Politics on the Hudson

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked about how she dealt with marital infidelity during a Monday night forum on faith, values and poverty.

“I’m not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith,’’ Clinton, D-N.Y., responded to CNN moderator Soledad O’Brien without directly referring to or acknowledging unfaithfulness by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton noted she benefited from “my faith and the support of my extended faith family, people whom I knew who were literally praying for me in prayer chains, who were prayer warriors for me and people whom I didn’t know who I would meet or get a letter from sustained me through a very difficult time.’’

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., also answered questions in separate appearances at the forum.

Edwards, who lost a 16-year-old son in a 1996 car accident and recently learned his wife, Elizabeth, has a recurrence of breast cancer, said the first incident left his family not functioning.

“It is prayer that played a deep role in my survival,’’ Edwards observed.

Edwards and Obama appeared at ease as they talked about the role of prayer in their lives, while Clinton explained she was raised “from a tradition that is a little bit suspicious of people who wear faith on their sleeve.’’

“I keep thinking of the Pharisees and all the Sunday school lessons you had as a child,’’ she said, referring to her childhood in the suburbs of Chicago where she was raised a United Methodist.

Laura Derby, administrator of the Raising Hope United Methodist Mission Church in Alexandria, Va., said after the forum she was happy to hear Clinton finally talk about her faith. “I knew that it was there,’’ she said.

Father Charles Currie of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, who also was in the audience, said Clinton “did a very good job’’ handling a question about bridging the divide between abortion rights and antiabortion groups.

“I think we have to find ways for women to have the children,’’ said Currie, referring to a greater government commitment to services.

During the question and answer period, Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, noted how he and Clinton differ on abortion and asked her, “Could you see yourself, with millions of voters in a pro-life camp, creating a common ground, with the goal ultimately in mind of reducing the decisions for abortion to zero?’’

Clinton responded that her long-term goal has been to support “abortion being safe, legal, and rare. And, by rare, I mean rare.’’

But the two sides on the issue haven’t worked much to find common ground, she said.

“We have so many young people who are tremendously influenced by the media culture and by the celebrity culture, and who have a very difficult time trying to sort out the right decisions to make,’’ Clinton said. ” And I personally believe that the adult society has failed those people.’’

She added,” We have left too many children to sort of fend for themselves morally.’’

Sojourners, a multi-denominational Christian social justice organization that sponsored the forum, does not intend to endorse any presidential candidate, according to the Rev. Jim Wallis, the group’s leader.

Describing his organization as “the ultimate swing vote,’’ Wallis said, “We want to see an en-dorsement of the agenda we have,” which he described as a “vote out poverty’’ campaign.

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