In a February 1 article, The New York Times purported to examine the question of whether Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) recent public statements about faith and values represent a new “calculated effort” to reposition herself to run for the presidency in 2008, or whether the statements represent the long-standing “true convictions” of someone who “has been deeply and openly religious her entire life.”
Though the article by Raymond Hernandez posed a question, the headline -- “As Clinton Shifts Themes, Debate Arises on Her Motives” * [emphasis added] -- signaled that the paper knew the answer. So did the second paragraph, which referred to a “side of herself she has lately displayed as she enters a new phase of her public life [emphasis added].”
As evidence, the Times offered quotes from recent speeches by Clinton in which she spoke about her faith; a quote from a conservative political opponent of Clinton who speculated about “the purity of her motives,” as the Times put it; and quotes from “advisers and close associates” of Clinton who provided examples from her upbringing some 50 years ago “in a Methodist home outside Chicago” and extending throughout her public life, of the central role religion has always played in it. These examples included that her high school mentor was a youth minister; that she taught Sunday school in Arkansas; that she carried prayer cards as first lady; and that she joined a congressional prayer group upon taking her seat in the Senate in 2001.
Absent from the Times' report were direct quotations from Clinton, available on the public record and dating back to 1993, that -- when considered alongside her recent remarks -- undermine the paper's suggestion that Clinton has recently shifted themes, and that the religious “side” of Clinton has been on display only “lately”:
Recent remarks from Clinton presented in the Times storyEarlier remarks from Clinton on the same subjects
Recently, for example, Mrs. Clinton drew attention to her own spirituality as she discussed the major role that values played in the November elections. “I have spent a lot of time over the course of my lifetime wrestling with and dealing with questions of my faith,” she told an audience at Tufts University in November.
“I am,” she tells Newsweek in an exclusive interview at the White House, “an old-fashioned Methodist.” [Newsweek, 10/31/94]
When she spoke to her fellow Methodists in Denver, Mrs. Clinton said those early experiences [at the First United Methodist Church in Park Ridge, Illinois] left deep impressions.
“I learned about the connections between my personal faith and the obligations I face as a Christian, both to other individuals and to society,” she said. [The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, 10/20/96]
In talking about her faith as she travels the country, Mrs. Clinton has taken up a traditional Democratic cause, fighting poverty. In her appearance at Tufts, for example, she said there is a “much broader definition” of “morality and values” than was discussed during the recent elections.
“It is always intriguing to me that so many people have a very narrow definition of morality and then often try to peg their definition, in the case of Christianity, to the Scriptures,” she said. “And no one can read the New Testament of our Bible without recognizing that Jesus had a lot more to say about how we treat the poor than most of the issues that were talked about in this election.”
Clinton carried into adulthood that sense of obligation, a fundamental belief that the gospel instructs each person to reach out and help every other person. It's the basis for her controversial book, It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us.
Hillary Clinton's village isn't just the government, it's the entire community.
''As adults, we have to start thinking and believing that there isn't really any such thing as someone else's child,'' she said in Denver.
Clinton closed her Denver speech by thanking her fellow Methodists for keeping the church's tradition alive.
''For helping to make common cause with others who believe that we are called,'' she said, ''both for personal salvation and also for the work we must do in this world.'' [The Commercial Appeal, 10/20/96]
My active involvement in the First Methodist Church of Park Ridge opened my eyes and heart to the needs of others and helped instill a sense of social responsibility rooted in my faith. [Clinton, Living History (Simon & Schuster, 2003), p.21]
In that [Tufts] speech, Mrs. Clinton also told the audience that it would be “a great disservice to dismiss” the concerns of Americans who were driven to the polls because of their opposition to issues like gay marriage. “People had deeply held feelings,” she said.
“Much of the energy animating the responsible fundamentalist right,” she says, “has come from their sense of life getting away from us -- of meaning being lost and people being turned into kind of amoral decision-makers because there weren't any overriding values that they related to. And I have a lot of sympathy with that.” [Washington Post, 5/6/93]
In another recent appearance in Boston, Mrs. Clinton argued that religious people ought to be permitted to “live out their faith in the public square” ...
I share my husband's belief that “nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones, or requires all religious expression to be left behind at the schoolhouse door,” and that indeed “religion is too important in our history and our heritage for us to keep it out.” [Clinton, It Takes a Village (Simon & Schuster, 1996), p.174]
... and said that she herself had “always been a praying person.” In that [Boston] address, she mentioned God more than a dozen times.
Our spiritual life as a family was spirited and constant. We talked with God, walked with God, ate, studied, and argued God. Each night, we knelt by our beds to pray before we went to sleep. We said grace at dinner, thanking God for all the blessings bestowed. God was always present to us, a much-esteemed, much-addressed member of the family. [It Takes a Village, p.171]