Bill Clinton: We can't be perfect



(Official White House Portrait)

According to a sermon that Bill Clinton gave at Riverside Church right before a Republican convention:  We can’t be perfect, we can just be more perfect.

He titled this Beliefnet-printed sermon All of Us See Through the Glass Darkly after the famous Pauline quote from I Corinthians12 comparing life in this world to life in heaven:  For now, we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  What this means to Clinton is that none of us – not

even right-wing conservatives – have the monopoly on truth and values.

According to some staunch critics of this approach, Clinton’s “less than perfect” philosophy reflects his Baptist upbringing.  R. Albert Mohler, in a 1998 article titled Bill’s Baptist Buddies, referred to Clinton’s Baptist supporters as “the generation of liberal Baptist leaders who served as Bill Clinton’s moral advisors, and are now his enablers in a lifestyle of gross immorality.”  Mohler quotes one of these “enablers” – Foy Valentine, “who was executive director of the SBC Christian Life Commission during Clinton’s formative years” – as having this opinion regarding Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky:  What he did is disgusting, but not what I would consider adultery.

Ken Gardner - in an article titled The Devil Made Me Do It?  No, My Denomination Made Me Do It! – further criticizes Clinton’s type of Baptist belief system.  He attributes Clinton’s behavior with Lewinsky to the “born again” belief in “guaranteed salvation, once saved, always saved…”  Although Mohler also believes in salvation by faith, he believes that faith and works go hand in hand – reminding readers that the Bible teaches:  Faith without works is dead.

A perhaps older-and-wiser Clinton now seems to be striving for a balanced approach between faith and works.  Although he closes his sermon with the reminder that “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” – he also concludes with Isaiah’s response to God’s call for devoted works:  Here am I lord, send me.   

Resources

http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/2004/09/All-Of-Us-See-Through-The-Glass-Darkly.aspx

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/2424

http://www.planoeastchurch.com/doc/Articles/TheDevilMadeMeDoIt_NoMyDenominationMadeMeDoIt.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton

Copyright August 19, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved