NEW YORK (ABP) — Bill Clinton may have had Ed Young confused with another Southern Baptist pastor or may simply have chosen to remember a 1993 encounter falsely when he spoke to a group of Baptists several weeks ago, according to the Houston pastor.
Young, pastor of Houston's Second Baptist Church, sent a letter to Clinton's foundation disputing the former president's recollection, which he mentioned during the recent Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta. It concerned a meeting between the two that Clinton said involved a morning run and a White House breakfast.
Young, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, said he greatly enjoyed the time with Clinton, former vice president Al Gore and several other pastors. But it simply was nothing like Clinton described in the speech.
“I just think he pulled it out of the fantasy file. I really do,” he said.
In a keynote address Feb. 1, Clinton told the crowd that in 1993, Young, then-president of the SBC, had requested a meeting with Clinton and Gore. After a 40-minute run on the National Mall and breakfast on the White House's Truman Balcony, Clinton said, Young asked him, “Do you believe the Bible is literally true?”
Clinton told the crowd he said, “Reverend Young, I think that it is completely true, but I do not believe that you or I or any other living person is wise enough to understand it completely. He said, ‘that's a political answer,' and I said, ‘No it's not. You asked a political question.'”
Young said he was shocked when one of his aides showed him the transcript from Clinton's speech.
“I was stunned. I said, ‘You're kidding me.' I thought they set me up,” Young said. “The point is, I don't go to the White House every day. That's a big thing for me. [The conversation] didn't happen. So many of the things he said weren't true.”
The former president also told the crowd that the men had “a remarkable breakfast” while they debated several issues. Gore allegedly told Young, “You know I love my Baptist roots, but I have three daughters and a son, and I don't think it's right that only my son can become a minister.” Clinton said Young and Gore then “argued” about the subject of women in ministry.
But Young said Feb. 14 that he never solicited a meeting with Clinton. Rather, he contended, a Clinton aide invited him to Washington.
“For the record, we did not have a meal together,” Young wrote in the Feb. 8 letter, sent to Clinton's New York-based foundation office. “The next morning after our meeting on the Truman Balcony, we did jog the Washington Mall. … Vice President Gore did ask about women in the ministry. Your account of his question was right on target. But there was absolutely no argument. There was nothing to argue about.”
Young said he told Gore and Clinton he opposed women serving in pastoral roles, but respected the autonomy of local Baptist churches to ordain women if they so chose.
Young said the most egregious of Clinton's errors in his speech regarded the question of whether the Bible is literally true.
“I do not believe the Bible is literally, in the normal definition of the word, true,” Young wrote to Clinton. “Jesus said, ‘I am the door.' No one takes that ‘literally.' As you know, sir, in the Bible there are metaphors, parables, hyperbole, poetry, apocalyptic language, etc., and the Bible cannot be understood by anyone who would be foolish enough to think that you can take the Word of God literally. Also, at no time during our visit did I use the pejorative phrase, ‘slick political answer.'”
Representatives from the William J. Clinton Foundation did not respond to requests from an Associated Baptist Press reporter for a response to Young's contentions.
Young, for his part, said the exchange with Clinton has not soured his take on the New Baptist Covenant event, which he had not followed closely prior to its meeting. Several of his conservative Southern Baptist colleagues had decried the historic meeting of several different Baptist groups. They alleged that it was a narrowly-veiled attempt to rally support for a liberal political agenda, even though prominent Baptist Republicans participated.
“I think there is a tendency from all around the whole controversy in Baptist life to take the right wing or the left wing or the moderate wing and try to put [words] into their mouths and interpret what they believe in a pejorative way,” he said. “That is a tendency of all of us.
“My philosophy and theology can be summed up very simply: In essentials unity; in nonessentials diversity; in all things love. In all things there are non-essentials, and that's where the controversy lies.”
As a member of the board of directors of the Greater Houston Partnership, which hosts a presidential debate prior to the Texas primary, Young in his letter invited the former president to meet with him in Texas, should Clinton accompany Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to the debate.
He does not expect to receive a response to the invitation, he said.
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