Judgment Day at the White House: A Critical Declaration Exploring Moral Issues and the Political Use and Abuse of Religion

Politically, the president may survive his time on the cross, Kenneth Woodward writes in Newsweek (November 23, 1998), but many leading religious thinkers still doubt his spiritual sincerity.Seeing the current crisis in the White House as a critical moment in the life of our nation, more than 135 scholars of religion and public life have signed the Declaration concerning Religion, Ethics, and the Crisis in the Clinton Presidency. The Declaration, recently featured in The Wall Street Journal (November 30, 1998), is a statement meant to bring clarity to the moral confusion caused by the presidential scandal.Judgment Day at the White House begins with the Declaration and then follows with essays by signers of the Declaration-Jean Bethke Elshtain, Max Stackhouse, Stanley Hauerwas, Robert Jewett, Don Browning, and others. An opposing section includes essays by Peggy and Donald Shriver, Lewis Smedes, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and others who have chosen not to sign and, indeed, are critical of the Declaration on various counts. The book also reprints essays by three prominent commentators-Stephen Carter, Shelby Steele, and Andrew Sullivan-that parallel the Declaration’s concerns.Providing substantive discussion on the moral issues raised by the Clinton crisis, these essays explore such topics as the manipulation of religion in the debate about presidential responsibility, the social effects of sinful acts, and the exploitation of words like repentance and forgiveness for political advantage.The first solid assessment of the White House crisis from a religious perspective, Judgment Day at the White House offers a bold-and much-needed-statement on public morality.