Presidential Pardon?
From the Eye of the Storm: A Pastor to the President Speaks Out
by J. Philip Wogaman
Westminster: John Knox Press, 1999.
(139 pages; $12.00, cloth)
Judgement Day at the White House: A Critical Declaration Exploring Moral
Issues and the Political Use and Abuse of Religion
edited by Gabriel Fackre
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999.
(190 pages; $12.00, paper)
reviewed by Mark Tooley
J. Philip Wogaman is the pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. It is from the arched portals of his church that we see the Clintons emerging almost every Sunday.
Although he is still formally a Southern Baptist, the President has regularly joined his Methodist wife for services at Foundry almost since first coming to Washington. Wogaman has been the President’s most visible defender among the clergy since the Lewinsky scandal broke. He is now one of three ministers who comprise the “accountability group” with whom Bill Clinton meets for spiritual counsel.
In his new book, Wogaman reveals little about his personal dealings with the President, lest he “violate any pastoral confidences.” Instead, he mostly defends his most famous parishioner from the poisoned arrows of Kenneth Starr, the media, and Republican congressmen.
Persons not familiar with recent decades of mainline Protestant theological drift might be surprised by Wogaman’s arguments. The President’s other two spiritual counselors, Baptist professor Tony Campolo and Congregationalist pastor Gordon MacDonald, might be liberal in their politics but are fairly orthodox in their theology. Not so for Wogaman, who is a prominent proponent of liberalizing his denomination’s teachings about sexuality, is an advocate for same-sex “marriage,” and has called sexual fidelity a potentially idolatrous “cultural expression.” At a press conference to unveil his book, Wogaman lamented that John the Baptist had been “lacking in love” when he condemned the adultery of King Herod.
Wogaman admits that Clinton “misbehaved badly,” but he does not really explain why he believes so. Whether the President committed perjury is an “unresolved legal question” that Wogaman does not feel equipped to judge. “Most people,” he surmises, would behave like Clinton in trying to disguise an extramarital affair. This fact does not excuse lying, but makes it “understandable.”
“I do not wonder that the President invoked every available legalism to counter the barrage of legalism he had to confront,” Wogaman opines. He’s concerned about the “power” disparity between the President and a young intern but does not expend too much ink in condemning adultery per se.
Clergy who engage in Clinton’s conduct likely would lose their pulpits, Wogaman admits. But he is not sure that such misbehavior, even for men of the cloth, should be a “fatal disease,” especially if they have “important gifts” to contribute to their profession. Besides, such “brokenness” could make them more sympathetic and effective than ever. He hints that this might be so for Presidents as well.
Deriding the “legalism” to which Clinton’s critics adhere, Wogaman instead advocates a “great emphasis upon community and love.” He finds in Clinton’s “effective presidency” the attributes of this community, as demonstrated by Clinton’s supposed strides on social security, public education, tobacco, racism, terrorism, and violence.
Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (www.ird-renew.org) in Washington, D.C.
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