By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 3, 2007

RICHMOND

When Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine ran for election in 2005, he campaigned as a Democrat who wasn't afraid to talk about his religious beliefs.

"I'm a person of faith, and here's who I am, and you're entitled to know who I am because you ought to know about me, what's important to me," Kaine, a devout Catholic, said in a Washington Post interview that year.

Kaine's victory over Republican Jerry W. Kilgore caused the national media and political pundits to take notice. Could Kaine, who won a year after President Bush was reelected because of strong support from Americans who regularly attend church, hold the formula for Democrats to reach out to "values voters," especially in the South?

During his first year in office, Kaine offered few clues on the role religion would play in shaping his image.

But after the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, Kaine seems to have perfected the political art of connecting with religious voters, even though he maintains strong ties to the socially liberal, and somewhat secular, base of the Democratic Party.

A day after the shootings, Kaine delivered what many describe as a masterful speech at Virginia Tech's convocation service to honor the victims. Kaine, quoting the Bible, counseled the students that it was okay for them to grieve. He referenced the story of Job, who lost his livestock, servants and 10 children on the same day.

"He was angry at his Creator," Kaine said of Job. "He argued with God and he didn't lose his faith. It's okay to argue. It's okay to be angry. Those emotions are natural."

Kaine's speech caught the attention of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., a megachurch that broadcasts to an estimated 20 million television viewers every Sunday.

Schuller, an early leader in the modern evangelical movement, had Kaine speak via video during his televised "Hour of Power" service April 22. For 10 minutes, Kaine, as Schuller referred to it, had his own "sermon time."

Kaine spoke about a missionary trip he took to Honduras in the early 1980s to teach at a Jesuit school. The trip, Kaine said, helped shape his Catholic beliefs and has guided his response to the Tech tragedy.

"I think that humans understand that God sent Jesus to Earth, not just to teach us more about how to be good," Kaine said. "But He also sent Jesus to Earth so He could draw closer to us, so He could understand human suffering and what a comfort it is to know that our Creator has also experienced the loss of his only child, and that can make us very close together in times of grief and sadness."

Midway through his talk, Schuller interrupted Kaine and said: "Governor, I want to tell you that I am a specialist in sensing and seeing Christ coming through personalities and lives and voices, and I see Him in your eyes and I thank you that you are allowing, without embarrassment, your faith to come through."

Schuller's congregants in the cathedral -- many of whom live in a heavily Republican area -- gave Kaine extended applause after his remarks.

Unlike televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, both of whom live in Virginia, Schuller has largely stayed away from politics. Even so, he and his congregants gave a noteworthy reception to Kaine, especially considering the governor campaigned last year against a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage and has vowed to protect abortion rights. He personally opposes abortion.

Kaine's willingness to talk about religion -- not politics -- seems to be winning him friends among social conservatives.

It is the exact formula Democratic strategists say their party's leaders need to embrace if they are to recapture the White House.

They say Democrats don't have to agree with the all of a church's teachings on issues such as abortion and school prayer, but they can't be viewed as overly secular, either. In 2004, some Democrats say, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) lost the presidential election the day he said: "I don't wear my religion on my sleeve."

Kaine, Virginia's first Catholic governor, is discovering that voters seem to respect his willingness to talk about his religion. At least so far, Kaine appears to have suffered little political fallout from his decision to veto an expansion of the death penalty in Virginia. Kaine said he based his decision on his moral opposition to the death penalty, causing even Republicans to privately acknowledge they can't blame him for sticking to his beliefs.

Kaine has even found a few ways to outflank the Republican-controlled General Assembly on issues of importance to social conservatives, including his decision to make it easier for parents to opt out of the requirement that pre-high school girls be vaccinated against human papillomavirus. The strategy could serve Kaine well in a state where exit polls show 40 percent of the voters consider themselves to be born-again Christians.

But Kaine is not even midway through his four-year term. And, if history is a guide, it won't be easy for a Democrat to navigate the political minefields that surround issues of faith and politics, especially in a state that includes parts of the Bible Belt as well as the increasingly moderate Northern Virginia.

In light of last month's Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on late-term abortions, social conservatives may make a push in the General Assembly next year to further restrict abortion rights.

If the legislation lands on Kaine's desk, and he vetoes it, will he still be able to expect invitations to preach in front of evangelical churches?