Clooney Honored for Work on Sudan

NEW YORK - Actor/director George Clooney was presented the ninth annual Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award by the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance.

At a Wednesday (Nov. 1) fundraiser for the the Interaith Alliance, Clooney was cited for his work championing the first amendment in film and for bringing attention to religious violence in Sudan's Darfur region.

"The founders of our country were bright enough to understand that we were not a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation, but a nation of Christians, Jews and Muslims," Clooney said.

The evening also honored Cronkite, long known as "the most trusted man in America," who turns 90 on Saturday (Nov. 4). The former anchor of the CBS Evening News started working with the Interfaith Alliance in
1997 when he said he became "aware of the severity of the threat to our democracy posed by the growing religious right movement."

The Interfaith Alliance has kept a close eye on churches and politics during the mid-term elections, warning churches and candidates not to risk churches' tax-exempt status by allowing partisan campaigning.

The Rev. Welton Gaddy, the president of the group, said that he was hoping for "informed voting" in the Nov. 7 election and that voters would "keep in mind that we're not electing the holy man or holy woman of the year."

"Things work best when religion acts like religion and government acts like government," Gaddy said.