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At Messiah, a question of faith
Clinton, Obama take center stage
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Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, greet each other during the Compassion Forum held at Messiah College Sunday night. (Matthew Harris/Special to the Sentinel)
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, greets the audience at the Eisenhower Campus Center at Messiah College. (Matthew Harris/Special to the Sentinel)
Spectators listen closely to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, during the Compassion Forum. (Matthew Harris/Special to the Sentinel)
About 500 students watch the Compassion Forum in the student union center at Messiah College Sunday night. (Matthew Harris/Special to the Sentinel)
Students of Messiah College watch the Compassion Forum in the student union center Sunday night at Messiah College. (Matthew Harris/Special to the Sentinel)
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took a momentary detour Sunday night from the campaign drumbeat of the economy and Iraq war to answer at times deeply personal questions about how faith influences their decision making and policy.
The two candidates, who appeared separately at Messiah College in Grantham, responded to questions that ranged from abortion and abstinence education to whether they thought God wanted them to be president.
The event was part of The Compassion Forum, an attempt to highlight sometimes overlooked issues in the religious community. The questions came from two moderators ” Campbell Brown from CNN, which broadcast the event live, and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham ” and religious leaders in the audience.
Republican nominee John McCain declined his invitation, leaving the two Democratic candidates to share one of their final spotlights before the state’s fast-approaching primary April 22.
One of the issues discussed, abortion, elicited lengthy responses from both candidates, who sought to identify themselves as pro-choice while respecting the opposite viewpoint.
Sen. Clinton, of New York, who spoke first, said government must trust people to make the correct decision.
“Because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society,” she said.
“The potential for life,” she said, starts at conception.
Clinton and Obama both emphasized they would try to make abortion rare by supporting adoption and trying to undo factors that sometimes make it necessary, such as teen pregnancy.
Sen. Obama, of Illinois, said teaching children about contraception is one way to reduce unwanted pregnancy. If that fails, he argued, the mother and her family should be allowed to make a decision.
He said both sides need to recognize the other’s viewpoint to find common ground.
“What I know, as I’ve said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we’re having these debates,” Obama said.
Each candidate also expressed cautious support for euthanasia for those people suffering from a terminal illness.
Clinton and Obama are locked in a tight race to win Pennsylvania, the largest state left in the primary race. Obama has closed to within 9 percentage points, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, down from the 16-point lead Clinton held earlier this year.
Neither Clinton nor Obama would point to a specific instance when she felt “the grace of God.”
Clinton said it has been an essential part of her life since childhood.
“I don’t think that I could have made my life’s journey without being anchored in God’s grace and without having that, you know, sense of forgiveness and unconditional love,” she said.
One clergyman in the audience asked Obama how he can reconcile science and religion, a question that came after Meacham asked him how he explains to his daughters that God created the universe in six days.
The senator said the Bible’s explanation of six days might not be six 24-hour days as most people understand them.
Religion and science are compatible, he argued, including on issues like evolution.
“There are those who suggest that if you have a scientific bent of mind, then somehow you should reject religion,” Obama said. “And I fundamentally disagree with that.”
The candidates, each responding to a question from the audience, stressed their commitment to helping developing countries combat disease, such as AIDS, and fighting poverty at home and abroad.
They also emphasized the role religion has played in their lives.
Clinton, who also said President Bush should consider not attending the opening ceremonies at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing as a protest to human rights abuses there, said her decision-making process is rooted in faith and study ” often by surrounding herself with people who disagree with her viewpoint.
“I think that for a lot of us, decisions are ones that you don’t just make and put on a shelf,” she said. “To be fair, to be constantly struggling and challenging yourself, you have to keep opening up that decision and asking.”
Meacham later asked her if she thought God wants her to be president.
“I don’t presume anything about God,” she responded.
A moderator asked Obama if he thought religion was too influential in politics.
He said it should neither be excluded from politics or completely embraced. Great leaders, he said, can make religious language speak to everyone.
“And both Lincoln and King did this and every great leader did it, because we are not just a Christian nation,” Obama said. “We are a Jewish nation, we are a Buddhist nation, we are a Muslim nation, Hindu nation, and we are a nation of atheists and nonbelievers.”
