c. 1998 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Each weekday, thousands of people call Laura Schlessinger hoping to be chosen to pour their heart out on national radio and have”Dr. Laura,”as her fans call her, offer them a blunt prescription that is part common sense, part shock therapy.

Never at a loss for words and rarely accused of being subtle, Schlessinger, a licensed marriage and family counselor, is wont to jar her callers by responding to their troubles with the likes of:”Are you crazy? Could you have been any more stupid?” So if a guy named Bill with a big title and even bigger problems were to give her a call, she’d know exactly what to say:”You’ve made a mess of your life and a mess of the country. Get out now.” Actually, President Clinton need not call. She’s offering that advice on her own.

Schlessinger doesn’t like to talk about politics. Instead, she prefers to talk about morality, a subject she finds grossly undervalued in the culture.

But since her new book on the Ten Commandments has come out at a time when, in Schlessinger’s view, Clinton has broken a fair number of them, she’s more than willing to offer her opinions on the subject.”The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life”(HarperCollins), is Schlessinger’s fourth book and was co-written with Stewart Vogel, a California rabbi.

Using the Hebrew Bible’s numbering of the commandments, Schlessinger said,”He probably started out by breaking the 10th one _ `Thou shalt not covet ‘_ needing more power or whatever he needed from a 21-year-old …Then he moved on to the seventh _ adultery _ and the ninth, when he lied.” What really ticks her off is her belief Clinton also dissed the third commandment _ what many call the”swearing commandment;”the one about taking God’s name in vain.

Schlessinger believes that commandment is violated any time we shame our God, especially when we have a position of authority.

So by bringing disrespect to his office, Clinton”took God’s name in vain,”toppling yet another commandment. Number four and counting.

Not that any of this mess surprises the Los Angeles-based Schlessinger.”People sin because it’s fun. It feels good. It’s instant gratification. Let’s be honest,”she said during a recent stop in New York, gesturing with all the drama of a preacher.

But Schlessinger is no minister and she thinks little of the majority of those who use the title.”They’ve become a bunch of camp counselors instead of moral leaders,”she declared.”They follow instead of leading. They are pop psychologists who tell people it is all right to do whatever they feel like doing.” In other words, they have abdicated their moral authority, said Schlessinger, who views her top-rated radio show as one way to stem the moral decline she feels permeates contemporary culture.

With millions of people tuning in daily in the U.S., she must be on to something. She’s the stern mother most of us never had _ and many are happy they didn’t _ who will tell you exactly when she thinks you’re making a fool of yourself.

For the many people who follow her guidance, Schlessinger is a godsend. They call back to report they are straightening out, following through on commitments, cleaning up their act. And they thank her for being there when no one else told them what they needed to hear.

And she is an unabashed defender of the type of conservative values commonly heard in evangelical churches.

Yet Schlessinger herself is Jewish, a late-in-life convert who embraced her father’s heritage with fervor after she and her son watched a television show on the Holocaust. She first converted to Conservative Judaism, but later _ taking her Episcopalian husband along with her _ she became an Orthodox Jew.”It’s not easy,”she said about her faith, referring to both observing Jewish law and the quest to move closer to God.”But I’d rather put up with a few things now than deal with God later.” Before she was actively involved in her faith she said she felt”aimless.””Life had no context,”she said.”I was caught up in being good at doing things, but I didn’t really know why.” Now she says her life has purpose, although she admits some days are better than others and talks with awe about friends who seem to have the ability to communicate with God is a way that is personal.”It’s a journey,”she said, sounding surprisingly New Age for someone who criticizes it as a vague, egotistical movement.

She encourages everyone to embrace faith _ any faith _ and jokes that she has sent more people to the Roman Catholic Church than the pope.

And as far as Monica Lewinsky is concerned, Schlessinger thinks she should embrace her own Jewish roots, start following the Ten Commandments and get an honest job.”She is a product of her choices,”Schlessinger said with no discernible sympathy.

Although Schlessinger believes in repentance and forgiveness, she doesn’t think it comes easy.”We live in a society in which people think that feeling remorse is sufficient,”she writes in her new book.”To seek repentance from God, we must be able to offer God and each other a sincere apology and a promise not to repeat the offense.” Schlessinger sees the Ten Commandments not so much as rules to spoil our fun, but as guidelines for building better relationships among people and between the individual and God.”God created us and he knows what is best for us,”she said.

It is no surprise that Schlessinger has her critics, folks who wonder who appointed her the cosmic hall monitor.

A recent profile in Vanity Fair pointed out her own moral lapses; colleagues labeled her a back-stabbing hypocrite, which she denied being. The magazine quoted so-called friends who seemed to be searching for something decent to say.

Schlessinger doesn’t pretend to be perfect and knows her advice is part entertainment and part therapy. But she also believes her radio show is one way of balancing a world that she sees as tipping dangerously away from God’s truth.

And for those who would rather just enjoy themselves, Schlessinger offers one last piece of advice:”Even if they never get caught, they will have to deal with God.”

DEA END BOURKE