By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources
September 9, 1998
It wasn't a good day for Bill Clinton yesterday. First, in a valiant attempt to support the most recent White House spin, that people are tired of the scandals and are eager to get back to "normal" the President visited a school in Maryland to push his plan to spend billions of dollars more than the agreement he has with Congress.
Pickets greeted him at the school suggesting that he resign, and Democrat Governor Glendening, who faces a tough election in November, refused to be seen in the same building with the President and leader of his party.
If Clinton was watching the Larry King show last night, he probably didn’t feel any better after hearing the views of Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the ten million member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. King said to him, "Many religious leaders are now speaking out, saying President Clinton should resign. What are your thoughts?"
President Hinckley responded, with feeling, "Well, I feel very sorry for him. Here’s a man with great talent who has hurt himself so seriously that evidently it must just be terrible for him. Personally, I forgive him. The Lord has said, 'I will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you I require that you forgive all men.' And, in that sense I forgive him of any offenses committed against me. But, he still has accountability. He is accountable to the Congress. He is accountable to the people of the United States who elected him. And, he is accountable to God. And that is what he must face."
Larry King asked the obvious next question, "And who determines that accounting?"
President Hinckley said, "The Congress of the United States. It will go first to the House of Representatives, and if they make a judgment there for impeachment, then it will go to the Senate."
Asked by Larry King if he thought President Clinton should resign, Gordon B. Hinckley said, "I think he must make his own decision and the Congress should make theirs." He went on to note that, while he had no malice towards President Clinton, "At the same time, the position of President of the United States carries with it tremendous trust. In my judgment, an inescapable trust."
And then Gordon B. Hinkley read words in the First Inaugural address of George Washington, " ‘I hope that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality. The preeminence of free government exemplifies by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.’ That a great statement.
"It isn’t asking too much of our public servants to make this great nation not only the greatest nation on earth politically and militarily but also give moral leadership to the world....You cannot divorce private behavior from public leadership."
Larry King asked, "Then that includes YOUR private behavior. Your private behavior is OUR business?"
"Absolutely!" President Hinckley responded. "I have an accountability. I carry a trust. It is incumbent upon me. Yes!"
In the last three weeks Clinton supporters have discussed the story of King David in the Bible. David also had a wandering eye. "But David kept his throne," they claim, "and the Lord forgave him for committing adultery."
People forget Nathan, the prophet in that story. David not only committed adultery, he also committed murder. Nathan reminded David of his accountability towards God and man. Those who think David was "forgiven" and there was no accountability required haven’t read their Scriptures. Nathan warned, "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou has despised me, and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
"Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto they neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: But I will do this thing before all Israel." Furthermore, Nathan warned, the child that was conceived as a result of the adultery would die.
From that time on David's household was in constant turmoil - incest, intrigue, and bloodshed followed David’s adultery and the cover-up that ended in Uriah being killed at David’s command. "David’s sin with Bathsheba was followed by a series of misfortunes that marred the last 20 years of David’s life. The nation as a whole was prosperous, but David himself suffered from consequences of his own misdeeds." (Bible Dictionary)
Finally Larry King asked, "What does this tribulation the President is in say or do to children?"
"It has a corrosive influence on almost everybody. It’s damaging to children. They can’t watch television without bumping into it. Children need help these days. Families need strengthening." He went on to say, "The greatest problem facing this nation I believe is what’s happening to the American home. It’s falling apart. Families are falling apart all over the world." He urged that fathers take their rightful place as head of the family which prompted Larry King to ask, "You mean that fathers should be the boss?"
"No, I don’t mean they should be a boss! No! I’ve been a father. You’ve been a father. Did you run around bossing people?"
"No," Larry King responded meekly.
"Of course not!" President Hinckley said. "You acted with love and appreciation ...."
Larry King interjected, "Family unity."
Gordon B. Hinckley replied, "Family unity. People have abdicated their responsibilities. Fathers have."
I thought of President Clinton rushing hither and thither to been seen with children, trying to convince the world that he cares about children because he wants the Congress to let him spend huge sums of money on schools. And I thought back fifty years ago when my husband applied for a teaching job in the public Schools in Tennessee. One of the questions on the application was: What church do you attend? Knowing that those who did not attend church of some sort were not considered capable of being good teachers, he picked a church of preference to put on the application, even though he had never set foot in the door.
This notion that "character doesn’t matter" or that one’s "private live," especially one’s immoral private life does not impact a person’s work or competence is a very new idea. Once it was assumed that people were the sum of their experiences, habits and attitudes.
After the fact it wasn’t King David’s ability to preside over a prosperous people that he is famous for. The world remembers his adultery with Bathsheba, his having Uriah killed and the Psalms he wrote in the last years of his unhappy life as he came to grips with the mess he had made of his life that had begun with great promise.
William Jefferson Clinton will be known in History for Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones and his Saxophone. Gordon B. Hinckley is right. It’s a sad sort of spectacle.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com