Denver — Just a few minutes into the Democratic National Convention’s opening interfaith worship service, the abortion issue took center stage. Literally.

As a mixed-race choir wearing kente cloth sang a spiritual song, a man rose from the front of the half-full Wells Fargo Theater at the Denver Convention Center and said, repeatedly, “Obama supports the murder of children by abortion.”

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After police escorted him out of the venue, another protester rose. Then another. The religiously diverse crowd was not pleased, booing each. The stunt was rude, to be sure, but that wasn’t the only reason it made the attendees uncomfortable: When one of the keynote speakers announced he was pro-life, you could have heard a pin drop.

Bishop Charles E. Blake, presiding prelate of the Church of God in Christ, spoke of “the moral and spiritual pain” felt by pro-life Democrats like himself because of the party’s “disregard for the lives of the unborn.”

“Surely we cannot be pleased with the routine administration of millions of surgically terminated pregnancies,” he preached. “Something in us must be calling for a better way. If we do not resist at this point, at what point do we resist?”

It was a positively awkward moment in a service full of, well, preaching the choir. Only when he began denouncing other pro-lifers — accusing them of not caring about poverty or the plight of the inner cities — did the crowd erupt with praise.

Much has been made of Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic party’s outreach efforts to religious voters. In the weeks leading up to the convention, every major media outlet featured multiple stories about the plans for the interfaith gathering and its organizer, Pentecostal pastor Leah Daughtry.

It’s certainly true that the DNC has a history of being hostile to cultural conservatives, most of whom are religious. The exclusion of former Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey from speaking at the 1992 convention is just one of many examples of pro-lifers being systematically shunned within the party.

And the public has noticed. Five years ago, 42 percent of Americans told Pew pollsters that the Democratic party was religion-friendly. That plummeted to 26 percent in 2006 but rebounded to its current 38 percent. That lags considerably behind the Republican Party, which some 52 percent of Americans said they view as friendly to religious adherents.

The interfaith gathering — and the launch of a new faith caucus during the convention — is part of the larger effort of improving Democrats’ image with religious voters. The message was reinforced by having House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn and Democratic party chairman Howard Dean in the front row. (Yet another protester, this time an atheist who tried to shout down Daughtry when she said Democrats were people of faith, didn’t reinforce the message.)

The mention of abortion was the only surprise of the event, which followed the pattern of most political interfaith gatherings. Interfaith worship services usually follow a Judeo-Christian liturgy but with the insertion of other Scriptures and clergy. So instead of a procession of clergy behind, say, a crucifix, the clergy were led by four Native Americans beating drums.