Genuine Leaders are Trustworthy

Genuine leaders are trustworthy.

feelpain.gif (9754 bytes)

At the heart of true leadership

is the character quality of trustworthiness

"No longer do Mr. Clinton's allies even pretend to advance [his] case on its merits. Instead they hope that by constantly blurring the line, they might keep him in power by selling America on the idea that no one is fit to judge him. This in turn means not simply a White House denying this or that allegation, but a Clinton culture [postmodernist] that undermines the idea of truth itself." Wall Street Journal, 9-24-98 Wall Street Journal, 9-24-98

IMPEACH NOW!

FORGIVENESS does not require IMPUNITY

SPIRITUAL ADVISORS?

Through various lies, deceit, and subterfuge, Bill Clinton, et.al., have repetitively demonstrated they can’t be trusted.

While supporters may argue that Bill Clinton is a competent manager, he is definitely NOT a LEADER.

Genuine forgiveness is never 'looking the other way', or acting as if no wrong has been committed. Forgiveness is NOT: tolerating the intolerable, excusing the inexcusable, or accepting the unacceptable. For many Americans, no amount of spin will compensate for this inherent lack of character.

Those amoral or immoral citizens who also engage in lying and deceit in their lives (Machiavellian-types) tend to be Clinton supporters and aren't excited about the possibility that he might be held accountable. They want to normalize both the President's behavior and their own.

No amount of spin should be allowed to short-circuit Bill Clinton’s accountability. Bill Clinton should be impeached.

The President's Shell Game

The Presidential scandal has given vivid expression to the perverted theories of the Religious Left. In addition to distorting the true nature, method, and consequence of forgiveness, they have twisted the traditional concept of guilt. This is the reason Gerald Ford's recent advice to "shame" the President is absurd nonsense. Maybe a quote from Alva J. McClain will help us to comprehend why shaming today is of little value.

"The English word 'guilty' has unfortunately been weakened in popular usage. To say that a man is guilty of a specific crime means only, in contemporary thought, that he committed the crime. But in the Bible, as well as in the terminology of our [traditional] courts, to say that a man is 'guilty' means not only that he has broken the law but also that he is under an obligation to suffer the penalty for what he has done."

The Religious Left does not believe in accountability. Another twisted interpretation by the Religious Left is in the term which stands as the hallmark of Christianity -- grace. Totally contrary to what's taught in the Bible, the Religious Left defines grace as the relaxation of law to accommodate the weakness of men. This also involves a forgiveness which lowers standards (moral relativism) or laws to a point where men are not held accountable.

Few people understand that the Clinton Administration's political shell game is built on a theological shell game. This faulty and corrupt foundation must be exposed!

Currently, much confusion exists regarding the subject of FORGIVENESS – its nature, method, and consequence. This convoluted ethical fog has been advanced by the Religious Left for decades. Its main design is to negate personal accountability and cloud the difference between right and wrong, calling evil good and good evil.

At his prayer breakfast, Bill Clinton acknowledged general wrongdoing and stated that he had asked "all for their forgiveness." Further, he stated that "two more things" were necessary to effect the process: 1) his "determination to change" and 2) his "willingness to give the very forgiveness I seek." In calculated fashion, he laid out the erroneous formula scripted by his advisors from the Religious Left.

Bill Clinton subtly betrayed his apparent genuineness when he said "...what does all this mean for me and for us?" He wasn't going to allow listeners to interpret and judge for themselves. He had an agenda and was leading the audience. "First, I will instruct my lawyers to mount a vigorous defense using all available, appropriate arguments." Bizarre, no?

As members of the Religious Left, the Clintons erroneously believe that these recent outward acts of contrition should guarantee impunity. Their defense includes their own perverted form of moral indignation aimed at those who seek to hold them accountable for abuse of power.

How different was the response of the power-abuser Saul of Taurus turned genuine believer. When confronted with his corrupt behavior (Acts 9), he did NOT instruct the chief priests or Jews to mount any type of defense on his behalf. Rather, the genuineness of Saul's new found spirituality resulted in his former allies turning their venom on him (verses 23, 24)! And even then the true believers were skeptical of an evil political plot. The mark of the Holy Spirit's presence will come when attack-dog James Carville directs his viciousness toward master Bill Clinton... and not until.

As a Christian, an American citizen, and a victim of the President’s deceit, I can forgive him while simultaneously supporting a righteous call for his impeachment. Bill Clinton has proven to be UNFIT to hold the office of the Presidency.

Better Late Than Never

On 11/13/98, a handful of academics framed the issue in more elegant words than myself...see DECLARATION CONCERNING RELIGION, ETHICS, AND THE CRISIS IN THE CLINTON PRESIDENCY

Out of desperation and in an effort to salvage his political career and power base, Bill Clinton has assembled a group (3) of so-called 'spiritual advisors,' from the Religious Left-of-Center. Two known members of his "accountability circle" (monitor system) are the syncretistic, new age, liberal Tony Campolo and the Covenant Kingdom builder Gordon MacDonald. The third individual maintains anonymity.

Since Campolo and MacDonald are considered "evangelicals," some suggest that Clinton's choice was motivated by the need to blunt the sharp criticism from moderates and conservatives of all stripes. Mr. Clinton is also painfully aware of both Ken Starr and Rep. Henry Hyde's association with more conservative Christians.

Both Campolo and MacDonald have roots in the quagmire of Neo-Evangelicalism. Both are non-dispensational and thus twist and distort the meaning of Scripture. Doctrinally aberrant, both avoid the Cross of Christ in the life of the believer.

Both are helping perpetuate the liberal lies of compartmentalization -- that the spiritual (worldview) can be disconnected from social and political policy and that the President can successfully discharge the responsibities of his Office one moment while being decadent the next.

Campolo is by far the most extreme and radical. His popularity largely began by providing irreverent entertainment to Christian young people...George Carlin with a divinity degree. Today's youth, who missed the 60's, are amused to watch this balding hippie bash the Establishment. Campolo enjoys falsely portraying the early apostles as the Hell's Angels of ancient Palestine.

MacDonald, senior minister of the inter-denominational Grace Chapel, is one of several Covenant Kingdom builders scattered throughout America. He recently put out a written appeal (letter below) to blunt criticism of his and Tony's involvement with the President. MacDonald's law-based theology, which looks back to the life of David rather than to the Apostle Paul, will never bring genuine integrity of character.

MacDonald's 'spiritual' advice is only a slight variation from the erroneous teaching Bill Clinton received earlier from his Southern Baptist background or from Hillary's ultra-liberal United Methodism. Gordon MacDonald gained an audience with the President due to having written a book, entitled Rebuilding Your Broken World, which chronicles his own prior adulterous affair, repentance, and restorative return to ministry...which he refers to as his "Second Chance." The President claims to have read the book...twice.

Sadly, it would appear that the Rev. MacDonald has bought the lie that the President's current problem is primarily a sexual one. He grossly fails to grasp the evil behind the President's social and political policies as well as Machiavellian abuse of power which has trickled down and is permeating American society.

[Editorial comments in red below are this author's. By way of introduction, it is my belief that Gordon MacDonald is a true born-again Christian and that his prior infidelity would not automatically disqualify him from leadership. I also believe in the so-called doctrine of "Second Chance." [Further, we also believe in "Second Chance" for the victims of adulterous affairs when the covenant-breaking spouse never repents.] However as you shall see, I believe the Rev. MacDonald's doctrinal errors of Neo-evangelicalism and Covenant Theology render him a manipulated dupe in the hands of a corrupt Administration.]

Statement by Gordon MacDonald, Senior Minister, to the Grace Chapel Congregation: Sunday, September 13, 1998

We have passed through some of the saddest and disquieting days of our lives this past week. Those of us who were living in the time of Watergate thought we'd seen the worst, but, in my judgment, these days seem far more serious. [True, the culture war is pushing the Nation towards a civil war. See http://withchrist.org/disc.htm ]

We have watched a dimension of the personal and private life of President Clinton [expressed publicly on the first floor of the White House and funded by our tax dollars] reach the light of day and become emblazoned on the Internet and in newspapers across the world. We have listened to the comments of statesmen, commentators, comedians and the so-called "person on the street." Here and there have been sobering and wise observations. Beyond those, however, has been the multitude of unthinking comments which either trivialize matters or dismiss them as inconsequential. Nevertheless, the issue of morality, of truth telling, of personal integrity have suddenly become central issues for all people.

Not only have we seen Kenneth Starr's report, but we have seen the moving specter of a national leader standing before the country and, as it were, reenacting the Biblical story of King David when he acknowledged, under the pressure of Nathan's probing, "I have sinned." This public statement of repentance given on Friday was remarkable. [The mantra of the Religious Left is to erroneously compare Bill Clinton with Israel's King David. Beyond remarkable, is Gordon MacDonald's inability to understand and identify the status-quo religious hypocrisy of the Bible-Belt South. What to him appears to be repentance is likely an extension of Arkansas mischief.]

I [a New Englander] was present at the breakfast when the President spoke. The experience will always remain as one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. No one could have been present and retained a disbelieving, a cynical, a hardened attitude toward this man who opened his heart and acknowledged his realization of his sin. [Sorry, Gordon. But tens of thousands of conservative Christians, who have lived in the South and have experienced the religious hypocrisy, would readily disagree with your conclusion. Many of the women who have been sexually involved with the President (Flowers, Browning, etc.) testify of Bill Clinton's finely honed ability to feign sincerity.] Regardless of what happens in the future, that was a moment when the President attempted to fulfill everything that is demanded in the act of public repentance.

For many there have been two inadequate reactions to what the President said: the one has been to engage in the offer of cheap, swift grace, a forgiveness that comes so quickly and freely that it provides no justice nor healing and spiritual redemption to the sinner. The other inadequate reaction has been that of dismissing the statement with a wave of the hand and assuming that it is a matter of political theatrics and manipulation. To this latter reaction I have to say with all candor, Christ-following people have an obligation to treat seriously any attempt by a self-proclaimed sinner who asks for forgiveness. [Wrong! First, Bill Clinton's theology of the Left uses biblical words but without true biblical meaning. Second, his understanding of what it means to be a sinner is grossly deficient. Third, his understanding of the nature, method, and consequences of forgiveness is equally distorted.] If the President's repentance is false or short-termed, that will show in time, and we will have to swallow hard and admit that we were taken in. [Absolutely not! The seriousness of the corruption does not allow the Nation the liberty to be "taken in" AGAIN! Serious damage is being done every moment Bill Clinton remains in the Office of the Presidency. There is nothing unspiritual or contradictory about forgiving Bill Clinton while impeaching the rogue. He can get his so-called spiritual life in order while out of office! We cannot entrust our future to him, nor his bungling spiritual advisors.] It wouldn't be the first time nor the last that the Christian community extended its hand of grace and had it bit off.

Some of you have been aware that I have had a number of personal encounters with President Clinton starting about eight months after he assumed the office of the Presidency. He had become acquainted with me through some of my books which he had read and through mutual friends. On occasion we would dialogue about issues important to the Evangelical community, and I was one of those who pointed out to him the ways in which he estranged many Evangelicals from himself. [Doesn't it strike you as odd, that in spite of your dialogue, the Clintons vile social policies (pro-abortion, pro-homosex) remain unaltered. In my opinion, your inability to understand the dynamic is the legacy of your neo-evangelical heritage.] But most of our communication has been about spiritual matters, and my intersection with him has been more of a pastoral one - certainly, as I will later emphasize again, not a political one. [You make a false dichotomy. One cannot separate the social and political from the spiritual. They are inseparably linked.] From the outset I want to be perfectly clear that there are others whose involvement has been more frequent than mine such as Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church (Bill Hybels - General Teachings/Activities) and my close friend, Dr. Tony Campolo. Until this moment I have chosen to keep my relationship to the President as confidential and quiet as possible. As someone has said, "you can talk to the President or you can talk about him, but you cannot do both."

On several occasions I have sat with the President either in the Oval office or in the more private sectors of the White House and discussed matters mainly of a spiritual concern. Those conversations have included his personal life as a father and husband, his desire to be a man responsible to God in the exercise of his public duties. I have prayed with him as I have prayed with many of you. I have listened to him pray. I have discussed topics of a Biblical and a spiritual nature late into the night.

Those of us who have known the President have had our severe critics. "Why doesn't someone stand up and confront him?" has come the question more than once. Why haven't you played the role of the prophet, Nathan. I can tell you first hand that those times have happened. But having done that, we have not chosen to rush to the public or to the press and disclose the content of conversations we consider private and personal. There are those who have gone from the presence of the president and immediately used the occasion to embellish their own notoriety before their constituencies. That is not the genuinely pastoral way. Some have demanded to know what has been said to the President as if they had some personal right. We have taken the position that these conversations are no one's business and will continue to do so.

My relationship to President Clinton until recently had always been rather loose and sporadic, and I was happy to know that there were others, such as the ones I previously mentioned, who talked to him more regularly.

Last Monday the President called me. He had read my book Rebuilding Your Broken World a second time and felt that there were things in the book that we needed to talk about. Having had some extensive experience in the subject of what we Biblical people call brokenness, I could sense his own brokenness [political desperation?] after the first few minutes of the conversation. Like most others who have been publicly exposed in a terrible sin, the President had faced up to the reality of his deeds [sexual or abuse of power, or both?] in a series of steps--almost like descending a staircase. The first step had been his August speech in which he offered contrite words and then sought to put some of the blame for the situation on the backs of Kenneth Starr and his political critics. Many of us knew instantly that the speech had been a serious miscalculation, that it did not reveal a genuine sense of sorrow or contrition. [If it wasn't "genuine," then what was its purpose, Gordon? Every reader needs to be reminded that this is not simply about Bill Clinton's lustful appetite for kinky and perverted sex. It is about abuse of power; it is about a corrupt and vile culture which is operating under the tenets of moral relativism and Machiavellian principle. It's about the fact that this corruption is trickling down and through of Nation like a cancer. And Gordon MacDonald asks us to trust again, in spite of the mountain of evidence that has established the Clintons to be untrustworthy.]

Within a few days it was obviously clear to him that this level of truthfulness was quite inadequate. ["Level of truthfulness"? How about an inadequate amount of spin.] That seems to have forced him to another layer ["layer"? Just how many layers are there, Gordon?] of self-disclosure, first to himself and then to the nation. But it was clear that there were still miles to go. There was still too much emphasis on trying to control both the reality and the public's interpretation of it. [The "emphasis" has not changing. His ability to conceal the "control" continues to be fine-tuned. Can't you see that even at his prayer breakfast his agenda was one of control and spin.]

Then about ten days ago, the larger realities began to sink in, and the President began to see the full extent of what he and the rest of the nation were facing. He began to express himself no longer as the victim, no longer as the target of a conspiracy, but as a sinner with no defense or excuse. You heard him say this on Friday. [Sorry, I didn't hear that. Now, I'm wondering if you've become an extension of the effort to "control both the reality and the public's interpretation of it."]

This is what I had sensed as we talked on Monday evening. That evening President Clinton asked me if I would become a part of a small (as little as three) accountability group that would deal with the spiritual realities of his life and help him walk his way through a personal restoration process. [Accountability groups are no substitute for sound doctrine and the Cross of Christ in the life of a genuine believer.] At this moment I believe it would be prudent to permit the other two members of the group to step forward and identify themselves at a moment they choose. [Maybe we would prefer they keep their identities hidden.]

When we reached the end of our phone conversation, the President invited me to come to Washington on Thursday, the night before the Religious Leaders breakfast. I had been invited to the breakfast, but now the President sought a personal conversation.

On Thursday night it was my privilege [maybe, maybe not] to spend the night at the White House and to join the President and the First Lady for several hours of discussion. The President and I sat alone late into the night talking about the future, not in political terms but spiritual. The content of that conversation will be for the most part, totally confidential. From that conversation and one which he had the next morning with Tony Campolo, came the frame of the speech which Mr. Clinton gave on Friday morning. I went to bed that night awestruck at the providence of God which brought me to that position on that night. [Strange. Robert Duvall said the same thing when he was invited by the Clintons to bring his movie THE APOSTLE to the While House for a private screening. The Clintons were quoted as having thoroughly appreciated the movie!]

(As an aside: my room at the White House was the famous Lincoln Bedroom. In that room is a fireplace over which is a plaque noting the room as the place where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. I mused for a while on the need that comes in the life of anyone who has sinned greatly for a spiritual emancipation proclamation - the one which comes from God when we cry out in the sorrow of repentance. As the old Gospel song puts it concerning the cross of Jesus Christ: mercy there was great, and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul found liberty - at Calvary.) For the foreseeable future I will be visiting with the President on a fairly regular basis, by phone and by personal encounter. Of the three members of the group, I bring an understanding of what it is like to face the public scrutiny when one has sinned. I have gone through -- and continue to go through-- the breaking process. I have known both the remarkable grace of forgiving, restorative people and the lash of those who choose other options. I am in a position to talk the language of repentance and what it takes to find a deeper and more purposeful walk with God in the midst of a personal tragedy.

My role, along with the other members of this unique group, is not political. We are not concerned with the political ramifications of the hour, only the spiritual--which is to say that we are more concerned about Bill the man, the husband, the father, the working man, than we are about President Clinton. Others who have their experience in political leadership will have to deal with those matters. [To engage in this type of compartmentalization only exacerbates the problem.]

No one will offer me any help by suggesting things I ought to say to the President about the political scene. My opinions about his future as the president are my own, and I will not speak about them with anyone except my wife and the members of the accountability group.

It is no secret that President has been disliked from the start by a majority of Evangelical Christians. [It is no secret that the Bill and Hillary Clinton, and a large percentage of the Democratic Party, have from the start hated Bible-believing Christians. This has created 'open season' to ridicule and discriminate again moral and religious conservatives throughout the Nation. I have experience this first hand.] His stand on abortion and homosexuality were the lightening-rod issues, and most people have taken an adverse posture ever since. I have been seriously troubled when I have listened to people talk about this President--not in the civil discourse of acceptable political and philosophical adversity, but rather in terms of hatred and vengeance. [Yes, emotions are running high amongst those on whom the Clintons have declared their cultural war.] It has been easy for some to say that God's judgment will be upon this President. But will God's judgement not be upon a group of people who call themselves Biblically-oriented but who permit such rancor in their hearts?

I have chosen to believe that every word of the president's speech on Friday was out of a genuinely contrite heart. I have seen his private tears, heard his personal words of remorse. And I have chosen to embrace this man, as a sinner in need of mercy. I have received him as I would try to receive any of you should you find yourself in a similar circumstances. ["A broad path is not a broad heart, but a broad conscience."]

Have I worried about being used? Of course. Have I worried about those who might turn against me? Again, of course - and painfully so. Do Gail and I worry about seeing our names once again in print, as it was in Newsweek two weeks ago, reminding us of our own brokenness and shame eleven years ago. Again, of course.

Am I endorsing this President? No; that is not my intention in this statement. I have tried to keep this pulpit which I love free of political endorsements of any kind - much to the consternation of some and the suspicion of others.

In 1988 this church, called Grace Chapel, held a most remarkable service called a Service of Restoration. It was a recognition that church leaders were choosing to encourage my return to the ministry of preaching the Bible. As part of the service, my dear, dear friend, Dr Vernon Grounds [another self-proclaimed neo-evangelical] challenged me to be a carrier of the Gospel of the "Second Chance." He reminded me that Jesus was noted as a friend of sinners. And that the friends of Jesus are our friends.

The congregation approved of his challenge enthusiastically. But no one would have imagined that that ministry of the "Second Chance," a friendship with sinners, might be focused on a President of the United States.

Over the years since that service Gail and I have made ourselves available to literally hundreds of men and women in leadership whose lives have been dashed to pieces by their sins and mistakes. Hardly a week goes by that either Gail or I are not contacted by someone in the country who begins the conversation in words like these, "I don't know where to turn. No one around me knows how to handle the mess I'm in."

We have come to love the subject of grace because along with repentance it changes lives and refuses to permit Satan the ultimate victory. And we are in a situation now where it would appear that Satan is well on his way to victory. If he is, as the Bible says, the author of lies and confusion, he is doing a grand job at this point. Our world has never needed clarity of spirit and purpose as it needs right now. And yet we have never had so much confusion. I would quite imagine that Satan and his minions are cheering at this moment as they watch sin creating such havoc. [There is a fundamental flaw in the Rev. MacDonald's understanding of the biblical doctrine of grace and repentance which reflects his Covenant theological orientation. Consequently, he seeks to focus on Satan rather than the subject of SIN. For a safe and sound presentation, begin with OUR HISTORY IN THE FIRST ADAM and THE NEW BIRTH EXPLAINED.]

Gail gave me this verse from the Living Bible. Paul wrote to Timothy, "Again, I say to you, don't get involved in foolish arguments which only upset people and make them angry. God's people must not be quarrelsome; they must be gentle, patient teachers of those who are mixed up concerning the truth. For if you talk meekly and courteously to them they are more likely, with God's help, to turn away from their wrong ideas and believe what it true. Then they will come to their senses and escape from Satan's trap of slavery to sin which he uses to catch them whenever he likes and instead they can begin doing the will of God."

I am a small person in that very big world. But I will always try to stand for the proper balance of grace and truth and do all I can to see it work - if the sinner remains contrite and broken.

When I talk about second chance I am not advocating any position regarding impeachment or resignation. Again, I am talking first of all about the second chance a sinner is to be given through grace in his personal life. The future of President Clinton's leadership will be in the hands of our Congress, and we must pray that God will give them corporate wisdom as they proceed. I just caution you to realize that none of the options facing the Congress is either obvious or easy. Don't dare fall for easy answers; there are none. Every conceivable answer has long term ramifications for our nation, for this world.

I believe my actions in coming close to President Clinton on matters of pastoral concern is in complete conformity with the precedents of the Bible: from Daniel who served three profoundly pagan kings to Samuel and Nathan who came close to two kings with startlingly different results. [Again, his non-dispensational orientation takes him back to Old Testament figures rather than to the Apostle Paul and the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ.]

I have taken the President's request to come to his side at this time very seriously. No one will know the hours of talk and prayer that Gail and I have invested this week as we have asked the hardest questions and tried to imagine the worst possible things that could happen to us. But we've tried to keep in mind that we have a stewardship, and despite the possibilities of unfortunate things happening, we must take a stand for what we believe is right and go forward step by step until we feel the leading of the Lord to do otherwise.

Let me assure you of these things. We are surrounded by a small collection of the wisest, Godliest associates here and from a few other places in the country. I am listening carefully to their counsel. And of course, I will continue to pursue my own careful accountability to our Board of Elders. I do not intend to make any further public statements about my relationship to the President apart from this one. Already I have refused to talk to the Press on the basis that my connection to the President is far too private to disclose. I will do my best not to cheat Grace Chapel of its rightful claim on my time and energy. What expenses there are in terms of travel are not coming from any Grace Chapel budgetary fund but from private sources.

How might any of this affect you? It is possible that colleagues and friends of yours may take note of comments like the one made in the Boston Globe yesterday that your pastor is a "friend of Bill's." You can make that conversation into an opportunity to express yourself politically - or you can make it into an opportunity to express yourself spiritually. To say what I believe is the truth: that we are a people who believe that no person sinks so low and strays so far that they are not worth welcoming home when they come to their senses. This is the core message of our Bible; it speaks both to Presidents and paupers - and all of us who lie somewhere in between those two extremes.

We are a million miles from the end of this tragedy in Washington which will affect us and our children. [From miles earlier, to million miles now, this is getting drawn out...] But we have taken the first step in that journey this week. We have seen the worst news in the Starr report. [How do you know it's the worst? How do you know there's not more to come? Did the President assure you, like he has others, that nothing else remains hidden? By way of personal experience, let me share a sociological fact about southern culture in the United States. For the average Southerner, murder is not considered a worse crime than adultery. Or to put it another way, many southern folk view murder with the same cavalier attitude society attaches to adultery. So don't act surprised if evidence surfaces to confirm some of the rumors that are currently circulating. ] And we have seen a tiny glimmer of hope in the words of a man who stood up and said I have sinned and then echoed the prayer we have been studying for the past three weeks (I hope you picked up on the connection), "Search me O God and know my thoughts. Try me and see if there be any wickedness sin in me and lead me in the life ever lasting." [Oh...we couldn't miss it. There remains an unnaturalness to it; like a three year old son trying hard to walk in daddy's big shoes.]

What do Gail and I need from all of you? Understanding. In this statement I have tried hard to think of every conceivable question and concern that you would all have. But I know that I have left something dangling somewhere. I am not the wisest of people; only the Holy Spirit of God would make some of us adequate for this task. So we need prayer like you have never offered it before. And we need a modicum of respect and Christian love even if a few of you are terribly upset with me that I have chosen to accept this responsibility.

To all of you this is a unique opportunity to say how much Gail and I love you and love being a part of this Community of Kingdom builders committed to pointing people to Jesus Christ. You have touched us at our lowest moments in life and our highest. And what shall this moment turn out to be? I don't know. But I believe I can count on all of you.

[We believe Gordon MacDonald is genuinely sincere, but thoroughly misguided. However, His neo-evangelical doctrinal errors render him vulnerable to being used and manipulated by the President and his minions. This will only prolong the suffering and broaden the wreckage.]

DECLARATION CONCERNING RELIGION, ETHICS,

As scholars interested in religion and public life, we protest the manipulation of religion and the debasing of moral language in the discussion about presidential responsibility. We believe that serious misunderstandings of repentance and forgiveness are being exploited for political advantage. The resulting moral confusion is a threat to the integrity of American religion and to the foundations of a civil society. In the conviction that politics and morality cannot be separated, we consider the current crisis to be a critical moment in the life of our country and, therefore, offer the following points for consideration:

1. Many of us worry about the political misuse of religion and religious symbols even as we endorse the public mission of our churches, synagogues, and mosques. In particular we are concerned about the distortion that can come by association with presidential power in events like the Presidential Prayer Breakfast on September 11. We fear the religious community is in danger of being called upon to provide authentication for a politically motivated and incomplete repentance that seeks to avert serious consequences for wrongful acts. While we affirm that pastoral counseling sessions are an appropriate, confidential arena to address these issues, we fear that announcing such meetings to convince the public of the President's sincerity compromises the integrity of religion.

2. We challenge the widespread assumption that forgiveness relieves a person of further responsibility and serious consequences. We are convinced that forgiveness is a relational term that does not function easily within the sphere of constitutional accountability. A wronged party chooses forgiveness instead of revenge and antagonism, but this does not relieve the wrong-doer of consequences. When the President continues to deny any liability for the sins he has confessed, this suggests that the public display of repentance was intended to avoid political disfavor.

3. We are aware that certain moral qualities are central to the survival of our political system, among which are truthfulness, integrity, respect for the law, respect for the dignity of others, adherence to the constitutional process, and a willingness to avoid the abuse of power. We reject the premise that violations of these ethical standards should be excused so long as a leader remains loyal to a particular political agenda and the nation is blessed by a strong economy. Elected leaders are accountable to the Constitution and to the people who elected them. By his own admission the President has departed from ethical standards by abusing his presidential office, by his ill use of women, and by his knowing manipulation of truth for indefensible ends. We are particularly troubled about the debasing of the language of public discourse with the aim of avoiding responsibility for one's actions.

4. We are concerned about the impact of this crisis on our children and on our students. Some of them feel betrayed by a President in whom they set their hopes while others are troubled by his misuse of others, by which many in the administration, the political system, and the media were implicated in patterns of deceit and abuse. Neither our students nor we demand perfection. Many of us believe that extreme dangers sometimes require a political leader to engage in morally problematic actions. But we maintain that in general there is a reasonable threshold of behavior beneath which our public leaders should not fall, because the moral character of a people is more important than the tenure of a particular politician or the protection of a particular political agenda. Political and religious history indicate that violations and misunderstandings of such moral issues may have grave consequences. The widespread desire to "get this behind us" does not take seriously enough the nature of transgressions and their social effects.

5. We urge the society as a whole to take account of the ethical commitments necessary for a civil society and to seek the integrity of both public and private morality. While partisan conflicts have usually dominated past debates over public morality, we now confront a much deeper crisis, whether the moral basis of the constitutional system itself will be lost. In the present impeachment discussions, we call for national courage in deliberation that avoids ideological division and engages the process as a constitutional and ethical imperative. We ask Congress to discharge its current duty in a manner mindful of its solemn constitutional and political responsibilities. Only in this way can the process serve the good of the nation as a whole and avoid further sensationalism.

6. While some of us think that a presidential resignation or impeachment would be appropriate and others envision less drastic consequences, we are all convinced that extended discussion about constitutional, ethical, and religious issues will be required to clarify the situation and to enable a wise decision to be made. We hope to provide an arena in which such discussion can occur in an atmosphere of scholarly integrity and civility without partisan bias.

DECLARATION CONCERNING RELIGION, ETHICS,

WITHCHRIST.ORG