Clinton gets warm Baptist welcome
Posted March 28, 2007
Former president Bill Clinton has been pounded like a pinata by leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, but he received a hero's welcome last night at Ouachita (pronounced Wah-shi-taw) Baptist University in Arkadelphia -- less than an hour from Hope, Ark. (where he was born) and Hot Springs (where he grew up.)
Clinton flew through the night, traveling from South America to central Arkansas, so that he could speak at the private liberal arts college. The school's new president, Dr. Rex Horne, was Clinton's pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock.
"I love Rex Horne and Becky and the children," Clinton told the crowds. "He was a good and faithful minister to me in good times and in bad and I was elated when he was chosen to lead Ouachita."
Horne and Ouachita had been criticized by some Baptists for inviting the former leader of the free world to visit campus.
Horne said Ouachita would welcome any president to campus, noting that "the Bible says we're to respect and we're to pray for" the nation's leaders.
[Question for readers: Could you imagine a Catholic university president having to justify bringing John F. Kennedy to campus or Brigham Young University having to defend an invitation to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney? Has there ever been a Southern Baptist president who was warmly embraced by the Southern Baptist Convention?]
About 1,800 people attended the speech, listening attentively as the 42d U.S. president outlined a number of perils facing the 21st century world. Among them: global warming, increasingly scarce fuel, the threat of terrorism and pandemics.
After an hour-long speech, Clinton answered students questions, then stuck around for about a half-hour shaking hands and signing autographs. I've seen Clinton speak probably 10 times over the years and that's one thing that's always struck me. He doesn't shake the five hands closest to the exit and then sprint to his limousine. He genuinely enjoys being with people and routinely hangs around after events, posing for pictures, visiting, joking, sharing his time with people -- regardless of their age, race, education or income levels.
One other thing -- the president has never forgotten his roots. He comes back to Arkansas once a month to see friends and family. On this trip, he stopped by to see one of Ouachita's most noted alums -- former Whitewater figure Susan McDougal.
Comments
That's an interesting point: there have been three Southern Baptists elected President: Truman, Carter, Clinton. All have been Democrats, and all have been looked at scornfully by the SBC. I read a story somewhere (it may be apocryphal) in some article that the SBC once passed a resolution when Truman was President condemning "use of profanity by a President in the Oval Office".....at the Convention in Kansas City where then Ex-President Truman was supposed to make an appearance: and he did, to loudly vote "Hell No" on the resolution....
In answer to the question Frank posed, to the best of my recollection no Southern Baptist-affiliated United States president has ever really been warmly embraced by the Southern Baptist Convention. Jimmy Carter was, very briefly right before the Christian Right decided that Reagan was their man, and the only Southern Baptist president I can think of before Carter was Harry Truman. Now, besides being "soft on communism" (McCarthy HAD to be right, don't'y'know), Truman was guilty of the unforgivable sin of insisting that civil rights be included as a plank in the 1948 Democratic Party platform--and then campaigning on it. But time tells the tale, and I think that eventually Bill Clinton's contributions to the United States as President will be recognized as fully as Truman's are--even if Clinton didn't have any more sense when it comes to women, than King David did.
Was Truman actually a baptist? I have never read of his having much of any interest in organized religion.
He may have been nominally a baptist, but he certainly didn't wear being a baptist on his sleeve the way Carter did.
Clinton downplayed it, and tried to use it for political purposes.
Carter was the real thing, though. When he was elected president, he was widely perceived, at least by the southern baptists I knew, which were many, as being a faithful and orthodox baptist as that faith understood itself at the time.
It was only later, when the southern baptists took their righward swing that he was perceived as being more liberal than they were. Even though Carter is perceived as a liberal by many today, in his day he was considered a centrist, or even a conservative democrat, in the day when there really were conservative democrats (and liberal republicans).
Although Lyndon Johnson was a Texan and Harry Truman a Missourian, Carter was the first "real" southernor, that is, the first deep south president, and his wide acceptance nationwide paved the way for a Bill Clinton or John Edwards today.
Truman was a Southern Baptist....politicians of his day just played things a little closer to the vest. Here's a link (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-94161025.html)
He didn't talk about it as often as Carter, but did Teddy Roosevelt talk about being Dutch Reformed? FDR of being Episcopalian? Warren Harding of being American Baptist? William McKinley of bein Methodist?
The only major candidate to bring his faith into the campaign before Kennedy had to defend himself of the notion that he'd take orders from Rome was William Jennings Bryan.
Caleb, Truman was a Baptist, but he used to remark that when the praying got the loudest in the "Amen" corner you knew that it was time to go home and lock your smokehouse. For some reason he doubted both the sincerity and the intellect of Billy Graham too...
This is great. I hate to admit it, but I like Bill Clinton a lot, Monica, Whitewater, and all. He's a brilliant politician, and he's a southern good ole boy who has become the most popular politician in the world today. If he weren't precluded by the constitution, he'd still be president.
One of my friends fully believes that Bro. Bill and Daddy Bush have joined forces to try to save the world from Baby Bush. He relies in part on an interview he saw with Mama Bush in which she was asked what it had been like travelling around so much with Bro. Bill, who, after all, defeated her husband in an election.
She glowed with pride, and said "Bill Clinton has become like another son to me." If he can win Barbara Bush, he can win over anyone.
I can only imagine how much fun it has been for Daddy Bush (not known for his charisma) to "feel the love" when he appears with Bill somewhere.
I love politics.
I also love southern humor, and the name Ouachita (Is this the same name as the old "Arkansas" sharpening stones I used to use? Everyone uses ceramic sharpeners now, myself included.) reminded me of a hilarious story that Rev. Grady Nutt used to tell on Hee Haw about trying to place a phone call from Europe to his girlfriend at Ouachita College and being asked by the operator "Is that spelled like it sounds?"
And it went downhill from there.