by Mark Silva and updated live

The "Compassion Forum" promised "deeply personal'' questions for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the stage at Messiah College tonight, and it delivered.

The 90-minute forum on the campus of the small Christian college, with Clinton appearing first, thanks to a coin-toss, got underway in Grantham, Pa., and was aired live by CNN (photo of Obama and Clinton exchanging turns on stage by AFP / Getty Images).

It was also here in the Swamp -- live-blogging.

And it got off and running, fast. It started with the controversy of the day -- Obama's remarks about voters -- and quickly got into the controversies of the times, including abortion.

* * * *

Clinton, first on the stage, was asked at the start about being “extremely critical’’ about Obama’s comments about working-class voters “bitter’’ about government.

"I’m going to let Sen. Obama speak for himself,’’ she said, “but the characterization of people in a way that really seemed elitist and out-of-touch is something that we have to overcome...’

“I will leave it to Sen. Obama to speak for himself. He does an excellent job of that… I will speak for myself.’’

But the moderators weren’t going to let her go with that.

“I do think it raises a lot of concerns, and we’ve seen that exhibited in the last several days,’’ she said, happy, it turned out, to do some more speaking, “because it did seem so much in line with, often what we are charged with -- someone goes to a closed door fundraiser in San Francisco and makes comments that do seem elitist, out of touch and frankly patronizing…''

* * *
In his turn 45 minutes later, Obama too was asked about the bitterness comment, straight up – and about people finding refuge in God or guns in their bitterness.

“First of all, the Scripture talks about clinging to what’s good,’’ Obama said. “My words may have been clumsy, which happens surprisingly often on a presidential campaign.

“Religion is a bulwark, a foundation, when other things are not going well… What I was referring to was in no way demeaning,’’ he said. “When economic hardship hits, what people have got is their faith, their families. Those aren’t bad things. That’s what they have left. Unfortunately, what people have become bitter about… is any confidence that the government is listening to them.

“I do think it’s unfortunate that in the political process of presidential campaigns, people have been trying to misconstrue my words,’’ he said.

What about Clinton’s comment that his comment is elitist? “That is a good example of what happens on a presidential campaign – that we try to tear each other down instead of lifting the country up.’

* * * *
Near the end of her turn, Clinton also was asked if she believes that God wants her to be president.

“I could be glib and say we’ll find out,'' she said. "I don’t presume anything about God. Our mission should be on God’s side. I have tried to take my beliefs, my faith, and put it to work my entire life, and it has been gratifying to do the little I have done to try to help other people, which is what motivates me…. And I wouldn’t presume to even imagine that God is going to tell me what I should do. He has given me enough guidance through how I have been raised and thankfully have been given access to the Bible...

"I just get up and try to do the best I can.’’

* * * *
Clinton was asked about her faith:

“It didn’t have to be a hard time. It could be taking a walk in the woods. It could be watching a sunset,’’ Clinton said. “I don’t think I could have made my life’s journey without being anchored in God’s grace and without having that sense of forgiveness and unconditional love… For me, my faith has given me my confidence to make decisions that were right, whether anyone agreed with me or not.’’

A pastor from Longwood, Fla., asked the senator from New York about “choices that will have life and death consequences for countless people across the world.’’

“I think that this is one of the challenges that faces any of us in public life, where literally you do have the authority to make these decisions that very well could be life-and-death decisions,’’ she said. “It really is rooted in my prayer, my contemplation, my study. I think you have to immerse yourself in advice, information, criticism from others. I don’t even pretend that I know the answer to a lot of these questions. I don’t.

“You have to expose yourself to a lot of points of view,’’ she said, “and then you have to make that decision.

“I want to push back. I want to argue,'' Clinton said. "But at the end of the day, since we are running for president of the United States, you have to be comfortable making a decision…. And then you have to live with the consequence.

* * * *

Does life begin at conception?

“I believe that the potential for life begins at conception,’’ said Clinton, noting that she is a Methodist and that her church has ‘struggled’’ with this.

“I have concluded with great concern… that our our task should be in this pluralistic and diverse life… that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound and personal decision, because the intrusion would be such an abrupt (intrusion) of government of authority that it would be difficult to sustain (in our society), the senator said.

* * * *

Does she have a favorite Bible story?

“Oh, I have so many of them,’’ she said – she was read stories growing up, and she and her husband read them to Chelsea growing up.

“The recent Purim holiday for Jews raised the question of Esther,’’ she said. “She had the opportunity to make a decision, to take a chance or risk that was very courageous.

“Certainly Esther is someone who I wish I knew more about than what we know from the Bible,’’ she said.

* * * *

After 45 minutes, Obama was brought onto the stage, and greeted by Clinton with a quick handshake and a smile. And Clinton exited, stage right.

* * * *

Obama was asked about the vast majority of Americans believing that abortion is a decision best left to a woman, but also believing that it’s a taking of life:

“I absolutely think we can find common ground,’’ he said. “It requires us to acknowledge that there is a moral dimension to abortion, which I think that all too often those who are pro-choice have tried not to talk about or to tamp down.

“People of good will can exist on both sides,’’ he said, calling for “a comprehensive approach’’ in which the nation focuses on abstinence and teaching appropriate behavior – and also teaching about contraception. “I think we can make sure that adoption is an option,’’ he said. “If we can put all those things in place, I think we can take some edge off the debate.’’

* * * *

Does life begin at conception?

"This is something that I have not... come to a firm resolution on,'' he said -- is it when life separates, "when the soul stirs?... There is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that needs to be taken into consideration when we have these debates.''

* * * *

The two Democratic candidates did agree on one thing tonight: That President Bush’s program of aid for the prevention of AIDS in Africa is worthy. “I actually think that the PEPFAR program is one of the success stories of this administration,’’ Obama said.

* * * *

What would he tell his daughters if they asked if God created the world in six days?

“I’m trying to remember if we had this conversation,’’ Obama said. “What I said to them is that I believe that God created the universe and the six days in the Bible may not be days as we understand it. They may not be 24-hour days.

“I do believe in evolution,’’ he said. “It is not incompatible… Just as I don’t think that science is not incompatible with Christian faith.’’

* * * *

Obama was asked about reconciling science with faith, and how that plays out in question such as climate change or stem-cell research.

“Should it be part of God’s plan to have me in the White House, I look forward to our collaboration,’’ Obama told the questioner.

“Where I think potentially religious faith and the science of global warming converge is precisely because it’s going to be hard to deal with,’’ he said. “We’re not going to leave it to the next generation. We’re going to put in place a cap and trade system which puts in place how much (pollutants) we put into the atmosphere.

“I think religion can actually bolster our desire to make those sacrifices.''

* * * *

Obama was asked about his retired pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and how he brought him closer to God.

Obama spoke about his early days working as a community organizer in Chicago.

“I had been raised in a non-religious home. My mother was the most spiritual person I had known, but mistrustful of organized religion… We went to church very infrequently,’’ he said, recalling that he was told, if he was going to be organizing churches it would be helpful if he went to church.

He visited the Trinity United Church of Christ and found “a whole host of wonderful ministries that they were engaged in.’’

“I found that very attractive and ended up joining the church when I got out of law school,’’ Obama said. “He’s been my pastor… It also means that there are areas where we have disagreed on. And obviously, the most recent loop that’s been playing, Rev. Wright’s greatest hits, so to speak, are a distortion of who he is and what the church is about… and also express some comments that are deeply offensive.’’

* * * *

He was asked about the impact that exposure to Islam had on him as a child.

“I lived in Indonesia for four and a half years as a child,’’ he said. “The first school I went to… was a Catholic school.. I then attended a public school, but the majority of the public was Islam… You didn’t have the oppressive state that was trying to impose people’s religious beliefs… Women were working and out and were not wearing the traditional coverings that we’re seeing in the Middle East.

“What it taught me is… Islam can be compatible with the modern world,’’ Obama said. “I am always careful and suspicious of attempts to paint Islam with a broad brush… The overwhelming majority of people of the Islamic faith are people of good faith….. trying to raise their kids as best we can.’’

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