Conversely, Bible quotes pop up everywhere in Gore's speeches, and according to aides, he almost always chooses the quotes himself. In a 1992 campaign speech, Gore referenced the book of Ecclesiastes at a rally: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," he said, "do it with thy might." At his father's December 1998 funeral, Gore praised his old man's political courage, saying, "My father believed in the words of the Scripture: 'Woe unto you that all men shall speak well of you.'"

He hasn't always gotten it right. In his July 1992 vice presidential nomination acceptance speech, Gore concluded by saying, "In the words of the Bible: 'Do not lose heart. This nation will be renewed.'" The Rev. Jerry Falwell was kind enough to point out that this quote doesn't actually exist in the Bible. (The quote came from a passage written by a Gore family minister who had made some creative interpretations.)

Gore's church, Mount Vernon Baptist, is "pretty liberal, even for this area," says the Rev. Martha Phillips, who will only say of congregant Gore that "he's dedicated to the church, as far as I can tell, in his attendance and his support."

She adds that Gore has been incredibly supportive of her as a female reverend, which theologically conservative churches do not allow. But Gore seems to have never had a problem with women as leaders of the church.

Gore's religion is, according to biographer Turque, "an amalgam of traditional Southern Baptism and spiritual New Age stuff."

Some of the New Age stuff can be a bit trippy. "He has a real interest in science and religion," says the Rev. Joan Campbell, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a Gore advisor on spirituality.

After NASA reported in 1996 that it had found remnants of microscopic organisms that its scientists believed had lived on Mars 3.6 billion years ago, Gore convened a summit largely consisting of scientists, but also included representatives from the religious community.

"There were Nobel laureates there, but he also put people from the world of religion into the meeting," including herself and two Catholic priests, Campbell says. "Not every person who would convene a meeting about life on Mars would even to think to invite someone from the religious community. But for him, the religious dimension to life is very important. Not just in a pious, Sunday morning way, but in issues of life."

Ever since TeSelle's Vanderbilt class, Gore has focused attention on the relationship between the environment and spirituality. In 1991, Sen. Gore helped organize an environmental summit that included two dozen religious leaders from every major American faith. The summit later called for a number of green actions, including an accelerated phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals. It was the beginnings of what in 1994 would become the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, one of Gore's proudest accomplishments.

In 1992, Gore brought astronomer Carl Sagan together with a number of rabbis to form the Consultation on the Environment and Jewish Life. Gore called the growing environmental damage to the Earth "an environmental Kristallnacht" -- the type of rhetoric also included a year later when he published "Earth in the Balance," for which some have mocked him ever since.

As Gore has made efforts to reintroduce himself to the American people, he has made sure that his religiosity has been a highlighted part of bio.

In May 1999, Gore invoked religion when speaking to University of New Hampshire students.

Around that time, his communications staff invited seven religion reporters to sit down and wax biblical with Gore. "I think the purpose of life is to glorify God," he said. "I turn to my faith as the bedrock of my approach to any important question in my life." ("To hear the name [Maurice] 'Merleau-Ponty' trip off the tongue of a major American politician is surely extraordinary,' wrote New York Times religion writer Peter Steinfels. 'Whether it is a qualification to be president is an entirely different matter.'")

And then the climax: Speaking before a Salvation Army in Atlanta, he came out as what might be called a religious New Democrat -- one who shares Clinton's love for the middle ground, while not sharing all of the president's hobbies. And in doing so, Gore essentially agreed with Bush on the controversial subject of funneling federal dollars toward faith-based charities. But after Gore advisor Elaine Kamarck boasted to the Boston Globe that "the Democratic Party is going to take back God this time," some wondered how much of the speech was rooted in principle and how much was just politics.

"For too long, national leaders have been trapped in a dead-end debate," Gore said. "Some on the right have said for too long that a specific set of religious values should be imposed, threatening the founders' precious separation of church and state. In contrast, some on the left have said for too long that religious values should play no role in addressing public needs. These are false choices: hollow secularism or right-wing religion. Both positions are rigid; they are not where the new solutions lie."

"I believe strongly in the separation of church and state. But freedom of religion need not mean freedom from religion," Gore said. "There is a better way."

Gore then proposed federal aid for faith-based charities, "as long as there is always a secular alternative for anyone who wants one, and as long as no one is required to participate in religious observances as a condition for receiving services." Gore also would not send funds directly to groups that proselytize, while Bush would, as long as the money doesn't go directly into proselytizing activities.

Not every Democrat had faith in Gore's proposal. "The Democratic Party, which traditionally was more secular than the Republican, has begun to run on God's coattails," wrote Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz in Free Inquiry, the publication of the atheist Council on Secular Humanism. "It started with Jimmy Carter. It got worse with Bill Clinton. And it promises to get even worse with Al Gore, who is explicitly pandering to what he calls 'faith-based organizations.'"

But, as with Bush, religious figures close to Gore believe his faith to be sincere. Dixon says one of the biblical passages that means the most to Gore is Romans 8:38-39.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"There have to be very hard moments for people who have as much power as the vice president," Dixon says. "That Scripture means a lot to him." No matter what Gore feels has to do in his capacity as vice president of the "principality," the reassurance that nothing can separate him from Jesus' love is of tremendous comfort to him, she says.

No matter who wins this November, it's probably a passage that both men would find reassuring. Both would no doubt breathe a sigh of relief to be reminded that Jesus will love them no matter what un-Christian-like behavior they wreak in their mad dashes to power over the next few months.

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