Faith-Based Groups Seek Clues To Obama Administration Plan

Although Bush's creation of the office and the partisan infighting over it has created a public perception of faith-based outreach and funding as a conservative effort, Towey says, Democrats were always more interested in the idea. Federal support for the program was first put in place by President Bill Clinton in the 1996 welfare reform act.

"Two-thirds of the country's governors have faith-based offices, and they're mostly Democrats. There's plenty of room for a Democratic president to succeed with this, so long as he focuses on the poor and how they're best served," Towey said. But "if he bogs down on fights on religious hiring, it will be a mess."

Beyond faith-based initiatives, church-state experts said battles over same-sex marriage are likely in the new president's first term.

Several analysts said a standoff over the religious rights of business owners who don't wish to rent their restaurant or meeting place to a same-sex couple holding a wedding is an example of a dispute that might soon flare. The president-elect supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation.

"The marriage wars will be fought for generations if we don't carve out a religious exception," said Seamus Hasson, president of the Becket Fund law firm and author of "The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War Over Religion in America."

Church-state experts also note Obama's support of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would expand protections for abortion rights. Pursuing that would trigger a showdown, they say, over whether religious doctors, pharmacists and universities, among others, have a right to an exception.

"Are there issues about which we have serious disagreements? We know so," Richard Cizik, a prominent evangelical lobbyist, said during a post-election conference call organized by the progressive group Faith in Public Life. "But President-elect Obama has said he is interested in finding common ground. And, increasingly, evangelicals are that mentality, and that will make all the difference."