Seminary President Urged Clinton to Discuss His Faith

President Clinton’s use of religious imagery and references, sometimes viewed skeptically as camouflage for personal faults, had been encouraged six months ago by Fuller Seminary’s Richard Mouw.

Mouw was one of 12 evangelical leaders invited last November to have breakfast with Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at the White House. Each was asked to offer some spiritual advice.

“Many of us disagreed with (Clinton) on abortion and homosexuality, but I said I thought it would be important for him to talk more about how he connected his faith with policy issues,” Mouw said in an interview.

Mouw said the President, a Southern Baptist, was very articulate and at ease with Scripture when he talked at the National Prayer Breakfast early in 1993. President George Bush was not so adept at that event the previous year, Mouw said. “Whatever the character of his personal faith, Bush had a very difficult time talking about spiritual issues,” he said.

“So, I said you’re very good at it and you ought to do more,” Mouw said. The seminary president, himself a Presbyterian, offered Clinton three reasons for bringing up religious perspectives:

“One--Evangelicals need to hear it because we need to see how you’re making the connections (between faith and policy).

“Two--The country needs moral and spiritual leadership from the President--not as a way of trying to impose a religious perspective but out of a willingness to speak from convictions and one’s personal journey to the big issues of public life.

“Three--I think it would be good for you. The more you talk about it, the clearer you are going to get.”