National Catholic Register: "The Clintons' God"

(Hat tip: Dave Hartline at Catholic Report)

Paul Kengor writes in the October 14-20, 2007 issue of the National Catholic Register:

As Pope John Paul II wrote in Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, and through the magisterium, serves as the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), particularly through its teaching of truth regarding moral action.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the tragedy of abortion, especially in contrast to where some (but certainly not all) Protestants stand on the issue, including two extremely influential Protestants: Bill and Hillary Clinton.

No president did as much to advance legalized abortion as Bill Clinton, who is now poised to be exceeded in that capacity only by his spouse, who has an exceedingly good chance of becoming our next president, and no doubt will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for 2008.

Their positions on abortion are well-known, though the manner in which they have been guided into those positions by their churches is not. That spiritual misdirection is shocking and appalling, and illustrates the dangers of an ever-proliferating number of Christian ministers and denominations that veer in all sorts of directions as they struggle to ascertain moral truth, all without the guide of the magisterium that eternally benefits Catholics.

First, consider the case of Bill Clinton.

When Clinton was first elected governor of Arkansas in the late 1970s, he joined a conservative Baptist congregation in Little Rock called First Immanuel Baptist Church, where he came under the profound influence of a minister named W.O. Vaught. The two frequently conversed not only about the preacher’s sermons but about how Clinton’s faith should be incorporated into his public life.

How the two dealt with the abortion issue is particularly interesting. The young governor was reportedly troubled, personally ambivalent. Though he sided with the “pro-choice” argument intellectually, and felt the pressure of his wife’s religious-like dedication to Roe v. Wade, something inside of Bill Clinton — his conscience, presumably — was prompting questions, perhaps even second thoughts.

The governor was struggling over the definition of human life. Could his preacher go to his Bible and help out?

***
Of course, at the time of Vaught’s counsel, the Catholic Church was already strongly committed to the pro-life position. It had come to that position not through invocation of a Bible passage proscribing “abortion” but through the means that the Roman Catholic Church has used for centuries to ascertain moral truth.

As a Catholic, I sympathize with Vaught. He may have felt in his heart that abortion was wrong, but it was up to him alone — with the option of consulting other “Bible Christians” — to study his Bible in order to assemble the collection of Scriptural references to eventually point him to the same conclusion as the Church in Rome.

The structure of the Catholic Church is such that determining truth is not a process left to each and every pastor at each and every congregation based on personal discernment of the Hebrew or Greek, or through some form of “private revelation.” But he alone was the magisterium — one man serving as the pope, the cardinals, the bishops — to his 4,000-member flock, an impossible, daunting task, a terrible burden.

His flock awaited his conclusions for instruction. So did the Democratic governor and future leader of the free world.

And what about Hillary Clinton?

Bill Clinton ended up firmly in the camp of his wife on the abortion issue. One day, pro-lifers would dub him, “the abortion president.”

His wife scores a 100% rating from NARAL and a 0% rating from the National Right to Life Committee. While, like Bill, she is willing to compromise on numerous political issues, she will not budge on abortion. It is neither uncharitable nor inaccurate — nor name calling — to say that on the subject of abortion Hillary Clinton is fanatical.

There is no issue that impassions her more. She has not changed her position on any meaningful life issue, from federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research to banning partial-birth abortions to supporting funding for ultrasound machines to backing legislation to protect babies injured in the womb by outside parties.

But here is maybe the saddest part of her intransigence: As a lifelong committed Methodist, Hillary sees no contradiction in supporting abortion. Quite the contrary, she points to her church’s leadership as a source of guidance.

After all, her denomination, the United Methodist Church, is pro-abortion — a member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, along with a bunch of other Protestant denominations.

***
Her church is not only pro-abortion but has opened its pulpit to no less than the author of Roe v. Wade. Indeed, one day in 1995, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a fellow Methodist, was invited to address Hillary’s congregation, the historic Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington. He was invited by her pro-abortion pastor — J. Philip Wogaman, president of the American Theological Society, professor emeritus of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Society, and one of the top Methodist theologians in the country.

Hillary’s consistency with her denomination on legalized abortion was emphasized to me by her close friend and former obstetrician-gynecologist, William Harrison, the nationally known Fayetteville, Ark., abortion doctor, who was interviewed at length for my book.

Harrison, also a Methodist, talked of how abortion providers are counting on a President Hillary Clinton. Asked if he would expect Hillary to change George Bush’s pro-life policies, Harrison exclaimed: “Oh, absolutely. … I hope to God she does.”

[Read the whole thing]

(emphasis added)


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Hilliary! - Key Decision-Maker on Abortion During Clinton Admin with "a Nearly Religious Devotion" to Abortion Rights