God and Hillary Clinton Read Online Free

Christian education. The congregation built a new wing of classrooms to accommodate the burgeoning number of children ushered in by the postwar baby boom, children like Hillary.
    Because of Dorothy’s involvement, the Christian education element of the church became a big part of Hillary’s life. Not only did Hillary attend Sunday school, but she also went to the annual summertime Vacation Bible School, from which she vividly remembers songs like, “Jesus loves the little children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” 21
    Hillary said that her personal experiences in church as a child were “so positive—not only the youth ministry work that I was part of but a really active, vital, outreaching Sunday school experience, lots of activities for children; there was a sense in which the church was our second home.”
    Church was more than simply a place for worship; it was a place for life. They went there to study God and read Scripture lessons, but also to help clean up, to play volleyball, to go to potluck dinners, to be in plays, to participate in Christmas and Easter pageants. “It was just a very big part of my life,” said Hillary. “And that kind of fellowship was real important to me.” 22
    Hillary’s Methodism
    Though the general concept of faith was important to Hillary during her formative years, she found herself drawn to the specific doctrines of Christianity that were taught in the Methodist church. Her views at that time and still today were highly influenced by, as she put it, that “wonderful old saying” of the church’s founder, John Wesley, about doing “all the good you can.” Wesley’s rule, says Hillary, was: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” 23
    To this day, she remains attracted to Methodism’s “emphasis on personal salvation combined with active applied Christianity,” and how the faith serves as a “practical method of trying to live as a Christian in a difficult and challenging world.” 24 Hillary has always been drawn to, in her words, the “approach of a faith…based on ‘Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason,’” which she describes as the guideposts of Methodism. “As a Christian,” she said, “part of my obligation is to take action to alleviate suffering. Explicit recognition of that in the Methodist tradition is one reason I’m comfortable in this church.” 25 She believed that the church at Park Ridge stayed true to that mission; it was a “center for preaching and practicing the social gospel, so important to our Methodist traditions.” 26
    This Park Ridge definition of Christianity’s role in society played a crucial role in establishing in young Hillary’s mind what it meant to be a Christian. The social gospel message of the Methodists resonated with Hillary more than any other religious teaching, and the extent to which Hillary’s personal faith has mirrored that of the Methodist leadership is remarkable—on both issues and attitude. As the twentieth century plowed ahead, influential elements within the Methodist movement pushed the denomination in the direction of not only progressive thought but also socialist leanings in the realm ofeconomics, at times even edging toward utopianism and a belief in human perfectibility.
    But though her adherence to Methodist doctrine as a young woman appeared steadfast, the revolution of the times was beginning to seep into Park Ridge. Changes were encroaching upon the First United community, whether the community was ready or not. These developments would have a profound impact on not just this church, but churches like it across the country, as significant social upheaval tested people’s definitions of faith and