Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310260245
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY OTTO KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Let his days be few and let another take his office."
Hammock, pastor of Providence Village Baptist Church in Lake Butler, Fla., is galled that President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, fellow Southern Baptists, support abortion and homosexual rights.
He hoped Southern Baptists would cast out Clinton and Gore.
Instead, the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, have decided to pray that the president and vice president become stronger in their faith.
Starting Jan. 1, Southern Baptists will pray for 40 days for Clinton and Gore, guided by a "Pray for the President" booklet that suggests a scriptural reading for each day and urges the faithful to identify a daily "news event or topic that is a prayer concern."
Copies of the pamphlet are to go out Nov. 8 to the nation's 40,000 Southern Baptist pastors. Letters from church leaders will invite them and 15 million Southern Baptists to join the observance.
"We as Southern Baptists consider [Clinton and Gore] our own. They belong to us. There's a need to support them in prayer," said Michael Day, who developed the plan.
Although Day denies that the prayers have a political purpose, he allows, "Some will take it on a different level. They want minds to be changed."
Bob E. Patterson, a professor of religion at Baylor University, the world's largest Baptist school, believes many will have a politicalagenda when they pray for the president.
"They are going to pray for him to be anti-abortion and put a cork in Hillary's mouth," Patterson said.
The simple words of the prayers are open to many interpretations. On Day 1, the faithful will ask that Clinton be given wisdom and that Gore might be a "model of Christian leadership." On Day 36, they pray that Clinton might resist temptation and that Gore be given self-control. On Day 39, the prayer is to make Clinton "strong in the face of opposition" and to strengthen Gore in "love of truth."
The booklet was given to Clinton by the Rev. H. Edwin Young, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, in a meeting that came after months of strained relations.
In running for election, Clinton and Gore did not enjoy the support of many Baptist conservatives. Relations seemed to get worse when leaders of the Southern Baptist convention were left out of religious meetings with the president.
Rapport seemed to improve when a few of them got their own meeting with Clinton in September. While the main disagreements remained clear, Young, pastor of Houston's Second Baptist Church, left with hopeful words.
"There is a heart there, a spiritual cross-pull in the life of our president," Young told the Baptist Press. "Who knows what the Lord will do?"
The denomination has traditionally prided itself on independence from church hierarchies and state involvement. Conservatives in the past decade, however, have led Southern Baptists to be more outwardly political.
The annual convention in June urged Clinton and Gore "to stand for Biblical morality" by reversing their views on homosexuality and abortion.
The Rev. James M. Dunn, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, a cooperative of Baptist groups, thinks praying to change the president's mind would be a mistake.
"I think that flunks the test as prayer," he says. "My personal experience doesn't include lobbying God as part of prayer."
by CNB