Over the past three years, Sen. John Kerry has had a lot of time to think about his God, and at a meeting with journalists in Washington earlier this month he shared those thoughts. He grew up in a Roman Catholic home before Vatican II; though devout, he prayed in private behind his closed bedroom door, as was the custom at the time. In Vietnam, he prayed to God to save his life, and when he came home some of his foxhole promises no longer felt so pressing. Kerry, a divorced, pro-choice Democrat with a foreign-seeming wife, ran for president in 2004 against an incumbent whose personal Christian-conversion story was intricately woven into his public persona. Yet, out of principle or stubbornness, Kerry chose not to expound upon his own faith until late in the race—too late, he says in retrospect. In the spring and summer of '04, a handful of U.S. Catholic bishops announced they'd refuse Kerry holy communion on the grounds that his stance on abortion went against church teachings, and Kerry suddenly found himself having to answer fundamental questions about who he was and what he stood for. "I should have started earlier to introduce who I really was—in '02 or '03," he told NEWSWEEK last week. He gave a big Catholic-values speech in Florida in October, but by then it was too late. "October is October. You've got to do this earlier," he says. "People have to have a sense of this as a continuum. Explaining how Catholicism has shaped my view of public life—it would have made a difference."

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You might think of this week as Kay Warren's coming-out party. Her husband, Rick, who is perhaps the most celebrated evangelical pastor in the world under the age of 60, has long said that his commitment to solving the international AIDS crisis, culminating in the third global AIDS summit held at his Saddleback church in Lake Forest, Calif., this week, was initially her idea, and here she is, finally taking credit. Petite, blonde—"ordinary" is her description—Kay Warren has for 32 years played the role of nurturer, best friend and helpmeet. But for the past year Kay has been on the lecture circuit herself, preaching that Christians ought to apply themselves to the problem of AIDS, even though it raises uncomfortable questions about sex. This week her memoir, "Dangerous Surrender," comes out, and now Kay Warren has emerged at the center of things. Asked if she's comfortable in this new role—with the hustle and bustle and aides and assistants, her office resembles a senator's—she starts to cry. "I didn't see it coming," she says, sitting in a conference room in her suite of offices not far from Saddleback. "I never, ever saw it coming."

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