At a recent conference of religious leaders who are politically liberal, I heard the following conversation:
“I’m concerned that Obama is going to put more troops into Afghanistan instead of bringing them home.”
“Oh, I think he was just saying that to get elected.”
“No, I think he really means that.”
“Oh dear. Really?”

Religious liberals were out of the closet this election, pushing hard for President-elect Barack Obama as both political progressives and people of faith. They, like everyone else who worked for Mr. Obama, are taking partial credit for his victory. With religious groups, as with other constituencies, Mr. Obama will have a much greater challenge managing his friends than Republicans.

Many on the left set aside their differences with Mr. Obama and with each other in order to help get him elected. Now we’re starting to see some of the fault lines.
For instance, most Jewish Democrats – part of the religious left coalition – were thrilled by Mr. Obama’s selection of Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a pro-Israel congressman from Illinois, as his White House chief of staff. But not Rabbi Michael Lerner. Rabbi Lerner, founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, was outraged because, he says, Mr. Emanuel has a “long history of militarist ideology.”
Noting that Mr. Emanuel pushed for conservative Democratic congressional candidates, Rabbi Lerner predicts that he will “almost certainly be protecting Mr. Obama from all of us spiritual progressives and those of us who describe ourselves as the Religious Left.” In short, Rabbi Lerner says, “we may be in for lots of disappointments.”
Most of Mr. Obama’s challenges with the religious left will be on more-substantive grounds. The fault lines are:
Abortion. Several religious progressive groups went out on a limb arguing that Mr. Obama would reduce the number of abortions, while keeping them legal. This runs in direct conflict with Mr. Obama’s campaign promise to Planned Parenthood that he would quickly sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would wipe out many state abortion restrictions.
Gay Marriage. Two key components of Mr. Obama’s religious left coalition were African Americans and Latinos. They agree with the white religious progressives on most issues but veer sharply on gay marriage. African Americans voted 70%-30% in California in favor of Proposition 8, banning gay marriage. White progressives, including many on the religious left, will push for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Sam Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, predicted last week that Mr. Obama would lose his Hispanic support if he backed gay marriage or backed off his abortion promises
Faith-Based Initiative. Unlike many secular Democrats, most liberal religious groups were pleased when Mr. Obama promised during the campaign to expand rather than eliminate President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative. But behind the scenes, they were quite worried about Mr. Obama’s promise to make it illegal for faith-based groups to limit hiring to people of their own faith. The position thrilled civil libertarians but raised concerns among some nonprofits that Mr. Obama would go too far in restricting the operations of religious groups. Mr. Obama will need to navigate that line carefully.
Afghanistan. Some on the left applauded Mr. Obama’s plan to draw down troops from Iraq but quietly disagreed (during the campaign) that the troops should be shifted to Afghanistan. The hardcore antiwar activists will resist if Mr. Obama appears to making a long-term commitment to a major troop presence in Afghanistan.
Reprinted from Steven Waldman’s Political Perceptions column on the Wall Street Journal Online