WASHINGTON – Congress should pass legislation protecting religious liberties in the workplace, and America should help Iraqis write a constitution that will respect freedom of conscience even if it is “against their traditions,” Senator Clinton said yesterday.

“Religious liberty is one of the most important issues on the world’s agenda today,” Mrs. Clinton told the Religious Liberty Annual Dinner of the Seventh day Adventist Church.

Freedom of conscience is often “a bellwether for human rights,” she said.

The senator’s religiously themed speech comes as Democrats seek to identify anew with the “moral values” that were said to play a role in the Republican victories in November’s election.

The senator’s strong endorsement of legislation that is opposed by some abortion-rights and gay-rights groups is likely to add to speculation that she is moving to the political center ahead of a potential 2008 presidential candidacy. But the issue of religious liberty is one she has championed consistently since arriving in the Senate.

Elected in 2000, Mrs. Clinton has been one of only a handful of bipartisan co-sponsors of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which would require employers to accommodate their employees’ religious observances when reasonably possible. Critics say the law could enable religious zealots to discriminate against or harass gay workers or interfere with women’s access to birth control or abortion.

The bill was introduced again last month by Senator Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator Santorum, a Republican of Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Clinton is again a co-sponsor. Senator Schumer, too, has come to back the bill.

“I hope that this year will be the year that we will be successful in passing this,” Mrs. Clinton said in a speech that garnered a standing ovation from the approximately 200 people who were dining in a marble-walled Senate room.

While American has been an “exemplar” of religious freedom and toleration since its founding, Mrs. Clinton said, Americans must do more.

Religious freedom will be a “very important issue” in the upcoming constitutional deliberations in Iraq, she said.

“We must support their efforts to create a democratic government that does protect religious freedom,” she said, “as they attempt to fashion a constitution and a system of government that provides for their beliefs and their tenets of faith, but does so in a context of respect for others.

“It runs against their traditions in many instances, and they will have to be very statesmanlike in order to create new space for diversity, for pluralism, for tolerance. And we must help them accomplish that,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton, a Methodist, told the audience she is a “praying person” who grew up seeing her father pray at the side of his bed. She joked that even if she had not been a person committed to prayer, a few days in the White House “would have turned me into one.”

At a time of legal battles over public displays of the Ten Commandments and recitation of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, Mrs. Clinton also called on believers to tolerate atheists.

“Those of us who are people of faith are so aware of what that means in our lives that it is sometimes a challenge for us to understand our obligations to make space for nonbelievers,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton also reflected on the death of Pope John Paul II. The outpouring of affection over his passing “is a reflection of the yearning people have to be connected,” and to give their lives “meaning,” she said.

The executive director of the North American Religious Liberty Association, James Standish, praised Mrs. Clinton as a “true friend” to people who are punished on account of their faith.

He introduced her as “truly a historic figure” who may “not be finished making history,” in an allusion to a possible presidential run.

Mr. Standish also praised the senator for promoting religious freedom abroad through her involvement in international organizations.

Mrs. Clinton reminded the audience of the steps taken to protect religious freedom under her husband’s administration, including the creation of the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, which surveys religious freedom around the world, and the issuance of guidelines protecting the religious liberties of federal employees.

The Seventh-day Adventists are a Protestant Christian denomination that follows the literal meaning of the Bible. They number 14 million around the world and one million in America.

Adherents celebrate the Sabbath from Friday evening until Saturday evening. The church wants stronger legal protections for employees who do not want to work in those hours.

Mr. Standish said that on an average day, three Seventh-day Adventists in America lose their jobs for observing their faith.

“Senator Clinton has not only had compassion for these men and women, but she has had the courage to stand up for them,” he said.

Mrs. Clinton is the first Democrat to address the gathering in its three-year history. Republicans headlined the two prior annual dinners: Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey and Senator Brownback of Kansas.

Last year, Mrs. Clinton taped a message promoting the workplace legislation, which was included in a video about religious liberty sent to every Adventist church in America. President Bush had taped a video for the church the year before.

While the legislation is backed by a variety of religious groups, critics continue to hope Mrs. Clinton would be willing to narrow it.

“We think the bill that Clinton is a co-sponsor of is too broadly drafted and could have consequences that could make it difficult for employers to stop people from proselytizing on the job or hanging up anti-gay Biblical quotes on their cubicles,” the legislative director of the gay-rights advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign, Christopher Labonte, said.

“I think she’s open to our concerns and we hope she’ll continue to work with us to craft this legislation that would make the entire civil-rights community happy,” he said.