Hillary's Spiritual Formation (book excerpt)

Christianity (Astray) Today ^ | 12/11/07 | Paul Kengor

[Terriergal]

For much of Hillary's youth, [her father] Hugh was the only male influence on her life that had any real bearing. Her views, her political ideas, her religion—all this was filtered through Hugh, as he helped shape her sense of the world and her sense of self. But all that changed dramatically when she was thirteen, and the Reverend Don Jones, a Methodist minister, entered her life.

She began dropping by Jones's office after school or during summer afternoons, eager to talk about ideas or insights she culled from the youth minister and his sermons. According to Roger Morris, biographer of the Clintons, Jones had her read Tillich, Niebuhr, Soren Kierkegaard, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and they had lengthy, increasingly serious discussions. "She was curious," says Jones. "She was just insatiable."

Jones took from Hillary's study of his good works, adding this important insight: "She is very much the sort of Christian who understands that the use of power to achieve social good is legitimate."

[Terriergal]

but by men?

[pjsbro]

In January 1963, Hillary Rodham went with her youth minister into Chicago to hear a southern black minister who was seen as a dangerous "rabble-rouser" by the middle-class white society of Park Ridge: Martin Luther King Jr.

Hillary was 15. The minister, Don Jones, did not ask permission from the parents of the 20 children he shepherded, and Hillary probably did not dare ask her father, who surely would have seen such a trip as going over the wall. "I wanted them to become aware of the social revolution that was taking place," says Jones. "Here was the major leader of that movement, a Protestant preacher, coming to town. It was an opportunity for them to meet a great person."

From the book Hillary's Choice by Gail Sheehy. Copyright 1999 by G. Merritt Corporation. Reprinted with permission of Random House Inc.

Quite a guy, this fellow Jones. More stuff about Jones.

[Terriergal]

Social good is like pudding; you have to be outside the bowl to see it.

Uh... That one is going right over my head.

[Terriergal]

Ya think???!

:-)

[Terriergal]

I just escaped a denomination that teaches ‘spiritual formation.’

[MHGinTN]

I wonder what kind of ‘pastor’ considers defending partial birth infanticide as ‘social good’? God have mercy upon us ...

[Terriergal]

Well, it is not impossible, I am personally acquainted with one thirteen year old MAN who looks at first glance to be at least eighteen and acts more mature than most 30 year olds I know.

yes... does he remind you of Hillary Clinton in any way>?

[Terriergal]

Well, it is not impossible, I am personally acquainted with one thirteen year old MAN who looks at first glance to be at least eighteen and acts more mature than most 30 year olds I know.

I'm personally married to one who was like that, too... but he ain't no liberal.

[A CA Guy]

As a minister, maybe one of the “Ten Commandments” should have taken greater hold in guiding her political career.

THOU SHALL NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S GOODS

Seems when she talks about taking things from us for the common good that she looked over that pesky little Commandment of God’s. :-)

[ARridgerunner]

fya

[Terriergal]

You forgot Jim Wallis

[Trailerpark Badass]

Reading Kierkegaard at 13?

Uh huh.

[Terriergal]

Oh no she’s not coveting them for herself, it’s for the children!!

[Terriergal]

She’s smart remember... ;-)

[Terriergal]

Or shall I say “she’s smarter than the rest of us peons, remember?” ;-)

[A CA Guy]

If it’s for the Children, then she had better steer clear of that other one of the pesky Ten Commandments.

Thou Shall NOT Have Strange God’s Before ME!

She’s is helping push moral relativism, humanism and the religion of environmentalism through social engineering in public schools...for the children.

[MinuteGal]

Has her holiness begun carrying a 10-pound Bible under her arm at campaign stops yet?

Leni

[RipSawyer]

yes... does he remind you of Hillary Clinton in any way>?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No, he reminds me of a rare creature, a totally sincere preacher, which he probably will be in a few years.

[RipSawyer]

but he ain’t no liberal.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The fellow I know ain’t no liberal, either.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"Give to the state what is the states, but give willingly"

If my memory is working, it is: "Why do you trouble me with such things? Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's; Render unto the Lord that which is his."