ZANESVILLE, Ohio -- Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said yesterday he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social-service dollars to religious groups.

He risks protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually support Republicans.

Obama contended he merely is stating long-held positions.

In recent days, Obama has been sounding centrist themes with comments on guns, government surveillance and capital punishment.

Yesterday, touring a Presbyterian Church-based social-services facility, the Democratic senator said he would get religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty efforts if elected.

He said the connection of religion and public service was nothing new in his personal life.

Obama showed he was comfortable using the kind of language that is familiar in evangelical churches and Bible studies by calling his faith "a personal commitment to Christ." He said his time as a community organizer in decimated Chicago neighborhoods, supported in part by a Catholic group, brought him to a deeper faith and also convinced him that faith is useless without works.

His talk on faith in the battleground state of Ohio came a day after a speech on patriotism in Missouri, another November election battleground. Today, he travels to Colorado Springs, Colo., a hub of conservative Christian organizations, for a speech focused on service.

Conservative Christians make up about one-quarter of the electorate, and they helped put Bush in office twice. Many still are likely to oppose the Democratic nominee because of his support of abortion rights, gay rights and other issues.

Still, the Obama camp notes that some evangelicals feel passionately about aggressive environmental stewardship, an issue more commonly associated with Democrats. Others find appeal in Obama's message about ending messy political divisions.

While Obama would expand Bush's efforts to give religious charities more equal footing when getting federal funding, he also would tweak what he would call the President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in ways that diverge from Bush's approach.

He would increase spending on social services, starting with a $500 million-a-year program to keep 1 million poor children up to speed on their studies during the summer. He would increase training for charities applying for funding and make it a grass-roots effort.

And while Bush supports allowing all religious groups to make any employment decisions based on faith, Obama proposes allowing religious institutions to hire and fire based on religion only in the nontaxpayer-funded portions of their activities -- consistent with current federal, state and local laws. "That makes perfect sense" and answers First Amendment questions, he said.

Obama also has supported new electronic surveillance rules for the government's eavesdropping program after opposing a similar bill last year. After the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia's gun ban, he said he favors both an individual's right to bear firearms and a government's right to regulate them.

On Iraq, he has gone from vocal opposition to more nuanced rhetoric that calls for a phased-out troop drawdown that could last 16 months. He also disagreed with the Supreme Court decision last week that struck down a Louisiana law allowing capital punishment for people who rape children under 12.