c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ Since no one else is about to do it, I rise in defense of Monica Lewinsky.

Whatever she and the president may have done together, she does not deserve the treatment she has received from those have tried to use her to destroy the president. Not only the people _ men mostly _ responsible for her degradation should be ashamed, but so must all Americans who watched this spectacle with mouths hanging open.

The greatest obscenity of all in this whole disgusting year is the debasement of Monica Lewinsky _ by a phony friend like Linda Tripp; by the right-wing lawyers who used her and Paul Jones to attack President Clinton; by the keyhole-peeping Kenneth Starr; by the pious hypocrite Henry Hyde and his ragtag band of witch hunters; and by the heavy breathing, talking heads on the cable channels; not to mention the Wall Street Journal’s verdict that she is a slut.

After testifying 23 times under oath, Lewinsky provided no grounds for Clinton’s removal, nor even for his indictment.

Yet, it must be said to Starr and all the other merry men who have violated Lewinsky’s privacy _ and her soul _ for the last year, what Robert K. Welch said to Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., at the time of McCarthy’s out-of-control witch-hunt for communists:”Sirs, do you have no honor at all!” The answer is that they do not.

They are vile, evil men, so smug in their own self-righteousness they do not even perceive their own sins _ sins which dwarf anything the president may have done. They deserve to rot in purgatory for all eternity and will be saved only by the power of God’s loving compassion.

However, they should be warned that God loves Lewinsky like any father loves any daughter and will not forget what they have done to her.

The feminist movement is under assault because it didn’t denounce Clinton for his affair with Lewinksy. But both Lewinsky and Clinton were consenting adults and she has never charged him with sexual harassment.

Strangely, however, the women’s movements are silent about the ongoing public assault on Lewinsky by those who are determined to destroy Clinton no matter whose life it ruins. And it is worth emphasizing yet once again that the sexual escapades in which Clinton and Lewinsky engaged are a private matter which ought to be a concern only to their respective families.

By a demonic twisting of the law and the Constitution _ and to the enthusiastic hand-clapping of the media _ this private matter was turned into a national obsession for no good reason other than the amusement of the masses. But they, God bless them, were NOT amused.

Isn’t it about time someone asked,”Why did we indulge in this disgraceful behavior?” The answer is clear _ a tiny clique wanted to cancel an election which they lost and remove the validly elected president.

They have failed.

But in the process they have ruined many lives, including some of their own. Why? Henry Hyde will tell you that it was a matter of duty and honor. With all due respect to a papal knight, what does Hyde know about duty and honor?

Then there is this crowd of folks calling themselves Christians who have been running around screaming about the restoration of American values. I agree with them that values need to be restored, especially the value of respect for the privacy of innocent individuals. But these people still say Lewinsky has no right to privacy and is not innocent because she is a slut.

However, immoral behavior does not deprive one of rights or even of legal innocence. Lewinksy’s”crime”is a phony crime cooked up by a conspiracy of lawyers, not a real crime. She should have been left alone. She should be left alone. It is time and long past time.

I hate to mention this in the presence of all these”Christians”who are cheering at her humiliation, but the man they claim to be their leader suggested that those who have no sin of their own should throw the first stone at a woman taken in adultery.

DEA END GREELEY