eemingly at odds with his support of "charitable choice," faith-based partnerships and other efforts to involve religious groups in the public policy arena, Senator Joseph Lieberman yesterday tried to explain his latest statement concerning faith and government.

    "This is really less a matter of programs or legislation than it is of giving respect to the constructive role that faith can play in the lives of individuals, and in the lives of communities," said the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate in an interview published in the New York Times. Lieberman's statement came just hours after national groups, including Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the Anti-Defamation League, and American Atheists issued statements criticizing his emphasis on faith and public religiosity.

    A letter written to Lieberman by ADL director Abraham Fox and the group's national chairman, Howard Berkowitz cautioned, "To even suggest that one cannot be a moral person without being a religious person is an affront to many highly ethical citizens..."

    Lieberman's campaign yesterday was in spin-control mode. Staffer KiKi McLean said that the vice presidential hopeful "is someone who always expresses his support of tolerance and separation of church and state, and believes the ADL does a lot of good work, and in this instance respectfully disagrees."

    Since Sunday, Lieberman has made several statement outlining his belief that religion is the underpinning of American society. Most provocative was his claim made in front of a religious group in Detroit: "We know that the Constitution wisely separates church from state, but remember, the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion."

    Lieberman told Los Angeles television station KNBC, "I respect them (ADL), but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, because I believe it's the American way." Some even support the Connecticut senator. Two prominent Southern California Jewish leaders, rabbis Marvin Hier of the Simon Weisenthal Center, and Lawrence Goldmark, a former head of the regional Board of Rabbis, charged that the ADL was overreacting.

    "Lieberman has not said anything that has caused people to become embarrassed or angry at him," said Goldmark. "He's not asking people to convert to Judaism."

    Rabbi Hier told the Los Angeles Times that Lieberman had not crossed any line of inappropriateness, and that his behavior contrasted with that of some Christian candidates.

   "What has people uptight is when Christians begin talking about faith and do it in a way that seems overly preachy and an attempt to convert," Hier said. "That's a time ... when my red light goes off."

    That comment drew fire from evangelical and fundamentalist Christian conservatives, though, who charged that Lieberman was the beneficiary of a double standard in contemporary politics. Richard D. Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention argued, "For people to applaud Sen. Lieberman for taking his Judaism seriously but then to diss (sic) Gov. Bush for saying in reply to a question that Jesus Christ was the philosopher who influenced him the most is a double standard."

    Land attempted to draw a distinction between some of the treatment of Mr. Lieberman and the coverage of Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson when he ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. "The very existence of Pat Robertson as a candidate somehow threatened separation of church and state," said Land.

   American Atheists national spokesperson Ron Barrier told the Times, "Someone running for elective office, I believe, has every right to share with us how they derive their ethics. But we feel Sen. Lieberman has crossed a line by actually implying that morals without religion are impossible.

    "We find it a bit alienating," said Barrier.

    Last night, in an appearance on the Fox News Channel, Barrier criticized the overt proselytizing tone of the year 2000 election campaign.

   Reporting on the controversy over Lieberman and the ADL statement, the Times noted, "It was a dust-up that produced ironic alliance: The ADL found itself supported Tuesday by atheists, and opposed by some rabbis..."

    Meanwhile, American Atheists unveiled its new "Contact Joe" campaign which encourages Atheists, agnostics and other "people-of-no-faith" to contact the Connecticut Senator and remind him that tens of millions of Americans have no religious beliefs, and are increasingly at odds with Lieberman's preaching. Visit http://www.atheists.org/action/lieberman.html for further information.

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