Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics
For 15 years, Hillary Clinton has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill. Is she triangulating—or living her faith?
Fri Aug. 31, 2007 11:00 PM PDT
Two decades later, while Bill was campaigning for president, Clinton picked up that theme once more, displaying a theological depth that conservative believers could appreciate. In an interview with the United Methodist Reporter, she expressed regret that her church had focused too much on social gospel concerns in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, "to the exclusion of personal faith and growth." The spirit, believe theological conservatives, matters more than the flesh. Clinton added that she was happy to see her liberal denomination becoming more salvation centered in the '90s.
When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian "cell" whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat.
Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.
Clinton declined our requests for an interview about her faith, but in Living History, she describes her first encounter with Fellowship leader Doug Coe at a 1993 lunch with her prayer cell at the Cedars, the Fellowship's majestic estate on the Potomac. Coe, she writes, "is a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."
The Fellowship's ideas are essentially a blend of Calvinism and Norman Vincent Peale, the 1960s preacher of positive thinking. It's a cheery faith in the "elect" chosen by a single voter—God—and a devotion to Romans 13:1: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers....The powers that be are ordained of God." Or, as Coe has put it, "we work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."
When Time put together a list of the nation's 25 most powerful evangelicals in 2005, the heading for Coe's entry was "The Stealth Persuader." "You know what I think of when I think of Doug Coe?" the Reverend Schenck (a Coe admirer) asked us. "I think literally of the guy in the smoky back room that you can't even see his face. He sits in the corner, and you see the cigar, and you see the flame, and you hear his voice—but you never see his face. He's that shadowy figure."
Coe has been an intimate of every president since Ford, but he rarely imposes on chief executives, who see him as a slightly mystical but apolitical figure. Rather, Coe uses his access to the Oval Office as currency with lesser leaders. "If Doug Coe can get you some face time with the President of the United States," one official told the author of a Princeton study of the National Prayer Breakfast last year, "then you will take his call and seek his friendship. That's power."
"If you're going to do religion in public life," concurs Schenck, a Jewish convert to fundamentalist Christianity who's retained his sense of irony, Coe's friendship is a kind of "kosher...seal of approval."
Coe's friends include former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Reaganite Edwin Meese III, and ultraconservative Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.). Under Coe's guidance, Meese has hosted weekly prayer breakfasts for politicians, businesspeople, and diplomats, and Pitts rose from obscurity to head the House Values Action Team, an off-the-record network of religious right groups and members of Congress created by Tom DeLay. The corresponding Senate Values Action Team is guided by another Coe protégé, Brownback, who also claims to have recruited King Abdullah of Jordan into a regular study of Jesus' teachings.
The Fellowship's long-term goal is "a leadership led by God—leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit." According to the Fellowship's archives, the spirit has in the past led its members in Congress to increase U.S. support for the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the Park dictatorship in South Korea. The Fellowship's God-led men have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators. Clinton, says Schenck, has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance.
Comments
THE UNITED STATES IS NOT READY FOR A WOMAN PRESIDENT. SHE WANTS TO BE PESIDENT NOT TO BE PRESIDNT BUT TO SAY SHE IS HE FIRST FEMALE TO BE PRESIDENT. SHE HAS A GOAL AND THAT IS TO GET EVEN WILL BILL CLINTON. GOD HELP US IF SHE GETS TO BE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATE BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO NEED IT AND OLY GOD CAN SAVE US FROM SUCH A TIME THAT WORDS CAN NOT DESCRIBE. READ YOUR BIBLE MRS CLINTON ABOUT WHO SHOULD RULE THE NEST. THE WORD IN MINE IS IN MY KING JAMES BIBLE, IN MANY PLACES NOT JUST ONE. I WILL PRAY TO GOD NOT TO LET YOU BE THE PRESIDENT OF USA
"In her own way, she is a true believer." How can she be a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? She is Pro-Abortion. The killing of innocent lives is totally against God. Wake up Hillary, read your Bible again. God knew you before you were in the womb.
Poor fella! You really have no idea what it takes to be a man, do you? And just a word of advise: Try pushing against the "Statue Of Liberty", ad as far as you can move it, is as much as you will change the truth of Christianity with all your venom. God bless ou my friend.
GOD FOID IF SHE GETS TO BE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. SHE IS NOT THE PERSON THAT SHE CLAIMS TO BE. HE FIRST GOSL IS NOT TO BRING THE CHURCH BACK INTO THE WHITE HOUSE OR GOD. HER VERY FIRTS WISH IS TO THE FIRST WOMAN TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE USA.AND SHE WANTS ITS SO BAD SHE WOULD EVEN CHALENGE GOD IF SHE HAS TO. IF SHE GETS TO BE PRESIDENT I WILL MOVE OUT OF THE UNITED STATES. THAT WOULD BE ALL MOST AS BAD AS HITLER AND THAT IS BAD
Billary is only interested in power at the cost of all Americans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8aopATYyw
Bush - Clinton - Bush - Clinton `?!?
anyone see a pattern there?
My, my. You can smell the kerosene breath clear through the void of cyperspace. Who's to wonder why religion makes very bad politics, the one about absolutes (call 'em killer abs)and the other about compromise. Whaddaya say we all shut up
about the G person? Give it a rest,
for Christ's sake.
I don't see what is such a big deal. We already knew she was religious ... so what? So what if she brings Jesus to the White House, maybe she can bring Superman, too. This country ... rather, this world needs fixing more than any one person can do! And I am not even religious, but I know that most people's faith seems to give them some sort of moral base, and what's wrong with that? We already know she is very intelligent. Hey, I was ready to vote for Barrack until he ditched his flag lapel pin ... that was just dumb ... he lost so many votes from that. I adore Kucinich and agree with nearly everything he says, but we all know he doesn't have a chance. Why not let a strong woman like Hillary in the white house! Remember, she's married to Bill Clinton, the guy who turned a huge deficit into a surplus ... until GWB turned it back the other way like the republicans always do. It's not like you men have done a great job ... okay, well a few of you have, but let a woman in there and ... Hillary is the best choice and the most likely to win against whatever republican wins the primary. If she wants to bring Jesus and Buddha and Mohammad and Krishna with her to the white house, is that so terrible? I just hope she can actually manage to get medical insurance for EVERYONE, remember when she tried that when her husband was in office? Yea, well maybe second time around it can get accomplished... hopefully. None of these politicians can fulfill all of their promises, one can only hope for improvement.
I grew up a fundamentalist Christian because my family and I needed the faith of God in our lives. After finished college, I realized I am gay. This changed my whole outlook on fundamentalism. My parents, my family and my friends all turned their back on me, but I had a new family who helped me to cope, the gay community. I had no choice because I am gay. I see the need for spirituality, but also the love and caring for the oppressed. Jesus helped those who were sick, was a help and friend to Mary Magdalene, fed the hungry, cured the sick, and instead of marching outside the church of Matthew Sheppards funeral with posters saying '[deleted]', would be insided the church, holding the mothers hand, comforting her.
If she supports the sterilization of Humans then she supports the killing of life. The killing of Babies Babies are humans. So she supports the killing of innocent humans. Looking at the big picture, I don't think she should have her finger on the button. Christ promoted life. What if Mary would have chosen birthcontrol over God? Mary was curtainly in a compromised situation. Hillary is no Mary and she has a little more soal searching to do before she'll convince me that she is doing what god wants.
Father God, I pray for all the liberals and all the conservatives of this world that you have created and for the sins of this world. I pray for the Christian community and the ones who claim to be Christians. I ask that you forgive us of our ignorance on the teachings of mankind. We think we know what we are saying and doing, but we are lost here without you. I pray father that our leaders of this world will reverence the gift of life that you have made by your gracious hands. Father, when the signs of time have come, I pray father that you will have mercy on the people that oppose you and the ones that suppresses you. I pray all this in Jesus name amen.
anyone who thinks that Bush is prolife, killing and torturing people, over a million Iraqis and thousands of Americans, in the name of Jesus, rush thee to the funny farm straight away. and hillary is cut from the same cloth... real Christians THINK and do not believe Fake anti-lifers WAR IS A RACKETeers such as these. and the Bible been distorted by people to manipulate you for the sake of these power elitists. WAKE UP!!!! read, research and THINK for yourself... Your Preacher may not be telling you the truth. Anyone who is a racist, bigot or who puts down ANYONE, is NOT a Christian. God LOVES EVERYONE... Get over it. There is NO ONE TRUE PATH... Look at nature. God loves diversity not cookie cutter Stepford people who believe anything anyone tells them to think. got a bridge for ya if you still believe despite ALL evidence to the contrary... it's called Delusion... WAKEUP!!!!
"worse yet, this KausticKhristianity has been crrreeeeeping into Canada for some time now... & Harper seems to encourage it..." [BlueBerry Pick'n]
My word! According to Macleans "He is the first evangelical prime minister since John Diefenbaker, and the first ever to belong to the relatively obscure Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination."
Read: The Evangelical Sanhedrin and Republicanism
by Ron Dart
Vive Le Canada 8-09-2006
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20060808140819982
It discusses the history of Evangelicism in the US and Canada, from a Canadian point of view. Though it does not address Dominionism adequately, it is an excellent summary of recent Evangelical history.
As Gary so clearly reminds us - and thanks to him for the Google hint - "Look, Dominionism is NOT mere Christianity. Dominionism and other extremism makes the Christian faith LOOK BAD, like Islamic Extremism makes all Muslims look bad. And the reverse, when BOTH go on the defensive. The whole point of the Enlightenment Age was to inject REASON and ETHICS into government and public philosophy. Religion -- ironically -- can justify sidelining reason, ethics, and even basic morality. And it can do this in the name of morality, narrow definitions, dishonest emphasis. Google "Council for National Policy". Christians, Nazis, KKK, Reverend Moon, CIA, Ollie North, etc. And now it looks like Hillary too. This is NOT FUNNY and NOT to be taken lightly."
. . .
Posted by:GarySeptember 6, 2007 1:34:35 PMRespond ^
I THINK THAT HILLARY HAS LOST HER MIND IF U ASK ME THIS IS SO BECAUSE SHE IS TOOOOOO WEAK FOR AMERICA!! and 15 yearS IS NOTHING IF U WANT TO BE PRESIDENT!! HILLARY IS SUPPOSED TO BE SEEKING TO BRING JESUS BACK TO CAPITOL HILL AND SHE BELIEVES IN ABORTION!!!AND Y IS SHE A ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL???!! IN THE BIBLE IT SAYZ NOT TO BE!!!!
I think its awesome that Hillary is spiritually deeper than liberal left wingers would like to believe, if it is confusing enough for a long enough time (life itself)maybe the Godless will see their innate need for the guidance of our creator and begin to read the Holy Bible.
Barack said this is not a christian nation and you like Barack, please! Any Christian that votes for him and not Huckebee is crazy. God set be for all americans, a preacher and the rest of the canidates. You choose life or death . Barack is trying to push a one religion united states if you can't see it open your spiritual eyes. Any canidate that tells christians we all believe in one God and that is not comman among religious folks. Well I have a problem with that because my God is not a muslim. My God had a Son the only begotten JESUS! He can not be compared to muhammad or any other prophet, because at the name of JESUS every knee shall bow and every knee shall confess that He is LORD of LORD and KINGS of KINGS every knee don't bow to muhammad,budda, or any other man or woman.
