Finally, it seems, the Democratic Party is searching its soul, as evidenced by the faith-based public forum attended Monday by three main rivals for the presidential nomination.

Many national elections have gone by in which Democrats conceded religiously based messages to the Republicans, but the forum sponsored by a liberal evangelical group, Sojourners, is an admission by the party that faith still guides a large percentage of American voters. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards thoughtfully discussed their most personal convictions on an invitation by Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, who in 2005 penned a best-selling book, “Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get it.”

The Associated Press’ highlight was Clinton’s statement that faith in God got her through husband Bill’s infidelity, but the larger message is the forum itself. In presidential elections dating back at least to Ronald Reagan, some Democrats have made the mistake of ignoring religiously motivated voters, marginalizing them, or dismissing them as irrelevant at best, or ignorant at worst. Many presidential candidates on both the right and the left may continue to act privately as if God is inappropriate in public, but they recognize now that they ignore religious voters at their peril.

This admission is a victory for some, an embarrassment for others.

What it might do for the Democrats and for the public, at large, is to show that religious inspiration need not be solely confined to conservative evangelicals and the GOP. It could help the right see that if God cares about keeping taxes low, protecting unborn life and the sanctity of marriage, He (She?) might also be interested in combating poverty and fighting for social justice.

Then again, any politician offering insights into their soul risks being perceived as insincere. This has happened to many a candidate on both sides of the aisle, most famously to 2004 Democratic candidate Howard Dean, whose repeated attempts to appear religious came off as both humorous and sad at the same time. Claiming the Old Testament book of Job was his favorite New Testament book was just one example of a moment he should have done more homework.

The Democrats’ renewed emphasis on faith surely causes some to wince, particularly the wing of the party that prefers less religion in public life rather than more. For this philosophy there is a large following. Many long for the day when we become more like Europe, where Christian sentimentality hardly registers as a basis for political discussion.

In America, books written by athiests are more popular now than they ever were. One of the leading authors, Christopher Hitchens, who recently penned, “God is Not Great,” was confident enough in his thesis that on the day after Moral Majority founder Rev. Jerry Falwell’s died, he reserved a place in hell (saying he wished one existed) for the reverend.

Hitchens, it is assumed, is not impressed with Monday’s forum.

Even so, a sizable segment of voters tend to prefer that our leaders acknowledge something higher than themselves. If that were not so, there would not be this election year rush to sidle up to God.

The bottom line on Democrats’ most recent acknowledgement that religion matters is this: Despite continued attempts to secularize public life, much of the country stubbornly resists. Whether we agree or disagree that faith should count so much in the public sphere, it continues to be the one aspect that — perhaps more than any other — separates us from our European brethren from where our roots derive.

Doug Wolter is night news editor of The Free Press. To contact him, call 344-6384 or e-mail at dwolter@mankatofreepress.com.