By Suzanne Perry

Update: An audio recording of the call-in session between religious leaders and President Obama on the health-care debate is available here: A coalition of religious organizations announced today it is sponsoring a 40-day campaign to convince Congress and the public that providing affordable health insurance to all Americans is a moral imperative.

The campaign — designed partly as a counterweight to the hostile crowds that have dogged some members of Congress during the August recess — will include a national television ad, a call-in session with President Obama, sermons devoted to health care, a lobby day on Capitol Hill, and prayer vigils and other events in more than 100 Congressional districts.

“Every so often there’s an issue that’s so clear and compelling or so alarming and disconcerting that it really does galvanize the faith community,” Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a liberal evangelical group, said during a news-conference call. He said health care is “a life and death issue.”

Sojourners is sponsoring the campaign with several other liberal-leaning religious groups — Catholics in Alliance for the Social Good and the interdenominational groups Faith in Public Life, Faithful America, and PICO National Network.

“Shouting people down, disrupting public meetings, and worse — we’ve seen it all over the cables. That’s not the American way,” said Katie Paris, program and communications director for Faith in Public Life. “We believe Americans want a civil discussion about this profoundly moral issue.”

The “five-figure” television ad, which will appear on national cable channels, features religious leaders and lay people charging that “special interests” are working to defeat proposals to overhaul the health-care system.

The call-in session with President Obama, which will take place the evening of August 19, is sponsored by 24 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other groups. Audio of the event, which will feature comments by religious leaders and calls from the public, will stream live on the Internet.

Several participants in the conference call said they witness people in their congregations daily who cannot afford health insurance or who face high costs even if they are covered. “We cannot sit idly by while we have a system that just doesn’t work for everyone,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

The participants said they plan to counter some of the myths that are circulating about Congressional proposals to improve the health-care system — for example, that they would sanction euthanasia.