wfn.org | Former Lutheran bishop asks Clinton to resign

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

President's capacity to judge is deficient

CHICAGO, Illinois, U.S.A./GENEVA, 14 September 1998 (elca) - The Rev.
Herbert W. Chilstrom, former presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA), sent an open letter on September 1 to President
Bill Clinton asking him to resign.

 In his letter, Chilstrom, who is now active in the Democratic party in
Minnesota, said, "As Americans, we are not naive. Most of us believe that
you cannot make a sharp distinction between how you function at your desk
in the Oval Office and how you behave in a side room only a few feet away.
We believe it inevitably has an impact on your work as our president."

He continues, "You agreed to a policy that forbids gay and lesbian persons,
no matter how circumspect their lives, to be open about their sexuality. If
they can be banned from military service for relationships that do not
impinge on the personal rights of others, should not their Commander in
Chief be banned from service for heterosexual behavior that compromises his
authority?"

While admitting Clinton's right to privacy in his personal life, Chilstrom
maintains that once the President has been "caught" in the sort of
"'inappropriate'" behavior to which he has admitted, "then it is no longer
a private, personal matter".

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/