God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life

by Paul Kengor

Book Overview

For nearly three decades, political observers have sought to understand the complex relationship between Hillary Clinton's faith and her politics. Now, in this first spiritual biography of the former first lady, acclaimed historian Paul Kengor sets out to answer the elusive question: What does Hillary Clinton believe? Based on exhaustive research, God and Hillary Clinton tells the surprising story of Hillary's spiritual evolution, detailing how her lifelong religious beliefs have intertwined with her personal history to make her the politician that she is today. Born into a strict Methodist family and raised on a spiritual diet of private prayer and self-reliance, Hillary, at a young age, used the Methodist Church's emphasis on community service to catalyze her involvement in the changing world. From this unique foundation, Kengor looks at how the chaos of 1960s and 1970s America challenged Hillary's religious underpinnings, as she found herself drifting from her roots. Following her faith through her relationship with an aspiring politician named William Jefferson Clinton, Kengor examines the motivations that eventually led Hillary back to church as first lady of Arkansas and how her revitalized beliefs shaped her time there--from her Bible-study group to her husband's infidelities as governor. Although Hillary endured many hardships in Little Rock, her days in the White House tested her faith like no other time. Sifting through the spiritual impact of Hillary's ill-fated experimentation with New Age mysticism and the disastrous Monica Lewinsky scandal, Kengor investigates how she relied on God for the power to save her marriage and survive the most difficult chapter of her political career. While this spiritual chronology of Clinton's life is important, it does not tell the full story of her belief. Here Kengor fills in the gaps between the facts, analyzing the fraught relationship between her faith and her secular policies--most notably how she reconciles her pro-choice stance on abortion to her Christian beliefs--and scrutinizing how these policies have changed over the course of her political career. What emerges is an unexpected portrait of a political figure whose ideals have been shaped by both the power of her politics and the depth of her faith.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061136921
• ISBN13: 9780061136924
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

From the master of lies comes a new look at what it means to be a Christian

Can Hillary Clinton tell a lie like no other? Hillary Clinton explains how a woman who supports abortion can be a Christian? As rumors of her lesbianism she points out others for being deplorable yet she is Christian? A woman who is responsible for killing the leader in Libia and innocent people in Benghazi? Wow what a fairy tale A true comedy of lies from a woman who would tell any lie to get elected. Does she even know what the word Christian means?

For What Does It Profit a Woman to Gain the Whole World...

Paul Kengor's "God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life" is a fascinating look at the life of the former First Lady from the perspective of her religious beliefs and how these have changed from her childhood, through college and law school, her marriage to Bill Clinton, her time in Arkansas, Bill's presidency, Bill's indiscretions, her senate career, and to the present. Dr. Kengor is charitable in his assessment that Hillary has kept her Christian faith through all of these chapters in her life. One could easily surmise, however, that Hillary has long since traded her Christianity for a secular, Marxist, utopian "golden calf" to which she attaches a flimsy "Christian" label whenever it is politically expedient. In many ways, Hillary has been a victim of her circumstances. She was victimized by her youth minister, Don Jones, who began her indoctrination into Marxist Christianity. She was victimized by her parents' inattentiveness by failing to monitor what Jones was teaching her, and who later allowed her to attend left-wing havens like Wellesley and Yale, which completed her indoctrination. She was victimized by the rise of the counter-culture during her period of intellectual development which kept her from realizing the value of Western civilization and the intellectual vapidity of its detractors. But despite this, she is still ultimately responsible for becoming the secular, power-hungry, political opportunist that she is today. A spiritual biography is an interesting approach on the life of arguably the most prominent politician in the last two decades. Kengor's book paints a tragic life (though I'm sure Hillary herself is completely unaware what a tragedy it is.) It's not the tragedy of the hurts suffered on account of her husband and her critics. The real tragedy is the loss of her soul by the seduction of power.

What Hillary Believes and Why

Let's state this clearly from the beginning. Whether you embrace Hillary Clinton's politics or not, whether you embrace Hillary Clinton's beliefs or not, her beliefs are a critically important issue, for they deeply impact her political convictions. Here's another fact to clarify. The author, Paul Kengor, is not an apologist for Hillary Clinton. He has written similar books on Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. His aim in all three books is to write an accurate spiritual history of these three important political figures. In "God and Hillary Clinton," Kengor excels at revealing to readers the spiritual shaping factors that brought Hillary Clinton to embrace the beliefs and practices she does. If you want insight into who she is, what she believes, who influenced her personally, who she read, and why, then this is the book to read. What's more, Kengor's writing style, his first-hand interviews, and his access to letters and other documents, make this a well-written, creative, captivating history book--no easy task. Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.