wfn.org | NCC Head Reflects on White House Prayer Breakfast

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227

NCC9/12/98

NCC HEAD REFLECTS ON WHITE HOUSE PRAYER BREAKFAST

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 11 - As she  reflected on this 
morning's White House interfaith prayer breakfast, one of the 
guests, the Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell, General Secretary of the 
National Council of Churches, commented, "Now the nation has to 
decide whether it is willing to be led by a repentant sinner.  That 
will be a journey for the nation and not just for the President."

 Dr. Campbell said she senses that President Clinton "is now 
repentant.  He offered a much fuller statement, a truly confessional 
statement with a religious character to it, and asked the 
forgiveness of the nation, his family, his colleagues and of Monica 
Lewinsky and her family.

 "He talked about the need for repentance, for a turning 
around, for a new direction, his need to find that new direction in 
his life, and what a spiritual journey it's been for him.  This 
prayer breakfast was a religious event in the best sense of the 
word, not just people saying prayers, but an event with a prayerful 
quality about it."

 Dr. Campbell said the morning allowed ample time for the 70 or 
so religious leaders present to speak personally with the President, 
Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Gore.  She said she thanked 
President Clinton "for being honest and willing to be vulnerable.  
It's not easy for powerful people to be vulnerable."

 What next?  Dr. Campbell said that "for the nation to heal, 
there may have to be a kind of public reprimand."  But that's far 
short of a call for resignation or impeachment, she said.  "We don't 
wish for a rush to judgment.  Let the processes work.  Whether Mr. 
Clinton can continue to lead is not something we know, and it won't 
be determined so much by politicians or Mr. Clinton as by the 
American people."

 Ultimately, Dr. Campbell concluded, "we must find a way to put 
this behind us.  "We have people who depend on us, things to do.  
We're deeply concerned that the issues of poverty, race, health care 
that Clinton has addressed himself to continue to be primary issues 
for the National Council of Churches."

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