WASHINGTON - About two hours after declaring his support for same-sex marriage last week, President Obama gathered about eight black ministers on a conference call to explain himself. He had struggled with the decision, he said, but had come to believe it was the right one.

The ministers, however, were not all as enthusiastic. A vocal few made it clear that the president's stand on gay marriage might make it difficult for them to support his re-election.

"They were wrestling with their ability to get over his theological position," said the Rev. Delman Coates, pastor of Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md., who was on the call.

In the end, Coates, who supports civil marriages for gays and lesbians, said that most of the pastors, regardless of their views on this issue, agreed to "work aggressively" on behalf of the president's campaign. But not everyone.

"Gay marriage is contrary to their understanding of scripture," Coates said. "There are people who are really wrestling with this."

Reaching out to leaders

In the hours following Obama's politically charged announcement on Wednesday, the president and his team embarked on a quiet campaign to contain any possible damage among religious leaders and voters. He also reached out to one or more of the five spiritual leaders he calls regularly for religious guidance.

The damage-control effort underscored the anxiety among Obama's advisers about the consequences of the president's revised position just months before what is expected to be a tight re-election vote.

While hailed by liberals and gay rights leaders as a historic breakthrough, Obama recognized that much of the country remains uncomfortable or opposed to same-sex marriage, including many in his own political coalition.

The issue of religious freedom has become a delicate one for Obama, especially after the recent furor over an administration mandate that religious-affiliated organizations offer health insurance covering contraceptives.

After complaints from Catholic leaders that the health insurance mandate attacked their faith, Obama offered a compromise that would maintain coverage for contraception but not require religious organizations to pay for it, but critics remained dissatisfied.

In taking on same-sex marriage, Obama made a point of couching his views in religious terms. "We're both practicing Christians," the president said of his wife and himself in the ABC News interview in which he proclaimed his support. "And obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others."

Obama cites the Golden Rule

He added that what he thought about was "not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf but it's also the Golden Rule, you know? Treat others the way you would want to be treated."

After the interview, Obama also called one of the religious leaders he considers a touchstone, the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a conservative megachurch in Florida.

"Some of the faith communities are going to be afraid that this is an attack against religious liberty," Hunter remembered telling the president.

"Absolutely not," Obama insisted. "That's not where we're going, and that's not what I want."

Indeed, even some of Obama's friends in the religious community warned that he risked alienating followers, particularly blacks who have been more skeptical of the idea than other traditional Democratic constituencies.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, another religious adviser to Obama and president and executive director of Sojourners, a left-leaning evangelical magazine and organization, said that he had fielded calls ever since the announcement from pastors across the country, including black and Hispanic ministers. Religious leaders, he said, are deeply divided.

"We hope the president will reach out to people who disagree with him on this," Wallis said. "The more conservative churches need to know, need to be reassured, that their religious liberty is going to be respected here."

Obama has reached out to Wallis, Hunter and three other ministers for prayer sessions by telephone and for discussions about the intersection of religion and public policy.

Wallis would not say whether he heard from Obama as Hunter did.

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, another of the five and the senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, said he did not. "He doesn't need to talk with me about that," Caldwell said.