The "Compassion Forum."

I've been recording... and avoiding. But now I'm taking a look. [ADDED: Link to news story about the Compassion Forum.] The first question, to Hillary Clinton, is perfect: Why criticize Barack Obama for saying that people turn to religion in hard times? What's wrong with doing that? Hillary says she'll let Obama speak for himself... and then she lambastes him. So much for compassion! The questioner persists: You know "he's a man of faith." This is all very weird. Not only are the candidates put to a test of their own religious faith, but they are being tested on each other's faith!

Does Hillary know whether Obama is a "man of faith"? I don't. I just read his first book, "Dreams From My Father," this weekend, and my sense of it is that he is not a religious man. The only significant discussion of religion comes when he joins Jeremiah Wright's church, and that is all about his worldly, political concerns with his community organizing in Chicago.

Now, Hillary is asked to "share" her experiences with the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! She says that since she was a child, she's felt the "enveloping" love of God and that, on many occasions, she's felt the Holy Spirit has been with her as she made "a journey." That's 2 down, 1 to go! She's "anchored" in "God's grace" and has "you know, that sense of forgiveness." Yikes, this is excruciating. And speaking of excruciating, when has she felt the presence of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior? She left Him out when answering the question. Is she going to get back to Him, or has she forgotten?

She doesn't get back to Jesus, but she does say she's uncomfortable — she's a reserved person — making assertions about religion. What matters is what you do. She finds a way to shift over to talking about the religious faith that other people have. She plugs in some campaign trail anecdotes — a good rhetorical move, I think.

Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? The classic question. Hillary's answer: "I don't know. I can't wait to ask Him." Which gets a laugh. Then she goes on to say — very well, I think — that "the very existence" of suffering is, for us, "a call to action." "Maybe the Lord is waiting for us to respond to His call."

Her favorite Bible story? Esther! She had the opportunity to make a decision, to take a risk.

A question from a Muslim: Can we address climate change without changing our standard of living? Answer: Compact fluorescent bulbs, blah blah blah. We can do a lot of things that won't really be too hard. Voila: Compassion!

Is God watching this show? Is He fast-forwarding through some of it? I am.

Ah, the Hillary section is over. She did a good job. She hit an appropriate level of humility and piety, and she seemed smart and focused on the things a President should be concerned about. I think — based mainly on reading biographies of her — that she actually is a religious believer.

Now, Obama is introduced, and as he walks down the aisle the crowd acts idolatrous.

The first question for Obama is about that bitter small-towners quote of his. He says he never meant to demean people for clinging to religion. He himself has turned to religion in times of need. People need to understand that "I am a devout Christian." He sounds genuinely angry — and I felt that I could almost hear tears in his voice — when he says he's been working all his adult life through churches. He wants credit for that, and he hates the way politics works, needing to tear things down, seizing hold of one aspect of something he's said and misusing it. To me, he looks ravaged — acne'd?— older. Maybe he's just awfully tired.

Does God punish and reward in real time? He doesn't know but he tries to "move [God's] agenda forward." He's saying "uh" a lot. I noticed that Hillary has completely eradicated the "uh" that had once plagued her speech. There is a really noticeable shift in energy and alertness from Hillary to Obama. "What I think we can do is to uh act in ways that uh that are consonant with uh the values that uh that we cherish."

Asked about the Biblical creation story, Obama says he's one of those Christians who don't take that part of the Bible literally, though he says there's a legitimate debate over whether the universe was created in 6 of our 24-hour days or some other time frame. He's firm that God created the world, but hastens to say that he believes in evolution and thinks religion and science are fully compatible. The more science discovers, he says, the more he is aware of "mysteries" that strengthen his faith.

Now, he's talking about Jeremiah Wright. He's interrupted by audience applause when he says that Wright has been misrepresented by that "greatest hits" video that's been going around. He goes on to say that he finds much of that video "deeply offensive." He emphasizes his church's "community" and "ministries" — it's not just Wright.

He speaks of his experience with Islam when he lived in Indonesia as a child. It's made him familiar the form of Islam that is compatible with the modern world. I think this is the only discussion of Islam in the entire "forum." Neither candidate was pressed to opine about fundamentalist Islam, its connection to terrorism, or anything about Israel.

He makes a commitment to cut poverty in half in the next 10 years.

I've reached the end of the recording. I haven't commented on everything, and I can see that Hillary got the advantage by going first. It was hard to put up with the whole second interview, especially as it frequently lapsed into mundane statements of policy. Obama seems to have handled it well enough, though he did seem a bit bland and tired. Why did he have to go second? He lost a coin toss. Pure chance or divine intervention?