Brody File Reaction to Sojourners Faith Forum
June 5, 2007
So I’m sitting down inside the Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University waiting for the much anticipated Presidential Faith Forum to start. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards will be coming on stage one at a time to discuss faith and politics. But truth be told, I’m thinking this: “OK ,this is put on by the liberal Christian group Sojourners so the candidates will come up and talk about poverty, healthcare, Darfur. They’ll say each one is a moral crisis and that will be that.”
Umm, earth to Brody. I was dead wrong. (Not the first time)
For the next hour I sat in my seat in awe. There was conservative Christian “red meat” everywhere. Topics ranged from evolution to abortion, to forgiveness of sin, to prayer, to homosexuality, to whether this is a Christian nation, etc. I mean I was waiting for Soledad O’Brien to pull a “Mission Impossible” move, take off her face mask and reveal…James Dobson!
I thought all three candidates came off looking pretty good. Hillary Clinton’s body language was interesting. She leaned in to O’Brien a few times with elbows on the tables. Like they were at the kitchen table and we were listening in. Very effective. From a substance standpoint, I think her answer on abortion where she talked about trying to bring both the pro-life and pro-choice communities together was well thought out and something she can build on throughout the campaign.
Barack Obama seemed to be playing it safe. He chose his words very carefully. That’s probably the smart thing to do. One thing I noticed is that Obama’s answers were very nuanced. In other words, he was trying to see the issue from not just the Christian Left perspective or the Christian Right perspective but somewhere in the middle. It’s part of why people are attracted to him as a candidate.
Edwards seemed pretty natural talking about his faith. He had all the right words and phrases like ‘forgiveness of sin”. I think he had some of the more difficult questions ranging from Evolution (he believes in it but doesn’t criticize those who believe in the 6 day creation story) to homosexuality to what his greatest sin was. (He wouldn’t say...Just that he sins everyday)
Could you imagine if Soledad O’Brien asked this question?
“All of you profess a belief in Jesus Christ. Jesus says the only way to Heaven is through him. Do you believe that? And if you do, do you believe people of other faiths are going to Hell?
Now that would have been a ratings winner for CNN! You can read more about the event here. I think Clinton, Obama and Edwards helped themselves last night. These faith conferences further the discussion about religion and politics and that’s always a good thing.
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