Sunday, March 22, 1998

Putting clergy in the White House not a loony idea

By George Plagenz

With morality in the United States going to hell in a handbasket, President Clinton needs more than ever to appoint a "chancel cabinet" to advise him on the moral state of the country and what to do about it.

The New York Times says Jesse Jackson has become Clinton's "spiritual adviser" since the Monica Lewinsky scandal surfaced. But a "chancel cabinet" would have broader responsibilities.

It would be made up of clergy whose observations would serve as a kind of national conscience. The churchmen would be drawn from all sections of the country - from the big-city cathedral to the little brown church in the vale - and would act as the president's eyes and ears, reporting back to him on the people's hopes and fears, their dreams and insecurities.

Above all, the "chancel cabinet" (the chancel is the area in the front of a church where the clergy officiate) would speak out on matters right and wrong, the Achilles' heel of American politics.

Are the clergy up for such a role? They may be.

When five clergymen were named to the mayor's Crime Commission in Cleveland in the 1970s, they were ridiculed as "the God Squad." "What do they know about crime?" critics asked. "These are preachers who have led sheltered lives."

It amused one of the members of the God Squad, Rabbi Rudolph Rosenthal, to be characterized as a "naive clergyman in a naughty world."

"I studied in New York under Rabbi Stephen Wise," Rosenthal recalled. "When Mayor Jimmy Walker was turning the city over to the political vultures, Wise denounced him, causing Walker to wryly observe, 'When Wise attacks the politicians, the steamship business to Europe picks up.' It was better not to be around when Wise was condemning you."

Have we been neglecting this valuable clergy resource when we need it most in our national life? This would not be the first time a president has sought the help of the clergy. In the midst of the Depression in 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt called on the ministers of the country for advice.

"Because of the grave responsibilities of my office," Roosevelt wrote to the clergy, "I am turning to clergymen for counsel, feeling confident that no group can give more accurate or unbiased views." It was a one-time thing, but Roosevelt later remarked how helpful the ministers' responses had been.

A "chancel cabinet" would operate like Andrew Jackson's "kitchen cabinet" of the 1830s. The "kitchen cabinet" was an informal group of presidential advisers. It included newspaper editors, longtime friends, family and official Cabinet members.

Because of their unofficial status, they were pictured as keeping out of sight by coming into Jackson's office by way of the White House kitchen and up the back stairs.

Jackson said he hoped the "kitchen cabinet" would be a "moral force" to keep the shaky union together. Clinton's problems are different from Jackson's, but the same moral force Jackson desired is what is sorely needed to keep the country together now.

Today, nothing is safe from the moral contagion of a corrupt society. In a recent "Blondie" comic strip, Dagwood asks his young neighbor, Elmo, if his parents let him watch much television.

"Only when we watch it together," he says. "Last night we saw a show that had sex and violence and cheating and lying and stealing."

When Dagwood asks why his parents let him watch that, Elmo says, "They had to. It was the 6 o'clock news."

That was in the funnies, but it was sad.

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