June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama may be shaped by his religious faith more than any Democratic presidential nominee since Jimmy Carter. The advantages and disadvantages of that to his campaign were both on display during the weekend.

Just as Obama announced that his family was resigning from a church in Chicago after another sermon there had touched off a political firestorm, his faith-centered backers were gathering at Mary McCutcheon's home in Arlington, Virginia, for an ``American Values House Party.''

The ``values'' event was part of a new phase in the campaign's strategy to establish faith-outreach operations in battleground states such as Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania that have a large number of churchgoers. It underlines what Corwin Smidt, a religion and politics professor at Calvin College, says is the extraordinary role that faith is playing in the Obama campaign.

``The Democratic Party has been very reluctant to talk about religion in their campaigns in the past several elections,'' said Smidt, whose Christian liberal-arts college is in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

By contrast, Obama, 46, wants to find common ground on what his campaign calls ``moral'' issues such as health care, education and the Iraq War.

``I have been somebody who really has insisted that the Democratic Party reach out to people of faith and to take issues of faith more seriously,'' the Illinois senator said in Aberdeen, South Dakota, at a May 31 press conference to discuss his departure from Trinity United Church of Christ after some 20 years.

`Call to Action'

For Obama, Trinity ``offered a real call to action and was doing a great deal to help the community,'' his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said in a January interview. ``So for him it was important to make a commitment and lay down some roots.''

To be sure, his involvement with the church probably also boosted his political career in Chicago, connecting him to a charismatic preacher, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and a house of worship whose congregation grew from fewer than 100 members 36 years ago to 8,000 today.

That changed when Obama was forced to denounce Wright over his attacks on the U.S. government. After Reverend Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest, mocked Senator Hillary Clinton during a racially tinged guest sermon on May 25 at Trinity, a ``deeply disappointed'' Obama quit the church.

The problems created by his association with the church won't vanish just because he's left. His poor showings in the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries may partly have been tied to the comments by Wright, who together with Pfleger are YouTube staples and will likely continue plaguing the campaign.

Reaching Out

Still, Obama's departure from Trinity won't undermine his ability to reach out to religious moderates because he hasn't denounced his faith, said John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

``Even in the evangelical community, it's very common for people to move from one church to the other,'' Green said.

Obama's new effort to reach values voters, especially Catholics and moderate evangelicals, relies on events like the May 31 gathering at McCutcheon's home. The Obama supporter invited 10 friends and neighbors to meet with Paul Monteiro, the campaign's deputy director of religious affairs.

During the two-hour forum, the group discussed a series of questions about how the next president can affect their lives; what faith tells one about changing the community; and how a president should approach faith and politics.

God-Fearing President

Some attendees said they want a president to ``feel the presence of the Lord,'' and ``fear God.'' While everyone agreed on ending the war in Iraq and fixing health care, the debate became heated over federal grants for church-based groups and on whether a religious leader should be nominated to the Supreme Court.

``The goal here tonight was to have this conversation,'' said Monteiro.

The materials to run a ``values'' discussion will be posted online so local groups can hold the forums without campaign staff. Obama will also continue to reach out to local clergy and appear more often in religious settings, while connecting with students at religious colleges.

The living-room forums appeal to religious people, said Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the Washington-based National Association of Evangelicals.

``The old nostrum that you don't talk about religion and politics -- well, that went out the window a long time ago,'' he said.

Not Like McCain

Obama's views on hot-button social issues including abortion and stem-cell research mean he doesn't have ``a prayer to get the support of many conservative religious people,'' said Tom Minnery, political director of Focus on the Family, an evangelical organization in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Nonetheless, Smidt said Obama is able to tap into the faith community, in part because Republican presidential candidate John McCain is ``more reluctant to talk about his personal faith.''

And the latest Trinity dust-up, however, won't put a damper on Obama's faith-based outreach efforts said Joshua Dubois, his director of religious affairs.

``Americans of faith understand deeply that Senator Obama's faith is based in Jesus Christ and in serving others, not in the four walls of a church,'' Dubois said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Chicago at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net; Kim Chipman in Chicago kchipman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 3, 2008 00:01 EDT