Both candidates are reaching out to people of faith in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 22. The two were questioned separately during the forum at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa., which was broadcast live on CNN. The audience included religious leaders from many faiths.
Clinton was asked whether life begins at conception, which opponents of abortion contend makes termination of a pregnancy the ending of a life.
"I believe the potential for life begins at conception," the senator from New York said. "For me, it is also not only about a potential life. It is about the other lives involved."
She said she came to support abortion rights after much soul-searching, but said it should be used rarely. "I have concluded . . . that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision, because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society."
Asked whether life begins at conception, Obama said, "This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on."
"What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates," he said.
He also said he believed common ground could be reached on the issue of abortion, if the moral dimensions of the problem are acknowledged.
Clinton said she has felt the gift of God in her life and said she makes decisions on tough moral issues after prayer, contemplation, and study. One of the toughest questions she faced last night was why God allows innocent people to suffer. "I don't know," she said. "I can't wait to ask him."
The two candidates met briefly as Obama took Clinton's place on the stage. The pleasantries belied days of angry accusations between the two over a recent comment by Obama that economically frustrated people in small towns get bitter and "cling to guns or religion" to explain their feelings.
Obama, who has said he regretted offending anyone by his choice of words, said his Christian beliefs are an important part of his life.
"What I was saying is that when economic hardship hits in these communities, what people have is they've got family, they've got their faith, they've got the traditions that have been passed onto them from generation to generation," he said. "Those aren't bad things. That's what they have left.
"And, unfortunately, what people have become bitter about . . . is any confidence that the government is listening to them."
He said he believes God intervenes in the world, "but that his plans are a little too mysterious for me to grasp. And so what I try to do is, as best I can, be an instrument of his will."
Clinton is a Methodist. Obama is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
"Should it be part of God's plan to have me in the White House," Obama said, "I look forward to our collaboration."
