AUSTIN — The fight by Democrats to reclaim God from the religious right has been taken up by the traditional lefty blogosphere, an online collision between the edgy and the ecumenical.

“I don’t think we’ll start winning (that fight) until we get over ourselves and start saying yes, I have values, yes I have a family, and yes these things matter to me,” said Sara Robinson, a blogger and fellow at Campaigns for America’s Future in Washington, D.C. “For good theological reasons. For reasons for reasons of morality and the kind of world I want to live in and the God I believe in.”

As more than 2,000 bloggers descended on Austin on Thursday for their third annual Netroots Nation convention, no small part of the myriad panels and discussions will be focused on religion:

The right to practice it in a hostile secular environment, and how liberal bloggers and can use the language of religion to draw God-fearing Americans to a political movement that has, for so long, been looked upon as Godless.

“Some people think that the progressive side of things doesn’t respect religion too much,” said Dan Schultz, known as “Pastor Dan” and host of “Street Prophets,” a blog connected to the popular national lefty blog DailyKos. “I think that’s really overstated. What I see as much more of a problem are the conservative types who say you can’t be a Christian if you don’t believe in these 15 different things, most of which come right off the GOP playbook.”

The discussions come during an election cycle that has featured religion heavily –from Sen. John McCain’s on-again-off-again relationship with the religious right to Sen. Barack Obama’s controversial embrace of faith-based institution.

His position on that has threatened to alienate some hardcore lefty fans who are accustomed to shunning religion because it is so closely associated with Republicans.

“Those of us who are religious progressives and liberals, how do we reclaim our voice in the public square in a way that actually impacts the culture in terms of what’s considered moral, what’s considered decent, what’s considered humane?” said blogger Chuck Freeman of Austin’s Free Souls Project.

At a gathering of religious left bloggers on Thursday morning at the convention, about 30 bloggers of religions ranging from Jewish to Christian to Buddhist said they’d like to see an environment in which it’s “safe” for them to discuss their religion and still be able to call themselves liberals.

“The left’s response has been, ‘Get that discussion out of the public square,’ ” said Charles Forsythe, a Dallas resident who blogs as “The Red Pen” at “Street Prophets.” “What we should be doing is getting out there and saying, ‘Yeah. What WOULD Jesus do about waterboarding?’”

By continuing to maintain lefty religious positions on national blogs and in the media, the blogosphere can help “drive the conversation” and reclaim the loyalties of the religious center, bloggers say.

“These conversations do create a shift in conventional wisdom that will eventually migrate out” into the political realm, Ms. Robinson said. “People will pick up the talking points and start to play with them. We can help drive that conversation.”