c. 1999 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Clinton, speaking Tuesday (Sept. 28) at his annual breakfast for religious leaders at the White House, expressed appreciation for the three spiritual advisers who guided him through a year of sexual scandal and impeachment, saying he had been moved by”grace”during his difficult year.”I have been profoundly moved, as few people have, by the pure power of grace, unmerited forgiveness through grace,”Clinton said.

Clinton also said he was grateful”most of all to my wife and daughter”but also to the people with whom he works, the American people and”the God in whom I believe.” The president went on to urge the religious community to reduce incidents of violence, especially those against children.

But his remarks, for the second year in a row at this gathering of more than 100 clergy from across the country, addressed his personal concerns as well as national issues.

At the breakfast last September, Clinton told the clergy gathered,”I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned.” Since that time, he said Tuesday, the president has met regularly with three spiritual advisers _ the Rev. Tony Campolo, an evangelical leader based in St. Davids, Pa.; the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, senior minister at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington; and the Rev. Gordon MacDonald, a writer and speaker based in Canterbury, N.H.”I have kept my word to meet with them and to work with them,”Clinton said.”I also want you to know that we are continuing our work. It is interesting and not always comfortable, but always rewarding. And I hope you will pray for us as we do.” The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said she was struck by Clinton’s”genuine”reflectiveness about the last year.”He was more humble than I’ve ever seen him,”Campbell said, adding Clinton seemed to be expressing that”perhaps more than he deserved, he had been forgiven.” The Rev. Frank Reid, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, said the grace Clinton has felt may be hard to comprehend but is an example for others who have erred.”Sometimes it’s impossible for the human mind to understand just how amazing grace can be,”said Reid.”In spite of what he went through last year, that he’s still president, that he’s still ruling, doing well _ it’s a sign of grace.” In his almost half-hour speech, Clinton devoted most of his attention to the need for religious leaders to help address violence in American society. He cited numerous incidents of high-profile and deadly attacks, including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and this year’s shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., the Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles and Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

He urged more be done to keep guns away from children and criminals, to educate children about nonviolence and to intervene”before it’s too late”with those who are disturbed or mentally ill.”In all of these areas, I believe that people of faith could do more to help those of us in public life to give our children back their childhoods,”Clinton said.”If America is to be good, at least according to my faith, we must do more to prevent and overcome evil with good.” Clinton said religious leaders, whose houses of worship often offer counseling services, should consider new ways to connect with law enforcement and mental health workers to help reach those who might hesitate to seek assistance.”I think there are a lot of people who would maybe be less reluctant to ask for help from someone like you than to show up at the social service office of the government, or walk right through the front door of a psychiatrist’s or a psychologist’s office,”the president said.

The Rev. Byung Chill Hahn, pastor of the Korean United Methodist Church in Greensboro, N.C., gave the invocation. He previously had served as pastor of the Korean United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Ind. On July 4, Asian university student Won-Joon Yoon was killed outside the Indiana church by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a member of the white supremacist group called the World Church of the Creator.”Give us wisdom and power and strength to overcome any evildoing like hate crimes,”Hahn prayed.”Make us more critical of ourselves and more tolerant of others.” W. Deen Muhammad, spokesman for the Muslim American Society, was among the religious leaders who voiced agreement after the breakfast with Clinton’s suggestions about addressing violence.”The responsibility of the mosques or … the churches is not just to preach our religion but to address the serious problems in the society,”he said.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, an Orthodox Jew from Englewood, N.J., said:”I think it’s a challenge. Obviously, whatever we’re doing, we have to do more.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

Several religious leaders said after the breakfast that various religious traditions must reduce their rhetoric and confess to their own justification of violence in the past before they can aid society’s violent problems.

The Rev. Barbara King, minister of Hillside Chapel and Truth Center, an interfaith house of worship in Atlanta, said she particularly appreciated Clinton’s focus on the mentally ill.

King, a former social worker, spoke of adults facing mental crises”sitting right in our pews”and kids discussing suicide and other violence.”My issue was that the faith community has got to be more involved in mental-health issues,”she said.

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