OT Clinton to Receive Weekly Spiritual Counseling
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton will receive weekly spiritual
counseling to hold him ''accountable for his behavior'' and resist
''temptations that have conquered him in the past,'' the White House and clergy members said.
The announcement Tuesday follows Clinton's soul-baring confession before a group of religious leaders at the White House last Friday, at which he repented for his affair with Monica Lewinsky
''We want him to understand what went wrong with him personally that led to the tragic sins that have so marred his life and the office of the presidency,'' said Rev. Tony Campolo, an American Baptist pastor and
professor of sociology at Eastern College in St. David's Pennsylvania.
''We want to provide all the help that we can to spiritually strengthen him against yielding to the temptations that have conquered him in the past,'' Campolo said in a statement.
The counseling comes as Clinton tries to steer a two-track strategy of
public contrition and legal hardball to remain in office.
Campolo, a liberal social activist, said he and Rev. Gordon MacDonald,
of the Grace Chapel Protestant church in Lexington, Massachusetts had
been asked by Clinton to provide counseling.
Both pastors have previously advised Clinton on religious matters. They said they would not further discuss the counseling sessions.
Campolo said Clinton had called him on Labor Day, Sept. 7 -- before
Starr turned over his report to Congress -- and asked that he ''serve in a pastoral role to counsel him and hold him accountable for his
behavior.''
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart confirmed the arrangement and said
other pastors, who have not been publicly identified, also will take
part.
MacDonald said in a sermon Sunday, which was posted on the church's
Internet site, that ''as little as three'' pastors would be involved.
MacDonald said Clinton had twice read his book ''Rebuilding Your Broken World,'' about MacDonald's quest for redemption and return to the ministry after an extramarital affair.
''I am in a position to talk the language of repentance,'' McDonald
said.
MacDonald said that after accepting the counseling role, he had been
struck by Clinton's public expression of contrition at last Friday's
prayer breakfast, which he accepted as genuine.
''No one could have been present and retained a disbelieving, a cynical, a hardened attitude toward this man who opened his heart and
acknowledged his realization of his sin,'' he said.
He said people of faith had an obligation to ''treat seriously any attempt by a self-proclaimed sinner who asks for forgiveness.''
''Have I worried about being used? Of course,'' he said.
''If the president's repentance is false or short-termed, that will show in time, and we will have to swallow hard and admit that we were taken
in,'' he said.
The pastors said at least one of them would meet with Clinton weekly.
MacDonald said funding for the sessions would come from ''private
sources'' and the White House said no taxpayer funds would be involved.
MacDonald said it was ''no secret'' that most evangelical Christians
have long disliked Clinton due to his stances on abortion and
homosexuality, and said he was disturbed when such people talk about him
''in terms of hatred and vengeance.''
''It has been easy for some to say that God's judgment will be upon this
president,'' he said. ''But will God's judgment not be upon a group of
people who call themselves Biblically-oriented but who permit such
rancor in their hearts?'' |
