The Compassion Forum

I just received this from my district in the UUA. It looks really interesting, though I am not happy about Campbell Brown being one of the moderators. As you may recall, her fawning over Obama was part of an SNL skit. Anyway, it DOES look like it will be good, and perhaps Obama will NOT be able to parrot Clinton as much (Clinton: Well, as a lifelong Methodist...Obama: I agree with Hlllary...That would be pretty funny, though...).

April 11, 2008
Special notice re: Compassion Forum on 4/13/08
We realize that time is very short, but feel that this information will be of interest to many of you. It is sent in that spirit.

The Unitarian Universalist Association, as part of the group Faith in Public Life, (see www.faithinpubliclife.org) is sponsoring the Compassion Forum, which will be broadcast on Sunday night (April 13), 8:00PM EDT, on CNN.

Both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be speaking, not in a debate, about issues of faith and morality. The event is being held at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, and leads up to the important Pennsylvania presidential primary on April 22. This unprecedented bipartisan event extended an invitation to Senator John McCain to participate, although he has declined the invitation.

Rev. Meg Riley, Director of the UUA's Advocacy & Witnesss staff group, serves as Chair of the Faith in Public Life Board; Rob Keithan, Director of the UUA's Washington Office for Advocacy, will be attending the event and representing the UUA. (Riley's blog post on the event can be found at uuasocialjustice.blogspot). Additionally, Beacon Press Author Eboo Patel (Acts of Faith) will be on the panel that addresses questions to the candidates about pressing moral issues. The forum will be moderated by Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek and author of American Gospel, and CNN Election Center anchor Campbell Brown.


The Compassion Forum will also be rebroadcast on April 20, the Sunday evening before the Pennsylvania primary, to tens of thousands of people of faith in at least 1,000 congregations nationwide, through the Church Communication Network (http://www.ccn.tv/index.php ). Other sponsors of the Compassion Forum, in addition to Faith in Public Life, include the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, the ONE Campaign, and Oxfam America.