Clinton, Obama to vie for the "faith vote"

By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will court the "faith vote" at a forum this weekend, seeking support from a sizable constituency with a major influence on U.S. politics.

Organizers say the nationally televised forum on Sunday night at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will allow the candidates to discuss how their religious faith informs their positions on issues such as global poverty, AIDS, climate change and abortion.

Religion plays a much bigger role in U.S. politics than elsewhere in the developed world, reflecting Americans' comparatively high rates of belief and church attendance.

"It would be unlikely anywhere else to find presidential candidates who would feel compelled to answer questions from religious groups," said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"In many European societies, many politicians are reluctant to discuss their faith convictions publicly but here we expect them to do so."

The forum will be closely watched as it comes just over a week before Pennsylvania's crucial Democratic primary election that the Obama camp hopes could clinch the hard-fought contest to pick the party's candidate to run in November's presidential election.

It is also aimed at a national audience.

Conspicuous in his absence will be the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, whose party has been more closely linked with the "faith vote" -- especially among the evangelical Protestants who account for 1 in 4 U.S. adults.