Like so much else in Washington, that's changed. Religion is on the cutting edge.
Faith is intellectually chic.
Arguments over sacred vs. profane, virtue vs. vulgar, responsibility vs. raunch are in, in, in. Theology may not be as titillating as adultery as a topic for public discussion, but it's likely to have a more important influence on public policy. Mr. DiIulio has been the moving target for those who want the wall of separation between church and state to be so high that you'd have to be an astronaut to see over it to find a little perspective. Religious conservatives, who fear that faith-based organizations will become little bureaucracies preoccupied with paperwork and the pursuit of grants, are suspicious of him, too. They worry that religious organizations will become dependent on government subsidies, and thus vulnerable to presidential agendas when we get a less open-minded president than George W. Bush.