From the Eye of the Storm: A Pastor to the President Speaks Out [Hardcover]

J. Philip Wogaman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

According to J. Philip Wogaman, the drama being played out in Washington represents a struggle for the nation's soul. On one side is an emphasis on repentance and forgiveness, time-honored themes of the nation's formative religious traditions. On the other side is an emphasis on condemnation and punishment for wrongdoing. The question is, which represents the more appropriate path for the future of the United States? This is the question Wogaman sets out to answer in this fascinating book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While conservative religion scholars have been debating the differences between confession and forgiveness, President Clinton's pastor Wogaman has listened to the president's private confessions and counseled him in matters of faith. Wogaman, like the signers of the "Declaration Concerning Religion, Ethics, and the Crisis in the Clinton Presidency," believes that this moment represents a significant moment in the course of America's moral and religious history. However, Wogaman contends that many politicians and religious leaders have been too quick to judge and condemn Clinton both for his sexual misconduct and for his alleged perjury before a grand jury. He asserts, to the contrary, that the Christian virtues of repentance and forgiveness should be emphasized in the Clinton case. Wogaman focuses on Clinton's speeches on August 17, 1998, and on September 11, 1998, as well as on his own private conversations with Clinton to argue that Clinton has confessed his sin in a contrite way, is seeking actively to repent of his sin and is seeking forgiveness from both his family and his nation. In a stirring chapter, Wogaman applies 1 Corinthians 13, which speaks about the character of love, to this situation and says that this virtue "operates in the service of a harmonious community." Wogaman raises important questions: "Can we adequately assess anybody's moral character if we focus entirely on a small number of personal virtues or flaws of character? How much should be public, and how much should be private? Where do we draw the line?" In the end, Wogaman believes that Clinton has acknowledged his need for healing and that the politicians who would persecute Clinton need to move beyond what he sees as their narrow-mindedness and pettiness to forgiveness and a larger picture of America's future.

Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wogaman, the senior minister of Foundry United Methodist Church and the Clintons' Washington pastor, is an authority on Christian and political ethics. Here he presents a thoughtful commentary on President Clinton's moral dilemma and its implications for American society. Clinton emerged from a special prayer breakfast in September 1998 repentant and deserving forgiveness, asserts Wogaman, who regards the Starr Report as a judgmental, sensational document devoid of compassion. Clinton's popularity remains high, Wogaman maintains, because the public views the president as a man who cares about them, and although Clinton has engaged in immoral activities, he deserves forgiveness and the opportunity to redeem himself through the completion of his term with a Congressional rebuke. Wogaman will probably not change the opinions of Clinton's foes, but he offers a reassuring critique for the president's supporters and for those still uncertain about their feelings. Recommended for public libraries.AKarl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 139 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 1st edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664221408
• ISBN-13: 978-0664221409
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,797,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wogaman fails to make his case, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From the Eye of the Storm: A Pastor to the President Speaks Out (Hardcover)

What I find most troubling about J. Philip Wogaman's book is that he gives one the impression that there is only one truly Christian response to Clinton's actions. He implies that those who do not respond in the way he counsels are acting in an anti-Christian way, that they are the true villains. In effect, Wogaman is politicizing Christianity, using his own pulpit to bully Christians of other political inclinations.

As for Wogaman's suggestion for how the nation should respond to Clinton's actions: He cousels that, because the President's crimes were brought to light by his political enemies and because he is a human being, imperfect like everyone else, he deserves to be treated mercifully and with love by the law. I am reminded by Christ's words in the gospel to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." Caesar, in this case, seems to be the courts, and what Caesar (that is, the courts) demanded in this case is that Paula Jones had a right to ask about sexual matters that would be private under normal circumstances (and this based on a law that Clinton himself signed and approved in September 1994) but could in this case shed light on the charges against him. Clinton, however, took it upon himself to act as his own judge, and determined to conceal the truth that the law demanded of him. In other words, he took it upon himself to determine what was and was not Caesar's. This is precisely the kind of thing Jesus seems to be counseling against in the Gospel.

Of course, Wogaman neatly glosses over facts like these in his attempt to write Clinton a legal pass for his lawlessness. The simple truth that Wogaman demonstrates is: Clinton's defenders, Wogaman included, believe he should get off the hook for lying under oath because they like his politics and dislike his enemies, while other "imperfect men" like Bob Packwood and Clarence Thomas, whose politics they do not like and whose enemies they are fond of, are not deserving of the same soft hand of love and forgiveness.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wogaman's book is a perfect mirror of Clinton's defenders., February 9, 1999

By 

Daniel Kennelly ([e-mail]) (Alexandria, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From the Eye of the Storm: A Pastor to the President Speaks Out (Hardcover)

J. Philip Wogaman's latest book, From the Eye of the Storm, is, as they say in the military, a target-rich environment. That a prominent Protestant ethicist and the pastor of the First Family's own Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., would see fit to remark on the moral or pastoral dimensions of the presidential crisis provokes no qualms. That a pastor would attempt to critique issues of politics, law, and justice prompts some misgivings. That Wogaman would argue for the imposition of his own peculiar theology and pastoral method on these issues, quite simply, invites ridicule.

If we are to trust Wogaman's argument (to use the term liberally), the only authentically Christian rebuke politicians can render against a man who took it upon himself, in the hallowed halls of justice, to define his own meaning of truth is a censure resolution filled with harsh-though not too judgmental!-words about what a bad, bad thing he has done.

Words, as it turns out, mere words, are the only things Clinton's apologists, Wogaman among them, can offer in his defense. Rather than using the language of race, class, or economics to elicit the typical emotional responses on Clinton's behalf, Wogaman's rhetoric takes on a thin, Christian veneer. Take his use of the words "love" and "forgive" and their variations: In his 139-page book, he mentions "love," or some variation of the word, 140 times. References to "forgive" creep up in 75 different passages. This linguistic deluge is rather numbing in effect, like having a blinding light shined in your face for several days straight. Called aggressive marketing by some, this type of persuasion goes under a more fitting name: propaganda. And propaganda of this kind has played no small role in the polarization of the public arena. Rational debate has been forced aside by unrelenting sloganism that has less sophistication than a Coke vs. Pepsi taste test challenge.

Wogaman does present one justification for counseling the nation to reject impeachment, and that justification takes the form of an analogy representing the two paths America can take in response to the crisis:

The most important issue posed by the presidential crisis had become increasingly clear to me: Will we be a society that is grounded in compassion and a generous spirit-as exemplified by the theme of the White House prayer breakfast and the response by the religious leaders? Or will we allow ourselves to be increasingly hard-hearted, as exemplified by the Starr report and the manner of its presentation to the nation?

Wogaman leaves no doubt in which direction he would shepherd us. In situations in which law and love conflict, he says, love must prevail. Just so, but do love and law conflict? In the gospel of Matthew, Christ, who also reminds us that love is supreme, said of law:

Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till Heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. (5:17-18)

Wogaman's call for a spirit of forgiveness and non-judgmentalism is undercut by his own blatant judgmentalism and accusations of "malice." Of Kenneth Starr and supporters of Clinton's removal, the best he can bring himself to say is "a generous spirit is not altogether lacking," while "those who want to follow the path of forgiveness" are not "altogether saintly." More amusing still was his statement regarding his fellow participants on a political talk show: "There was a fair amount of self-righteousness floating in the air, if I can say this in a non-judgmental way." Indeed.

Of course, one could address further hypocrisies, inconsistencies, and absurdities Wogaman thrusts upon the reader on the president's behalf, but to do so would lend a credence to his tract that it does not deserve.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The politicization of Christianity, March 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From the Eye of the Storm: A Pastor to the President Speaks Out (Hardcover)

The thing I find most offensive about Wogaman's opinions as they are conveyed in this book is that they represent the further politicization of Christianity. On the flimsiest of grounds, Wogaman invokes the name of Christ himself, attaches that name to his own political opinions, and then presumes to imply that others are not Christian for refusing to accept his political opinions. Of course, as a Christian, one should forgive the president his crimes of obstructing justice and perjury. As an individual, I do so and encourage everyone to do so. However, as a society, punishment must be meted out to those who contradict its laws. This punishment is not delivered by private citizens, though, but by the state for the protection of the rules of an ordered society. In other words, forgiveness is for the private, interpersonal realm, and punishment for the public realm. This is Wogaman's primary failure: to distinguish between the public and the private. And of course, this failure shines through in his--quite frankly--inappropriate remarks about the president's marital infidelity. These concerns are between him, his wife, and his child, and are no one else's concerns, yet Wogaman feels the need to talk about them in a public forum in this book.