c. 1998 Religion News Service
ATLANTA _ President Clinton _ who needs all the forgiveness he can get _ is receiving a fair share of it from a group he has long identified with, African-American Christians.
Black Baptists, Pentecostals and others were among those who lined up to hug him at the Sept. 11 White House prayer breakfast at which he “repented” for having “sinned” in his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. African-American Christians also have been instrumental in public statements supporting the president.
To some extent, the feelings expressed for Clinton following his admission of an inappropriate relationship with the former White House intern can be compared to black church support for other embattled leaders _ including outgoing Washington Mayor Marion Barry and the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA.
But Clinton, a white Southern Baptist, has long had a special political and spiritual connection with many African-Americans of other denominations. He held both of his inaugural prayer services at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington and clearly enjoys the vibrant gospel music and the rhythmic sermons for which black churches are celebrated.
Clinton also welcomed the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights leader, into the White House to be with his family as they prepared for his Aug. 17 public admission to a relationship with Lewinsky.
For those outside African-American church circles, the seemingly bottomless forgiveness may be hard to understand. But for insiders, it’s a simple matter of theology and history.
They may not agree with what Clinton has done, and they may even feel that Clinton has wronged them, but when it comes to forgiving the president African-Americans tend to rely on their longstanding tradition of empathy and redemption. They believe the Bible tells them to forgive those they believe have done wrong _ a mandate they say they have been practicing for centuries.
“We understand human diversity and perversity _ both,” said Bishop John Hurst Adams, senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in a speech here Friday (Sept. 11).
“We understand the human condition. We are quick to forgive, first of all, because we had to practice deception to survive. We had to treat our slave master like we liked him … We’ve been forgiving folks who have treated us wrong for a long time.”
Clinton himself referred to the depth of black forgiveness _ both by once-jailed South African President Nelson Mandela and American civil rights leaders _ as an example for him as he struggled with the issue.
“It is important that we are able to forgive those we believe have wronged us, even as we ask for forgiveness from people we have wronged,” Clinton said in a chapel in Oak Bluff, Mass., during an Aug. 28 event commemorating the 35th anniversary of the March on Washington led by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “And I heard that first _ first _ in the civil rights movement.”
The Rev. Riggins Earl, a professor of ethics and theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, calls the focus on forgiveness among African-American Christians “a kind of theology for the underdog.” That philosophy, he said, applies across the board _ from Clinton to Barry, who was caught in a cocaine sting and later re-elected as mayor, to Lyons, who faces legal charges for alleged financial improprieties.
“When they read the Scripture, they identify with the victimized, with the oppressed, and they see Jesus as having been, of course, the archetype of the victimized,” Earl said during a discussion here at the annual meeting of the Religion Newswriters Association, a professional organization. “And their belief is that … ultimately, God makes the victimized the winner.”
While many find the word “forgive” coming quickly to their lips, some find words like “justice” and even “resign” coming shortly thereafter.
“I have forgiven him for his human frailties, but I think he ought to resign,” Adams said of Clinton.
But the Rev. Robert Franklin _ a keynote speaker during the religion newswriters’ meeting that focused on the African-American religious experience _ argued that resignation might deny the nation important moral lessons about “how we confess, how we forgive, the relationship between justice and mercy.”
Franklin, the president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, urged Clinton’s aides to encourage him to take time for a spiritual retreat _ perhaps in a monastery _ as part of a process of personal repentance.
While Franklin focused on specific repentant steps, other groups were more inclined just to forgive Clinton and move on.
At the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention, USA, earlier this month (September), delegates signed a petition and passed a resolution that supported Clinton. Members attending the gathering of one of the nation’s largest black denominations said they accepted his apology and granted him forgiveness.
“We want to let America know, we want to let the world know that we stand firmly behind our president,” said Lyons, who also has reportedly admitted to an improper relationship with a female employee.
“We’d like to see the majority Republican Congress get off his back. We’d like to see Mr. Starr put in his place and stop wasting the taxpayers’ money,” Lyons said on the day after Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr delivered his report on the president to Congress.
In addition, at least a third of those who signed “An Appeal for Healing: A Pastoral Letter to the Nation,” have been African-Americans.
Prominent clergy such as the Rev. Gardner C. Taylor, pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Rev. Andrew Young, former United Nations ambassador, signed the interfaith document that called for forgiveness for Clinton and “a return to the real needs of people.”
Initially, a dozen Christian and Jewish leaders had signed the letter when it was released in late August. Since then, several more have added their names.
As they seek to help Clinton, their congregants and others through the scandal, African-American leaders have turned to Scripture for guidance.
Bishop T.D. Jakes, an African-American Pentecostal preacher and best-selling author, recalled in his sermon Sunday (Sept. 13) that Jesus taught Christians to seek God’s forgiveness through the oft-recited Lord’s Prayer.
“I am afraid that if we deny forgiveness or put appendages or attachments or addendums on forgiveness that eventually, sooner or later, that same lack of sympathy and empathy is going to come back to us again,” he said.
Jakes, who said judgment about Clinton should be left to God, also spoke of the need for grace in addition to forgiveness.
“I see no need for us to continue (to) dig beneath the blood of forgiveness and expose the details of something that is forgiven,” he said. “I am equally afraid that our definition of grace might be just as poor as his definition of sex.”
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Jakes based his sermon on Galatians 6:1-7, a passage that begins, “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.”
Rodney Slater, Clinton’s transportation secretary, looked two verses down in the same chapter of the New Testament book to comfort his boss with the ninth verse: “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
He told reporters that neither Clinton or his cabinet had lost heart.
“And that will carry us through this,” said Slater, a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
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Whether forgiveness is followed by anything else _ a call for accountability, a desire to move on, or simply a promise of prayer for the repentant _ black church experts say there can be no limit to forgiveness itself.
“We are mandated to forgive,” said Earl, of the Atlanta theological center. “While forgiveness is not a word that we use a lot in the political arena it is … a core part of the language of the church and its theology. We have no option there.”
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