The New York Times is reporting that President Obama made fairly significant efforts to placate various religious leaders almost immediately after he announced last week that he now supports same-sex marriage (see this post by my colleague, Mark, in which the President explained that his position on same-sex marriage was informed by his Christian faith).  One of the people whom the President contacted expressed concerns that this policy shift might have implications for religious liberty.  The President is reported to have responded: “Absolutely not.  That’s not where we’re going, and that’s not what I want.”

What is most interesting is not the wide range of reactions that the President received from religious leaders, all of whom are otherwise aligned with the President politically, but that the President believed it to be crucial as a political matter to reach out to so many religious figures only hours after he made the announcement.  That alacrity speaks to the continuing political importance of these religious communities, whether for the right or the left.