Clinton Pastor ‘Speaks Out’ in Book

The president’s attorneys say that he has sinned and no one knows that better than the three pastors helping Clinton atone for his transgressions.

Two of the three are shunning media attention.

The third, the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, minister at the church the president attends in Washington, not only has given dozens of nationally televised interviews, he also has written a book that is expected in stores just in time for last-minute Christmas shoppers.

The country has heard little about Clinton’s spiritual recovery effort since the summer, but Wogaman says the president continues with the process of repenting for his sins and changing his behavior in “good faith.”

In Wogaman’s view, both the president and Monica S. Lewinsky fell into well-worn destructive patterns of behavior. In the president’s case, a difficult childhood--with an abusive stepfather in the house--may have played a role, the minister suggests.

“I don’t want to speculate much on Monica Lewinsky, but some aspects [of her behavior] are pretty familiar in American life . . . where celebrities are involved,” Wogaman said in a recent interview in his office at Foundry United Methodist Church.

As for Clinton’s childhood, Wogaman said, “in that respect he’s not so unique. There are many people who have drifted into certain patterns of behavior that are self-destructive in that way.”

Wogaman, a former professor of religious ethics, is quick to point out that “From the Eye of the Storm--A Pastor to the President Speaks Out” is not a pray-and-tell book.

Wogaman said that he took pains not to violate any pastoral confidences--without first getting the president’s permission. And proceeds from the book will go to charity.

The pastor’s take is that Clinton’s sins were sins of “weakness” and not “malice.” He believes it would benefit the country and possibly Clinton for him to be officially censured by the Congress but impeachment would be out of proportion and inappropriate.

While members of Congress and some of the public doubt the sincerity of Clinton’s repentance, Wogaman does not, he said, because of what Clinton has shown him in private.

“I really do believe it,” Wogaman said. “I don’t think for a moment that it is simply a matter of ‘I’m, sorry I got caught.’

“I believe his feelings of remorse or guilt were there well before he was caught. He tried to work it through at that point but in a lonely way.”

In one of the book’s anecdotes, Wogaman reveals an intense telephone conversation he had with Clinton the Sunday after independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s report--full of lurid sexual details--was released.

The president had been criticized in the media for not showing up at church, the minister writes. In fact, Clinton called Wogaman that morning. The minister gave him a version of the sermon, which he wrote mindful of delivering it to an audience containing the president and the pool of reporters who follow him.

The gist of the sermon was that Clinton’s sin was separating sex from love and commitment. But he said that problem is widespread in our culture and it would be better to forgive Clinton than “heap the sins of the nation on him.” The president, Wogaman says in his 139-page book, was “deeply engaged in the message of the morning service.”

Despite the precautions Wogaman took, some of his colleagues in the field of religious ethics are disturbed by his decision to write about the president’s dilemma at all.

“This is kind of hitching your star to the book deal culture of instant sales,” said John Coleman, a sociologist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who specializes in social values. “That’s so fast and so sleazy.”

Coleman, an acquaintance of Wogaman, said it is particularly dismaying for the minister to give even the appearance of invading Clinton’s privacy when so many characters have compromised themselves by revealing confidences and contemplating book deals about Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky--even the former White House intern herself.

Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart said he had not heard about the book. He declined to comment on Wogaman’s motives.

“I wouldn’t dream of offering advice or second-guessing him,” Lockhart said, adding, “There’s a shortage of good books” about the topic.

Other ethicists were particularly critical of Wogaman, saying that he has violated a basic principle of the profession. It might be appropriate for a minister who did not know Clinton to step into the fray and defend him in public but not one engaged in counseling the president, they say.

“From my perspective, a pastor shouldn’t even be mixed up in it,” said John P. Crossley, director of the USC School of Religion, who said that he knows and likes Wogaman. “He crossed the line here.”

Wogaman, however, is not troubled by his decision to write a book about the crisis surrounding his most prominent parishioner.

“Most pastors, myself included, do not exactly shy away from public attention,” Wogaman writes in the opening chapter. “It’s one of our occupational sins.”