Faith and Life commentary: Our faith during a time of trouble
9/1/1998 NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Wogaman is available. A UMNS Commentary By the Rev. Phil Wogaman* How can our faith help us address the national trauma surrounding President Clinton?
I do not doubt that this very question is one with which millions of Christians, along with people of other faiths, are struggling. I do not know how much wisdom any of us can bring to bear, but it has occurred to me more than once that we all should take a deep breath and stand back from the immediate emotions for a while.
It also seems important for us not to take ourselves too seriously as we seek insight. I know that persons of my profession, myself included, violate that principle as much as anybody. Is it possible that media commentators, lawyers and politicians should also watch themselves for that tendency?
Most of us would agree that the behavior to which the president confessed is wrong, as he has himself said. That acknowledgment is very important. It is truly necessary for the healing process to occur.
Does our faith help us see why the conduct is wrong? The tendency is to give a very moralistic or legalistic answer to that, and yet the true answer is much deeper. The heart of our faith is the love of God. "Wrong" is not just a violation of rules; it is actions and attitudes that draw us away from love -- the love we have from God and our love for one another. That mysterious and sometimes overwhelming power of sex can be very hurtful when it is not an expression of caring and committed love. People are also hurt by dishonesties and loss of trust. We all know that, but our society still needs a renewed understanding of that at many levels.
Perhaps there are even deeper faith insights. God's grace must be central to our thinking. It is not "cheap grace." I would rather say it is consuming grace -- a grace that takes hold of us and transforms us; a grace that leads us into new levels of mutual caring and commitment; a grace that brings forgiveness when we fail. People do not grow morally when they are surrounded by moralistic judgment. If love is the essence of the moral life - Jesus said it is - then moralism may be the deadliest enemy of real morality. Love is what draws us out of sin and toward moral maturity.
Where does that lead us? Surely it means we should be very slow to resolve the crisis by forcing the president from office. What a trauma that would inflict upon the nation, with divisions of bitterness reaching across the years to afflict the national life. Perhaps there is some way, short of that, by which the unacceptability of behavior can be registered and by which the nation can really help Clinton himself.
But I want to say one thing more. Despite the failure, there is much goodness in this gifted political leader. God's forgiving love helps us see that.
In all this, I am reminded of an Arabian proverb: "A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."
God is like that to all of us. We must be more like that to one another.
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*Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington and a seminary professor of Christian ethics, is the author of 13 books. President Clinton and his family attend Foundry regularly. Wogaman is a clergy member of the Baltimore-Washington United Methodist Annual (regional) Conference.
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