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Why the words聽鈥淕od鈥� and 鈥�Jerusalem鈥� were excised from the Democratic platform is not exactly clear 鈥� Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called it a "technical oversight." But even if it was a mistake, it points to the Democratic Party's challenge of recognizing its robust and integral religious supporters while also acknowledging that a growing share of members see organized religion as a diminishing priority.聽

To be sure, the optics of reinserting聽the words into the platform Wednesday as some conventioneers seemed to boo were not ideal.聽But convention Chairman and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has said聽President Obama insisted on the change, and the reasons are clear.

鈥淔or your undecided voter in Nevada, North Carolina, in Florida, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania 鈥� those key swing states, yeah, of course God matters,鈥� says Davis Houck, a communications professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 why Obama basically said, 鈥榊ou better put that back in 鈥� we can鈥檛 be seen as the party taking God out of the platform.鈥� 鈥�

Support for Mr. Obama among religious voters was high in several key states in 2008 and could be key again in 2012. 鈥淚n an election as close as this one will be, we can't ignore something as central to most Americans as faith,鈥� Democratic political consultant Eric Sapp wrote on Huffington Post in June.

But while religious voters remain crucially important to the Democrats' prospects in November, the party is also seeing growth in the number of supporters who have little or no connection to organized religion. The percentage of Democrats who seldom or never attend church grew from 35 percent in 2000 to 52 percent in 2011, according to Gallup.

鈥淲ithin the Democratic Party there are strong Democratic constituencies that take faith very seriously, whether it鈥檚 African-American protestants or Hispanic Catholics,鈥� says John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio, who studies the intersection between politics and religion. 鈥淏ut another large constituency are the unaffiliated, who are not involved in organization religion 鈥� including atheists, agnostics, and those who are spiritual but not religious.鈥�

鈥�Religion talk 鈥� God talk 鈥� can create tensions within the Democratic coalition; some people respond positively, other people react very negatively, and I don鈥檛 know what [role] that tension might鈥檝e played鈥� in the phrases being removed from the plank, he adds.

The move to rewrite the plank after its approval on Tuesday came after the widely read Drudge Report, a conservative news site, linked to a story pointing out how the party had excised the phrase 鈥淕od-given rights鈥� and had taken out language in the 2008 plank that referred to support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The revised sections now read as follows:

• "Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.鈥�
• "We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."

Republicans, who are managing their own religious tensions between social conservatives and libertarians, quickly jumped on the slip up, hoping it would upstage the convention鈥檚 main speakers, including Bill Clinton, and drive home a campaign message that Democrats are out of touch with mainstream America.

鈥淚f booing God and his holy city is a part of the Democratic Convention happening in this universe, I鈥檒l take the alternative universe Bill Clinton said the GOP lives in,鈥� writes RedState blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson. 鈥淭his is why Barack Obama stands a good chance of losing. It is the Democrats who have disconnected from America.鈥�

For some religious Democrats, the whole incident seems an innocent, yet potentially damaging, mistake.

鈥淚鈥檓 personally convinced that this was on nobody鈥檚 agenda 鈥� that what we鈥檙e looking at is an incredibly stupid happenstance,鈥� says Stephen Schneck, the national co-chair of Catholics for Obama and a board member for Democrats for Life, who acknowledged that he, too, missed the change when he read the plank. 鈥淏ut I鈥檒l acknowledge that the optics really stink, and it鈥檚 an opening for believing right-wingers to suggest that the Democratic Party is not friendly to religion, which I personally know is fundamentally false.鈥�

If anything Mr. Schneck faults a 鈥渢ightly held鈥� plank-writing process that he himself witnessed. 鈥淚t was very tough for pro-life Democrats, who are one-third of the party, to get someone on the platform committee to return our phone calls,鈥� he says.