NEWS SIDEBAR: Text of religious leaders’ statement on impeachment

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Here is the text and list of signers of the statement by an interfaith group of religious leaders saying President Clinton’s”personal transgressions”do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses: We share America’s distress arising out of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. However, we agree with those distinguished members of […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Here is the text and list of signers of the statement by an interfaith group of religious leaders saying President Clinton’s”personal transgressions”do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses:

We share America’s distress arising out of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. However, we agree with those distinguished members of the clergy who have written that the time has come, and in fact is overdue, `to put to rest what has occurred, to do things that will set this matter right and to focus anew on the needs in our own land and threats to stability, justice, and peace in our world.’ Now we must speak of forgiveness and hope _ to help repair the wounds and spiritually heal our nation _ and we must accept our responsibility to help the nation focus on the urgent moral priorities of our time.


Let us be clear: We are deeply disappointed by President Clinton’s behavior and strongly condemn his willingness to mislead the nation. In his personal conduct, he has violated the fundamental moral teachings of our religious traditions. However, our reading of the Constitution’s provisions for impeachment strongly suggests that the personal transgressions here involved are not what the framers had in mind when they spoke of `high crimes and misdemeanors.’ The president has admitted that he sinned, and he is following the path of repentance. As he continues the difficult work of healing himself and his family, the nation must turn to the larger moral imperatives that urgently demand our attention.

While the House Judiciary Committee ponders which of the remaining details of the president’s private failings will be made public, there are failing public schools in our nation, crime and violence in our streets, and escalating human tragedy in Kosovo. While the grand jury continues to sit _ after almost four years and $40 million _ more than 41 million Americans lack health care, including 12 million children. While candidates run election ads that question the president’s morality, the scandal that is our campaign finance system remains entrenched. All these, complicated as they may be, are profound moral issues.

Accordingly, we plead with members of Congress to adhere to a responsible order of priorities. We remind them that politicians are judged not only by personal character, but also by their willingness to do what the Constitution urges:”establish justice”and”promote the general welfare.”We applaud the good sense of the American people, most of whom have indicated that they can separate the idle from the urgent, the frivolous from the fundamental, violations of personal morality from the great moral issues facing our society as a whole.

We are pleased that the president has turned to pastoral counseling in an effort to deal with personal issues that he has until now inadequately addressed. We _ priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams _ prayerfully counsel the Congress of the United States to deal with the many public issues that it has until now inadequately addressed. That is the compelling moral challenge of our day, and neither salacious curiosity nor political partisanship justifies evasion of that challenge.

Signing the text were: Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, head of communion, Diocese of the Armenian Church; the Rev. Ronald Paul Brugler, president, The Swedenborgian Church; the Rev. John Buehrens, president, Unitarian Universalist Association; the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary, National Council of Churches; C. Mackey Daniels, president, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.; James A. Dunn, executive director, Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs; Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; Rabbi Seymour Essrog, president, Rabbinic Assembly; Edith A. Guffey, secretary, United Church of Christ; the Rev. Richard L. Hamm, general minister and president, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ);

Also: Maher Hathout, imam, Islamic Center of Southern California; the Rev. R. Burke Johnson, president, Moravian Church in America; Faroque Khan, spokesman, Islamic Center of Long Island; Ikram Khan, past president, Islamic Society of Nevada; Rabbi Charles Kroloff, vice president, Central Conference of American Rabbis; the Rev. Wallace Ryan Kuroiwa, executive director, Office for Church and Society, United Church of Christ; Rabbi Richard Levy, president, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Bishop Nathaniel Linsey, Second Episcopal District, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; the Rev. Vilma M. Machin, acting associate executive to the president, United Church of Christ; Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president, Rabbinic Assembly; the Rev. Albert Pennybacker, associate general secretary, Public Policy Ministries; Lois M. Powell, executive director, Coordinating Center for Women, United Church of Christ; Rabbi David Saperstein, director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; the Rev. Paul H. Sherry, president and head of communion, United Church of Christ; Muzammil Siddiqui, imam, Islamic Society of Orange County; Willie T. Snead, president, The Swedenborgian Church; the Rev. Zacharias Mar Theophilus, diocesan bishop, The Mar Thoma Church, Diocese of North America and Europe; the Rev. Daniel E. Weiss, general secretary, American Baptist Churches, USA; Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president, Union of American Hebrew Congregations; the Rev. McKinley Young, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ecumenical and Urban Affairs; Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, president, Hebrew Union College _ Jewish Institute of Religion

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