Saturday, September 19, 1998

Community should search for Clinton's redemption

By Michael O'Connor / Abilene Reporter-News

I read the 10,000 or so word excerpt of the Starr Report we printed last weekend with a mixture of fascination and disgust.

Like many of you, I had heard most of the naughty bits, though I admit I had skipped reading most of articles that detailed them. Perhaps what fascinated me the most was contained in the lurid section when Monica told the grand jury that Bill did not do certain things because he didn't trust her yet. I remember thinking this was a terrible misuse of the word "trust."

The reaction to the report has been unremarkable. People are saying the same things after the report they said before: Get rid of him; leave him alone. But given that some folks are fond of declaring we are a Christian nation, and guessing that many of the people making the statements believe themselves to be Christian, I find both responses inadequate.

In Christian theology, sin is never a private matter, something only between God and the sinner. Sin tears the fabric of community and must be dealt with, thus Paul's condemnation of the Corinthians for not dealing with a man who was involved in an affair with his stepmother.

And the community is called upon to deal with immorality in its midst. Jesus outlined steps for dealing with believers known to be involved in sin -- steps that call for increasing involvement on the community's part. Only if the sinner shows himself to be unwilling to change is he to be shunned. After all, Christians are in the redemption business.

The anger expressed by Christians denouncing Clinton shows little impetus toward redemption, only a desire to assert some kind of moral superiority by people who should know that "there is none righteous; no, not one."

Before you take pen in hand to blast me, let me hasten to say I am not in the camp that seems to want to let Clinton off the hook because, after all, who among us hasn't done something stupid.

We must guard against what one theologian called cheap grace -- an easy kind of forgiveness that creates no accountability and no change on the part of the recipient. Grace does not demand these things, but it should elicit them.

Clinton has said he has repented of his sin. It does not matter whether we believe him. The community has a responsibility to extend grace and seek to bring about his redemption.

Someone among those who attended the White House Prayer Breakfast should be checking to see if Clinton seeks the counseling he said he would seek. Someone should be offering aid to his family. They cannot be left to cope with their trials alone. Ideally, this should take place in the context of the churches the Clintons attend or claim membership in.

But if we insist on making the president an elected national moral leader as well as political leader, then we'd best be willing to act as a national congregation committed to restoring the fallen -- including the president.

And Clinton must face the consequences of his actions. David suffered the loss of the son Bathsheba bore him, despite his cries of repentance and begging for the child's life. And when the child died, he dried his tears and went forward. But unlike our friend Bill, David didn't have to face Congress.

The president won't get past this mess just by declaring the matter private and saying he's not going to talk about it anymore. But Christians will always have one obligation: to act like Christ, who frequently spent more time with sinners than he did the "righteous."

Michael O'Connor is news editor for the Abilene Reporter-News and is an ordained United Methodist minister.