In a September 19 article about a recent speech by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in which Kerry “expressed regret over his reluctance to talk publicly about his faith during his failed presidential campaign,” Washington Post staff writer Alan Cooperman reported Family Research Council president Tony Perkins's assertion that “liberal policymakers find themselves” in a “pickle” when talking about faith because “they get pinned down on their policy positions,” which are “inconsistent with the tenets of their faith.” Before quoting Perkins, Cooperman noted that a new group called the Red Letter Christians has urged “Christians to 'vote their values' by considering the war in Iraq, torture, environmental degradation and helping the poor to be vital religious issues.” But Cooperman did not cite the organization's objections to Republican or conservative policies, nor did he quote the Red Letter Christians or other progressive religious organizations in response to Perkins's claim. Further, previous reports in Cooperman's own newspaper -- and even in articles he had written -- have suggested that conservative policymakers should be in a similar “pickle” for backing a number of policies that appear to be inconsistent with their faith.

A September 18 Associated Press article posted on the Post's website reported on the launch of the Red Letter Christians and their goal to “promote Christian values beyond the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.” The article quoted Jim Wallis, the president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, which launched the Red Letter Christians program. From the article:

“We must insist that the ethics of war -- and whether we tell the truth about going to war -- these are moral values issues too,” Wallis said. Democrats have pinned part of their midterm strategy on voters' restlessness with the war in Iraq.

The Red Letter Christians campaign plans to use voter guides for congregants and briefings for their leaders to argue education, poverty and the environment are all evangelical issues.

Cooperman's article on Kerry's speech quoted Perkins saying that “liberal policymakers find themselves” in a “pickle” but did not offer a response from the Red Letter Christians.

Further, Cooperman's own reporting has previously noted the discrepancy between conservative policymakers and Christian beliefs. A December 14, 2005, article by Cooperman and fellow Post staff writer Jonathan Weisman reported on “religious activists” who were protesting “cutting programs for the poor.” The article noted that “prominent conservatives such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell” were not joining the protests, but Cooperman and Weisman asked: “Why in recent years have conservative Christians asserted their influence on efforts to relieve Third World debt, AIDS in Africa, strife in Sudan and international sex trafficking -- but remained on the sidelines while liberal Christians protest domestic spending cuts?” The article noted that a measure passed by House Republicans to cut $50 billion in federal expenditures over five years “by trimming food stamp rolls, imposing new fees on Medicaid recipients, squeezing student lenders, cutting child-support enforcement funds and paring agriculture programs” coincided with a previous measure to cut taxes. The article continued, including a quote from Wallis:

To mainline Protestant groups and some evangelical activists, the twin measures are an affront, especially during the Christmas season. Leaders of five denominations -- the United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA and United Church of Christ -- issued a joint statement last week calling on Congress to go back to the drawing board and come up with a budget that brings “good news to the poor.”

Around 300 religious activists have vowed to kneel in prayer this morning at the Cannon House Office Building and remain there until they are arrested. Wallis said that as they are led off, they will chant a phrase from Isaiah: “Woe to you legislators of infamous laws ... who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan.”

Similarly, in a June 13 article, Cooperman reported that religious leaders had “signed a statement urging the United States to 'abolish torture now -- without exceptions.' ” The article added that the statement contained “an implicit challenge to the Bush administration, according to some signers.” Further, a November 15, 2002, article by Cooperman reported that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had “questioned the ethical grounds for a preemptive attack” on Iraq. The article added: "[T]he bishops outlined the traditional Christian criteria for a 'just war' and said they feared the Bush administration had not met those conditions."

From the September 19 Washington Post article:

In a speech he said he wishes he had given before the 2004 presidential election, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday described his religious life in greater candor and detail than ever before.

Kerry said in Malibu, Calif., that he “wandered in the wilderness” after the Vietnam War but came back to the Roman Catholic Church after a sudden and moving revelation in the late 1980s.

Kerry expressed regret over his reluctance to talk publicly about his faith during his failed presidential campaign. “I learned that if I didn't fill in the picture myself, others would draw the caricature for me. I will never let that happen again -- and neither should you,” he told students at Pepperdine University.

Kerry is the third high-profile Democrat to give a reflective, deeply personal speech on religion and politics in recent weeks, following Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Robert P. Casey Jr., the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

The addresses fit into a broader effort by liberal religious groups and Democratic candidates to appeal to religiously motivated voters in November's midterm elections. A pair of opposing events in Washington this week neatly encapsulates the battle.

Yesterday, a new group called Red Letter Christians, named for the colored type that highlights the words of Jesus in popular editions of the Bible, called for Christians to “vote their values” by considering the war in Iraq, torture, environmental degradation and helping the poor to be vital religious issues.

“We believe in a Jesus who said 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' ” said the Rev. Tony Campolo, a founder of the group, which says it is forming a grass-roots network of 7,000 clergy members.

Meanwhile, conservative advocacy groups are planning a four-day “Values Voter Summit,” starting Friday, that is expected to draw 1,500 religious and political leaders to Washington. The goal of the conference is to “bring back to the forefront the issues that motivated and drove values voters to the polls in 2004 -- protecting human life, defending traditional marriage and preserving our religious liberties,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council.

Kerry's speech “almost sounds like a speech that I might give,” Perkins said. “It sounds good.” But he added, “The pickle that some of these liberal policymakers find themselves in is, they know that faith is important to people, but when they get pinned down on their policy positions that are inconsistent with the tenets of their faith, they start hedging and talking about other factors in their decision.”

Kerry, who supports abortion rights, was pilloried in the 2004 campaign by conservative Catholics, including a small minority of U.S. bishops who threatened to deny him Holy Communion.

In yesterday's speech, Kerry said he was “born, baptized and raised a Catholic.” In Vietnam, he said, “my relationship with God was a dependent one -- a 'God, get me through this and I'll be good' relationship.” As he became disillusioned with the war, he said, he struggled with “the problem of evil, the difficulty of explaining why terrible and senseless events are part of God's plan.”

“For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings,” he said.

Kerry did not describe the revelation in the speech. But in a telephone interview afterward, he said it occurred in 1987 or 1988 after a friend, whom he declined to name, died of cancer.

“I have a very vivid image of the loss of that friend and of his words about why he had to die, how it was part of God's purpose. And out of that came a sense of acceptance,” he said.

It was “a stark awakening about how you reconcile some of these difficulties I had about . . . the suffering, about the problem of evil,” Kerry added. “I understood that to be part of the test of faith.”