"There's a lot of America that's Christian. I would not describe us, though, on the whole, as a Christian nation," he told the Web site Beliefnet. "I guess the word 'Christian' is what bothers me, even though I'm a Christian. I think that America is a nation of faith."

The former North Carolina senator said he was raised in "a very Christian home" and attended a Southern Baptist church, where his dad was a deacon, but "drifted away" from God when he went to college and got married.

In 1996, when his teenage son died in a car wreck, everything changed, he said. "[In] the days after that, when I was trying to survive and Elizabeth's trying to survive, my faith came roaring back," he said, referring to his wife.

Edwards said he believes that God "will always be there for you," and he said he prays daily. "My faith informs everything I think and do," he said, but he added that he strongly believes in the separation of church and state.

Meanwhile, his campaign was trying to turn an attack into cold cash yesterday after right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter called him "a faggot" at a meeting of conservatives in Washington.

"The Republican establishment knows he poses the greatest threat to their power," said his campaign manager David Bonior in a fund-raising letter urging donations to a $100,000 Coulter Cash fund to "show that bigotry will only backfire."

Originally published on March 4, 2007