Posted April 5, 2008 7:00 AM
by Mark Silva
At Messiah College, a small Christian school in Pennsylvania playing host to
a bipartisan forum on faith and compassion, they have announced that both of
the Democratic candidates for president -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama -- will take part in the April 13 forum in a state that will hold an
all-important primary election just nine days later.
""Now more than ever, Americans motivated by faith are bridging ideological
divides to address domestic and international poverty, global AIDS, climate
change, abortion, genocide in Darfur, and human rights and torture,'' the
sponsors of "The Compassion Forum" say.
"The Compassion Forum will provide the opportunity for candidates to discuss
how their faith and moral convictions bear on their positions on these
important issues,'' they say, with a cautionary note: "The Compassion Forum is
not a debate. Each candidate will participate in a separate substantive
conversation.''
They are still waiting to hear from Republican Sen. John McCain, who of
course has nothing at stake in the Pennsylvania primaries.
And, anyway, it's not a debate.
The forum will be broadcast on the Church Communication Network o more than
100,000 people of faith in at least 1,000 churches across the country on April
20, the Sunday evening before the Pennsylvania primary. It will also air live
on a national cable news network.
The event sponsored by Faith in Public Life has attracted other political
leaders as well: including former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Sen. Bob
Casey of Pennsylvania. It will play out at Messiah College, founded in 1909 in
Grantham, Pa., outside of Harrisburg.
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