Hillary Clinton took to the pulpit again yesterday, this time at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in SoCal. The Democratic presidential hopeful spoke at Warren’s Global Summit on AIDS and the Church, the same conference her top rival Barack Obama appeared at last year. During her speech, which outlined her plans to combat the AIDS epidemic worldwide, Clinton quoted what she said was her favorite verse: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). In using the verse to comment on the necessity of faith in charity efforts, Clinton said, “I have concluded that works without faith cannot be sustained.”

Clinton’s audience included pastors, nongovernmental groups, and Saddleback members, including an obviously impressed Christie Mayles, who said, “I wish I could have met her afterward. She is my new hero.”

Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association wasn’t as pleased with her appearance at the megachurch: “What Saddleback is doing is helping raise her profile as a legitimate presidential candidate in the eyes of evangelical Christians, and I think that is a huge error.”

Five other presidential candidates — Obama and John Edwards from the Democratic side, and Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Mitt Romney from the GOP– sent short videotaped messages that were shown following Clinton’s remarks on the church’s video screens. “We invited all of them to come, but she was the one who showed up,” Warren said.