c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Religious reaction to President Clinton’s recent admission to an inappropriate relationship with a White House intern continues to mount, ranging from a call for his Southern Baptist church to discipline him to an interfaith plea for”a return to the real needs of people.” R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., has called on Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark. _ Clinton’s longtime home church _ to hold the president accountable for his actions.”How can President Clinton claim to be a Southern Baptist and persist in this public display of serial sin?”Mohler asked in a column published Monday (Aug. 24) by Religion News Service.”Only because the congregation which holds his membership has failed to exercise any semblance of church discipline.”Southern Baptist will be watching the Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock to see if it musters the courage to make clear its own convictions.” But on Thursday (Aug. 27), a dozen religious leaders issued”A Pastoral Letter to the Nation”offering a different approach.”It is time to put to rest what has occurred, to do things that will set this matter right and to focus anew on the needs in our own land and threats to stability, justice and peace in our world,”the Christian and Jewish leaders wrote.”It is our common humanity that yearns for healing. It is time once again to be led by our president.” Among those signing the letter were the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; the Rev. Gardner Taylor, pastor emeritus, Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Rabbi Arthur Schneier, senior rabbi of Park East Synagogue.

A representative of Immanuel Baptist Church did not return phone calls asking for comment.

While Clinton remains on the rolls of that church, he often attends Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a United Methodist.

Rex Horne, Immanuel Baptist’s senior pastor, has declined to speak with reporters about the president’s admission. However, he did issue the following statement:”The recent admission of immoral conduct by the president is grievous. His actions are indefensible and inexcusable. They are not, however unforgivable. I pray the president will find the grace of God, which comes upon confession of sin and the peace which comes form a restored relationship with our Lord.” The interfaith group voiced similar sentiments in their”appeal for healing.””It is now a time for forgiveness and healing,”they wrote.”Governments err and presidents make mistakes; we are all sinners. But the God of love and justice does not judge us without the hand of grace and mercy.” But some Southern Baptists and other evangelicals believe Clinton’s church should take some action against him.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, best known as the founder of the Moral Majority, said Clinton should resign in order to rebuild his family life.”He should place his wife and family above his career and spend whatever amount of time and energy it takes to rebuild an institution even greater than the institution of government _ his family,”Falwell said.”He should resign an office which is infinitely insignificant compared to the office of husband and father.” Southern Baptist officials said they are receiving a large number of calls on Clinton.”We do get a pretty large number of calls here _ some of them quite irate _ that the Southern Baptist Convention has not taken steps to discipline or to otherwise exhort Mr. Clinton,”said William Merrell, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Executive Committee.

Merrell said the calls have”redoubled”since Clinton’s admission on Aug. 17 to a relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky the president said was”not appropriate.” Merrell said while some have called for the denomination to remove Clinton from membership, he also said that is not how the denomination works.”We (the executive committee) do not have the authority or the capacity nor do we desire either of those to define a church’s membership or its membership policies,”said Merrell.

Baptists, whose forebears were persecuted by centralized church movements, adamantly support congregational independence, he said. But he also said that has not stopped the denomination from criticizing Clinton’s policies in the past.

Former presidents of the denomination sent a letter strongly rebuking Clinton for his support of a controversial abortion procedure called”partial-birth”abortion by its critics. More recently, at their June annual meeting, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution calling on Congress to nullify a presidential directive barring discrimination in the federal workplace on the basis of sexual orientation.

An attempt to amend that resolution to call for Clinton to be disciplined by his church if he did not rescind the order was narrowly defeated.”I don’t think it failed because the people didn’t believe Mr. Clinton needs to take very seriously the spiritual jeopardy in which a Christian places himself when he adopts a sub-Christian, anti-Christian lifestyle, but rather because there’s a very good sense among Baptists of what is appropriate,”Merrell explained.”We understand we can’t require that church to remove some member from it.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

In 1993, some Southern Baptists launched an unsuccessful effort to unseat delegates from Immanuel Baptist at the denomination’s annual meeting because of Clinton’s stand on homosexuality.

Merrell, who once pastored a Texas church that practiced discipline, said some churches do reprimand their members if they have publicly demonstrated a”lifestyle of unrepentant sin”believed to be shameful to both the member and the church.”The church can say this is such a serious matter that we are going to place you under discipline and remove you from active membership of the church,”he said.

In some cases, members repent, seek forgiveness, and are returned to the fold.

Merrell said the disciplinary practice has become”infrequent”in Southern Baptist circles.”In frankness and candor, many churches have become quite lax in even the consideration of this as a redemptive device,”he said.”In America, everyone seems to have the notion that you can do anything you wish without accountability. Unfortunately, I think the church has been acculturated to that mindset.”

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