SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- A prominent California church group has organized public interviews about faith with the state's two candidates for governor, but after months of correspondence, Republican candidate Meg Whitman has declined the invitation over a "scheduling conflict."

The event is called the California Gubernatorial Faith Forum and is scheduled for July 30th at the San Francisco Christian Center.

Organizers were puzzled by Whitman’s decision. They said the interview provides an opportunity for Whitman and her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown to tell their personal stories to Latino and African-American voters.

“We're in agreement that this is a great opportunity for the faith community to come together,” said the Christian Center’s Reverend Roderick Gittens.

Loran Simon – who works with the small nonprofit group organizing the forum – first invited Brown and Whitman to participate at the event more than two months ago.

The interviews were not a debate, as the candidates would never be on the stage at the same time. Instead, they would take the stage separately in back-to-back half-hour appearances to answer questions about faith in front of Latino and African-American church groups from the president of California's Baptist Convention.

“Like describe a situation in your life where your faith helped you to overcome a challenge,” said Simon to give an example of the kind of question likely to be posed.

Univision plans to broadcast the event. The Brown campaign immediately accepted the invitation.

“It seemed like a good opportunity for these two candidates to present their cases to a large minority voter audience,” said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Brown campaign.

But earlier this month, the Whitman campaign sent a letter saying she could not attend because of a scheduling conflict.

But KTVU has looked at a series of back and forth communications between the Whitman campaign and the faith forum organizers and it appears that if there really is a scheduling conflict, it came up very recently.

Back in may, the Whitman campaign wrote ‘We aren't scheduling yet for the month of July. We will be back in touch with you.’ Despite back and forth emails for nearly two months, the Whitman campaign gave no answer until just over a week ago when Whitman declined the invitation.

“No, there was not always a scheduling conflict,” said Simon.

When asked if something else might be leading Whitman to skip the forum, Simon replied: “I just think it is not her priority or there is no appetite to come and have a conversation with this community.”

Ironically, Whitman is reaching out to Latinos, buying lots of ad time on Spanish language stations.

But political science Professor Henry Brady said ads are scripted. Answering questions – even from church groups – is not.

“Let's face it; campaigns use scheduling conflict as a way to excuse something that they don't want to do,” said Brady.

In the past two days, KTVU asked Whitman’s spokeswoman to explain what the scheduling conflict with the forum was. Despite repeated phone conversations and emails, we never got an answer.