"In recent years the Democratic Party has struggled to win over conservative Christian voters without antagonizing religious liberals, members of minority faiths, and secular Americans. David Weiss has assembled eleven fascinating essays documenting and assessing the religious strategies of Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and other Democratic candidates. No student of politics and religion in the United States should miss this insightful and balanced evaluation."---James L. Guth, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Political Science, Furman University
"The contributors to this book provide an important corrective to the view that only the GOP does `God talk.' This collection is full of interesting accounts of candidates' and officeholders' religious rhetoric. Recommended."---Clyde Wilcox, Georgetown University
"David Weiss and his colleagues have produced a fascinating collection of essays on the role of religion in the rhetoric of the Democratic Party and its leaders. Insightful, analytic, and timely, this book reveals that religious language is not the sole province of Republicans and is likely to remain a staple of political discourse for years to come."---John C. Green, University of Akron: director, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics
What Democrats Talk About When They Talk About God is a collection of essays on the religious communication of past and present leaders of the Democratic Party while in office, on the campaign trail, and in their public and private writing. While many books address issues at the intersection of church and state, this is the only volume that focuses exclusively on Democrats as important contributors to the dialogue about religion and politics in the United States.
