WASHINGTON – So, what’s the state of the church in America today?
Well, consider that the No. 6 devotional book at Amazon is titled “Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
No, it’s not her book. It’s by her longtime pastor, Bill Shillady, who offered an interview line to the Atlantic that has triggered a media splash. It seems Hillary Clinton always wanted to be a pastor.
It’s no joke, but it’s prompting plenty of them on social media.
One wag suggested a name for her to consider: “The Church of Lyintology.”
Actually, according to Shillady, Hillary has serious interest in becoming a preacher in the denomination with which she has long been affiliated – the United Methodist Church.
Just so there is no mistake, the book does not contain any devotionals written by Hillary. Instead, it’s a collection of devotionals written for her by Shillady and a small team of other pastors to provide “spiritual support to stay strong through arguably one of the more contentious elections in American history.”
“Few people know that during the 2016 presidential campaign, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received a devotion every day,” explain the cover notes. The book offers 365 of the more than 600 of those given to her in her yearlong bid to defeat Donald Trump.
“Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton” also includes “personal notes, portions of her speeches and headlines that provide context for that day’s devotion,” not to mention a foreword written by Hillary herself.
“The book’s devotions are organized into 12 themes, such as Forgiveness, Doing Good, Courage, and Women,” the publisher explains. “A portion of the proceeds from the book will go to the United Methodist City Society in New York.”
The cover copy also notes that Clinton told the New York Times in January 2016: “My study of the Bible, my many conversations with people of faith, has led me to believe the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself. And that is what I think we are commanded by Christ to do. And there is so much more in the Bible about taking care of the poor, visiting the prisoners, taking in the stranger, creating opportunities for others to be lifted up, to find faith themselves that I think there are many different ways of exercising your faith.”
Shillady told the Atlantic: “Given her depth of knowledge of the Bible and her experience of caring for people and loving people, she’d make a great pastor.”
He noted, though, that she likely wouldn’t go to seminary or pursue an official position in the Methodist church.
“I think it would be more of … her guest preaching at some point,” he said. “We have a long history of lay preachers in the United Methodist Church.”
Shillady said that since the 2016 election, Clinton’s “faith is stronger.”
“I haven’t noticed anything different, except that I think she is more relaxed than I’ve ever seen her,” he said.
Clinton asked Shillady not to write about her desire to be a pastor, however, because “it will make me seem much too pious,” Clinton told Shillady, according the Atlantic. So much for secrets.
Shillady said Clinton has always been greatly influenced by her faith.
“It’s been there all along,” Shillady said. “The general public didn’t necessarily want to accept the fact that she’s a Christian because there’s so many critics out there about the Clintons.”
The book goes on sale officially Aug. 15.
Other social media chatter included the following comments:
- “Church of Late In the Day Faints #HillaryChurches”
- D’oh!
- Our Lady of Blessed Failure #HillaryChurches
- Church of the Holy Panderer
- House of No Commandments #HillaryChurches
- #HillaryChurches Our Lady of the Benghazi Massacre
- The Donation Station
- Church of the Unwanted Nativity
- The First Everlasting Temple of the Eternal Graft and Hot Sauce Purse Emporium#HillaryChurches
- #HillaryChurches Our Lady of Perpetual Indignation
- Our Lady of No Accomplishments #HillaryChurches
- Our Lady of Perpetual Excuses #HillaryChurches
- Didn’t she also swear she was always a Yankee fan?
- Did she say she always wanted to be a preacher or a screacher?