c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Clinton, in a preview of what is expected to be a major theme of his second term, Monday (Jan. 6) urged a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to work toward reconciliation in a country filled with”scores”of racial, ethnic and religious groups.”How can we prove in America that we can all get along, not without giving up our basic beliefs, but in finding a ground of mutual respect?”Clinton asked at an Epiphany Day interfaith breakfast at the White House.”It seems to me that that may be the single-most significant decision facing the United States.” About 100 religious leaders joined top administration officials in the State Dining Room for berries, cheddar scrambled eggs, and pastries, as well as talk touching on immigration, welfare reform and reconciliation.

Those in attendance ranged from Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., author Rabbi Harold Kushner, and Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, leader of the largest organization of African-American Muslims to several pastors of burned Southern churches, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, and leaders of religious organizations such as the National Council of Churches and the National Association of Evangelicals.

The breakfast is usually an annual event that occurs shortly after Labor Day, but was delayed in 1996 because of White House concerns that it would appear Clinton was seeking to exploit the religious leaders in his re-election bid.

Clinton’s remarks were welcomed by several of the religious leaders as an example of appropriate church-state relations.

Mohammed, who attended the breakfast for the first time, said he was impressed with Clinton’s call for religious leaders to take on the task of reconciliation.”I feel it is our sacred duty to work toward reconciliation,”he said.

Clinton, who gave a 15-minute address, made a point of mentioning that Monday’s breakfast was held on Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas, traditionally commemorated by Christians as the day when the three wise men came bearing gifts to the baby Jesus.”I asked you to come here to share with me your thoughts and to share with you some of ours in the hope that we might all become wiser,”Clinton said.

Clinton brought up the issue of welfare reform, an issue that has divided the religious community and pitted many of the nation’s top religious leaders against the administration.”Some of you think I made a mistake when I signed the welfare reform bill and I don’t,”the president said.”My objective here is, once and for all, to take the politics out of poverty and to treat all able-bodied people the same at the community level.” Clinton said churches and church members can help people who are currently on welfare move into the work force by becoming their employers.”If every church in America just hired one family, the welfare problem would go way down,”he said.”If every church in America challenged every member of that church who had 25 or more employees to hire another family, the problem would go away.” But Bishop Vinton R. Anderson, leader of the Washington, D.C.-based Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said in response to Clinton’s remarks that many black churches are concerned that they do not have the infrastructure to deal with welfare reform.”Many congregations are not able to even perceive of”employing current welfare recipients, Anderson said. Nevertheless, he said he appreciated Clinton’s detailing specific responses that some houses of worship could make to the new law.

The Rev. Leonard Hofman, chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals, said he appreciated Clinton’s suggestion that churches go beyond charitable work to actual employment.”That was not just for political expediency,”he said.”That was something from his heart.” Deborah Lipstadt, director of the graduate program in Jewish studies at Emory University in Atlanta, said she liked Clinton’s remarks in support of legal immigrants and his call for others to hold up the example of the nation’s diversity.”Every time there’s an attack on immigrants, I have to say, `Excuse me, I’m a child of immigration,'”said Lipstadt, the daughter of a German immigrant who would have been caught up in the Holocaust had emigration to the United States been denied.

Although the breakfast mixed the political and the spiritual, one religious leader walked away from the White House admiring what he considered to be the president’s personal example of reconciliation.

Gerald Mann, pastor of Riverbend Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, noted that Clinton”absolutely refused to comment on the (House of Representatives) speaker’s problems.”Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., one of Clinton’s most vocal critics in Congress, has admitted to ethical violations that threaten his speakership.”Here he (Clinton) was being maligned and attacked so long … and he chooses not to hit back because he says one of the priorities in his administration is to bring people together,”said Mann.

MJP END BANKS