c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.)

(UNDATED) About 10 years ago, Rep. William Gray, who now heads the United Negro College Fund, made what many thought to be a curious statement. Speaking to a group of reporters, the Pennsylvania Democrat _ himself a Baptist minister _ likened President Ronald Reagan to an accomplished preacher.

The secret to Reagan’s popularity, Gray said, lay not in his skill as a policymaker or administrator, but in his ability to rouse the faithful on Sunday morning. The implication was that if the president’s congregation became disenchanted with his performance, he could, like his counterparts in the ministry, preach himself out of trouble.

A decade later, the same can be said of Bill Clinton.

Look at the facts. The president, his wife and several members of his administration remain the objects of official scrutiny in connection with the Whitewater and Filegate scandals.

A probe continues into the possible role the first lady played in the firing of employees in the White House travel office. And, at whatever point Clinton leaves the Oval Office, Paula Jones and her sexual harassment suit will be waiting.

Curiously, though, despite these and other concerns about the Clintons’ integrity, the president’s approval rating remain high. He remains the odds-on favorite to win re-election to a second term this November.

Why? Because the man can preach. And we are not talking only about the proverbial”bully pulpit”of the American presidency. Clinton appears quite comfortable leading the nation in worship.

Where Ronald Reagan was limited to vague generalities and wholesome platitudes, Clinton can, in the vernacular of preachers,”draw a text and go.” Witness, for example, his eulogy for the 19 airmen killed recently in the bombing of an American military housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

Referring to the Old Testament, Clinton said,”There is a passage in Isaiah in which God wonders, `Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Isaiah answers: `Here am I, send me.’ These men we honor today said to America, `Send me.'” No ordained minister could have said it better.

At the heart of this dynamic between preacher and congregation is the preacher’s intuitive understanding of his congregation’s needs. There are times, for example, when he must encourage them. At other times they must be chided. On other occasions he must speak for them, as their representative to the larger community.

Like any good preacher, Clinton knows what is on the hearts of his congregation _ all 250 million of them _ and clearly articulates those concerns.

Yet preaching alone is not enough. For though, as Gray noted, churches will endure much for the sake of good preaching, they usually are not well served by their forbearance.

For example, many a congregation might acknowledge its pastor’s indiscretions but fail to hold him accountable. Though they might gossip about him privately during the week, they nevertheless flock to hear him preach on Sunday morning.

In the end, the congregation becomes stymied in its growth. For though the might pastor talk a good game, his ethics _ personal and professional _ contradict his message.

One wonders if the same might not be true of Pastor Clinton and his congregation. Will we insist that he lead us by example? Or will we be content to be soothed by his oratory?

Our growth as a nation may depend on the answer.

MJP END ATCHISON