hen Vice President Al Gore chose an Orthodox Jew as his running mate Aug. 7, it was clear the Democratic Party was taking an unorthodox approach to the 2000 presidential race.
Now, less than a month into Joseph I. Lieberman's historic candidacy, the Connecticut senator's faith and his repeated references to it have created new, surprising firing lines in the ongoing battle between religion and politics.
The best evidence yet arrived Monday, when the Anti-Defamation League, a high-profile Jewish group that has spent years criticizing Republicans for invoking God, blasted Lieberman for asking Americans to ''renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God'' in a speech at a Detroit church.
Yesterday, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and American Atheists Inc., groups that have rarely looked leftward when entering the political fray, joined the criticism of Lieberman.
But perhaps more intriguing - and encouraging for the Gore campaign - is the rousing defense of Lieberman offered by conservative and clerical groups that praised the candidate for going where most Democrats rarely tread.
''Senator Lieberman is to be commended, not criticized, for discussing the public role of religion,'' William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, wrote in a statement.
''We are people whose institutions presume the existence of a supreme being,'' said Richard Lessner, vice president of American Renewal, a lobbying affiliate of the conservative Family Research Council. ''The notion that there are all these village atheists out there who will fly into high dudgeon every time a word of faith is spoken is ludicrous.''
But Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, underscored the growing unease over Lieberman's overt religiosity when he pointedly chastized the vice presidential candidate's pronouncements from the pulpit.
''To even suggest that one cannot be a moral person without being a religious person is an affront to many highly ethical citizens,'' Foxman wrote to Lieberman in a letter later faxed to several media outlets.
''We feel very strongly,'' he continued, ''that appealing along religious lines ... is contrary to the American ideal.''
Kiki McLean, a spokesperson for Lieberman, said yesterday that the candidate is earnest in his faith but just as much so in his respect for the separation of church and state. Criticism by the ADL and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, she said, failed to take into account where Lieberman was speaking.
''It was a reflection, to some extent, of the folks he was talking to,'' McLean said of the congregants at Detroit's Fellowship Chapel. ''He was speaking in a church on Sunday.''
Although the ADL has frequently locked horns with the Family Research Council, Lieberman's public expressions of faith appear to be creating unique relationships. For example, leaders of B'nai B'rith, the parent organization of the ADL, roundly rejected the league's criticism of Lieberman yesterday - as the candidate's wife, Hadassah, spoke at the group's annual meeting in Washington.
But it's unclear whether Lieberman's piety will translate into support from swing voters who place faith and character at the top of their Washington wish lists. The same goes for secular liberals.
John Green, director of the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said that the criticism of Lieberman may be an attempt by the ADL and other groups to appear objective.
''Many of the groups that criticize conservative Christian groups about tying politics and God have been noticeably silent'' about Lieberman's speeches, Green said. The attack on the candidate, then, is possibly ''a way to resolve that perception. They are trying to be consistent.''
Lessner made the same point but said he doubted the ADL and others were aiming at Lieberman out of expediency: ''I give Abe Foxman credit for being consistent. ... I don't think it's a cynical attempt to establish credibility. I think it's a reflection of where the ADL and their supporters really are. They are uncomfortable with politicians who speak flagrantly about their religion.''
Samuel G. Freedman, author of ''Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry,'' said the rift may speak more to the growing divide among the nation's Orthodox and secular Jews.
Lieberman, he said, ''is not someone who's hid his religious Jewishness under a bushel basket. He's been open about it and risen anyway. The fact that he's being sniped at by other Jews is emblematic of the tension we're seeing.''
Although politicians have regularly ushered their faith to the dais at election time, overt blending of religious belief and policy has often divided voters.
The reaction to Lieberman's statements appears unremarkable in that sense, just as it was predictable that Republican candidate George W. Bush was praised and criticized by the usual suspects for naming Jesus Christ as his favorite political philosopher.
But if a supreme being makes scheduled appearances in every national election, this year's seems to have moved beyond the norm - in part because of the sheer novelty of a Jewish candidate, some observers said. Witness the ''God-o-meter,'' a new feature on Beliefnet.com, a religion and spirituality Web site, that measures how many references to God each candidate makes every 30 seconds during their speeches. (Right now, the Gore/Lieberman ticket is in the lead, 7.1 to 6.7.)
Regardless of Lieberman's motivations, many observers see the senator's adherence to the Bible as an attempt to woo voters reluctant to support the party of Bill Clinton, whose affair with Monica Lewinsky cast a moral pall over the Democrats.
''Right now, it's helping the Gore camp,'' Green said. ''There are many people out there who think the country has a values crisis that needs to be addressed, whether it's Monica Lewinsky, corporate greed, or school shootings. Lieberman's religious bearing has got to attract people looking for a faith-based solution.''
Mary Leonard of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
