago a man said, "I have come to give life and to give it in full." In America I have the freedom to call that man Lord, and I do. In the United States of America we are free to worship without discrimination, without intervention and even without activist judges trying to strip the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance; from the money in our pockets; and from the walls of our courthouses. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The right to worship God isn't something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

Slate's Chris Suellentrop notes that Mississippi congressional candidate Clinton LeSueur made a significant change from his brief prepared remarks. Instead of saying, "The very foundation of this country is faith," which appeared in the version of the speech given to reporters, LeSueur said, "The very foundation of this country is Christianity and faith in Jesus Christ." (John Kerry, by the way, also changed a remark from the prepared text of his convention speech. Instead of saying, "I don't wear my own faith on my sleeve," he said. "I don't wear my own religion on my sleeve.")

And then there was yesterday's invitation-only "Family, Faith, and Freedom Rally," which included Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who promoted the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, action in Sudan, and "winning the culture war." Ralph Reed was another speaker, and the Associated Press reports that Jerry Falwell and Tony Perkins attended the meeting but didn't speak. The New York Times focuses on the rally's private nature and no-press-allowed rule, but The Washington Times didn't seem to have any trouble getting in.

Of course, Christian music acts are a staple of this convention, but they're getting little media attention. Weblog has no idea if they're singing songs about faith, whether implicitly or explicitly.

Riverside Church's James Forbes says he sees one area where there's too much religion coming from the platform: He says the design is full of cross imagery. "I believe it is an image of two crosses," he told The Washington Times (second item). "This is an unusual and inappropriate use of religious symbols in a political campaign." Apparently he's talking about the lectern, but convention spokesman Mark Pfeifle said the idea "sounds like a Rorschach test." Hey, we're supposed to see Jesus everywhere, right?

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August (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48