s the presidential campaign enters a crucial stretch, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman's belief in God has suddenly emerged as a major story, posing real challenges for journalists and raising questions of media bias.
On Tuesday, after the Anti-Defamation League criticized Lieberman for injecting too much religion into politics, all three networks covered the flap in the opening minutes of their evening newscasts. CNN's interactive ''Talkback Live'' show hosted a debate on whether God belongs ''on the campaign trail.'' Yesterday, the issue made front pages from The Boston Globe to the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post editorialized that Lieberman had wandered ''too far across a line that separates politics from religion.''
Even before Lieberman's nomination shone the spotlight on Orthodox Judaism, there'd been no shortage of heavenly invocations in the campaign. George W. Bush was eager to point out that Jesus Christ was the philosopher he most identified with, and Al Gore revealed that he thinks about what Jesus would do to guide him in crucial situations.
''This whole campaign has been marked by prominent discussions of faith,'' says David Briggs, religion writer at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. ''One logical reason is a reaction to President Clinton.''
But Lieberman's embrace of religion represents a dramatic new wrinkle on that theme. For one thing, he is a member of a minority faith. For another, while most political displays of religious fervor originate from the conservative Christian right, Lieberman is a Jewish Democrat with moderate-to-liberal social leanings. All this has left journalists struggling with the question of how to cover this new brand of Bible thumping.
''Political piety is no longer in the Republican domain,'' says Matthew Felling, media director for the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs. ''I think Lieberman is presenting a definite challenge. Since he became the big story, we've seen it [his religion] shift from a novelty to a nuisance. And the reporters are in a kind of Catch-22.''
The core of the debate is whether the mainstream media - often accused of treating religious conservatives with near open hostility - are giving Lieberman something of a pass.
On Tuesday, ABC religion correspondent Peggy Wehmeyer interviewed a member of the National Association of Evangelicals who stated that if ''an evangelical or Bush had said something like this, the press would have been on him like so many tigers.''
In a Globe interview, Wehmeyer acknowledged that ''Lieberman has surprised me most in how far he's gone. In so many words, he said in Detroit the other day, `You can't be good without God.' You would not hear Bush or Gore or Clinton say something like this.''
On one level, there is a basic journalistic debate forming over how much attention Lieberman's religious beliefs deserve.
''I think it's really off the mark ... It's unbelievable, the superlatives about his integrity or his morality,'' says Jeff Cohen, founder of the liberal media watchdog FAIR. ''I think the news media should be focusing less on the politician's rhetoric of morality and more on whether a politician's record jibes with the rhetoric of morality.''
While acknowledging that he doesn't want to beat the story to death, Kevin Eckstrom, national correspondent for the Religion News Service, says, ''To us, Lieberman talking about religion ... is the point of who he is. It's part of his persona. It's as legitimate as anything else.''
Reporters who regularly cover religion voice concern that faith in politics, and religious conservatives in particular, are unfairly stereotyped by the media. And they suggest that the same harsh standards have not yet been applied to Lieberman.
''Well there definitely seems to be a double standard,'' says Eckstrom. ''Honestly, what I've sensed here is that there's been a real reluctance to call Lieberman on this because people didn't want to be seen as anti-Semitic.''
''Even the term `Religious Right' became a pejorative,'' says Briggs, who believes the Lieberman case could help educate ''some journalists who have stereotyped Christian conservatives ... Because he is different, [there may] actually be some potential positive developments coming from the Lieberman candidacy.''
''Lieberman has somehow gotten away with saying things that a Born Again Christian would get hammmered for perhaps,'' adds Wehmeyer. ''It's new and unusual because he's a Jewish leader who's speaking openly about God. Should he be held up to the same scrutiny? I should think so. ... If you're going to analyze God on the campaign trail, we should treat Jews, Christians, and Muslims all the same.''
