By Fred Jackson

(AgapePress) - A new poll out today indicates Bill Clinton has never been able to regain the trust of the American people following the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The ABC-Washington Post survey indicates 75% of Americans believe he does not have high moral and ethical standards, and almost as many say he is not trustworthy. However, 65% of those polled still believe Clinton did a good job running the country.

As President Clinton prepares to move out of the White House, people are reflecting on what history will say about him. For Christians, the Monica Lewinsky scandal will be remembered as the point that his Presidency lost all credibility. Those were probably the stormiest moments of the Clinton years.

It was the afternoon of August 17, 1998. By now the scandal was full blown. On this day, Bill Clinton would make his historic appearance before the grand jury, in the full glare of television lights and a captivated nation. In the course of questions about his relationship with Lewinsky, Clinton made what would become one of his most quoted comments dealing with the affair -- a comment about the word "is."

"It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is," Clinton said.

Later, when a jury member asked for specifics about the affair with Lewinsky, Clinton continued to split legal hairs about defining the nature of the physical relationship.

"When I was alone with her, there were inappropriate and wrong [actions]," the President testified, "but ... they did not include any activity that was within the definition of sexual relations that I was given by Judge [Susan Weber] Wright [in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit]."

That night, in a nationwide address, Clinton was finally forced to admit he had misled Americans about his relationship with Lewinsky.

"In a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky," he said. "While my answers were legally accurate, I did not volunteer information. Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong."

Effect of Advisors
Shortly after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in 1998, President Clinton started meeting with a group of spiritual advisors: Pastors Tony Campolo and Philip Wogaman and writer Gordon MacDonald. Clinton says he plans to continue meeting with his spiritual advisors after leaving office. But it appears that three years of such meetings have not seen any change in his stand on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Since then, Clinton has still refused to sign legislation banning partial-birth abortions, and he has continued appointing homosexuals to posts in his administration along with pressing for special civil rights for homosexuals.

Clinton is a member of a Southern Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Southern Baptists oppose abortion and special rights for homosexuals, along with hate crimes legislation.

Another Scandal?
Meanwhile, there could be yet another Clinton scandal in the making. This time it involves the taxpayers subsidizing a house for he and his wife, the new junior Senator from New York. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition has leveled charges that the Clintons are getting a new home in the District of Columbia at taxpayer expense.

"Clinton is going to have a house so that when he's in town, he will stay there as the former President," Sheldon says, "but when he's not there, [Hillary] will also get to stay there because supposedly ... they're married."

What makes this deal unusual is the method by which Clinton obtained the house, which Sheldon says was owned by the State Department.

"He got it because it was either for sale or for lease -- that isn't quite clear -- but he got it at probably less than 50% what the average citizen would have had to pay," he says.

Sheldon is still gathering information on the details of the house deal.

© 2001 AgapePress all rights reserved.

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