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A group that promotes a liberal stance on religious faith and morality issues is sponsoring a nationally televised presidential forum Sunday night featuring Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.Senators Obama (D-Illinois) and Clinton (D-New York) will each be given 40 minutes on CNN Sunday night to discuss the topics of poverty, AIDS, global warming, abortion, genocide in Darfur, as well as human rights and torture. Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, is hosting the live television event, which is being dubbed "The Compassion Forum." Republican presidential nominee John McCain received an invitation, but the Arizona senator declined, citing a scheduling conflict. Katie Barge is director of communications at Faith in Public Life, which is sponsoring the forum. She contends a "new conversation" is currently "bridging ideological and religious divides" in the faith community, even on the issue of abortion. "Everyone is against abortion-let's hope; or at least we can find a lot of common ground," asserts Barge. "And I think that from what I've heard Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton say about abortion, is that they would like to see a whole lot less of them."Barge shares her hopes about the direction of the discussions on abortion Sunday night:"How can we support mothers who do want to be able follow through with their pregnancy? How can we prevent unwanted pregnancies from happening? How can we get past the bitter divisiveness that we have seen around this issue of abortion and really get to work?" The former presidential campaign worker for Democrat John Edwards (in 2004) and former staffer with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee believes the Compassion Forum is on the right track, particularly with young Christians."Really where the energy is right now is not far to the left or far to the right in the religious community," she claims."I think where the energy is around these issues that the Compassion Forum was created to address."If you look at the ministries and the missions that are really attracting the attention, especially among younger Evangelicals, it's climate change, it's poverty, it's global AIDS,"Barge continues."People are engaging these issues, and...I think that's where the hearts of most Christians are."The Compassion Forum has drawn a surprising array of support from a diverse collection of political and religious leaders, including former Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee, Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page, Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey, Jr., and liberal Protestant minister Jim Wallis of the social justice group Sojourners.As in the days of Noah....
