WASHINGTON (ABP) — Former President Bill Clinton cautioned both Democrats and Republicans on their use — or lack thereof — of religious language in a television appearance June 1.
Appearing on CNN's popular “Larry King Live” program, Clinton told conservatives that identifying evangelical Christianity too closely with one party's political agenda could backfire on them. Likewise, he told liberals they shouldn't let fears about breaching the separation of church and state force them to cede moral and religious language to conservatives.
In a response to King's inquiry about whether the “religious conservative movement in America and their power” worried him, Clinton said religious conservatives are the ones who should be worried.
“I think whenever religious people try to exercise political power in God's name, and to say that they have the whole truth and they can impose it…that's always hazardous,” he said, according to a transcript of the broadcast. “Our country has become the most religious big country on Earth, with more different faiths flourishing and more regular observance [of religious practice] because we haven't had a state religion. And we haven't had politics as religion. And we haven't had politicians claiming to be in possession of the whole truth. So I think they should worry about it.”
Nonetheless, Clinton also admonished liberals and centrists. “I think you know, we Democrats, because we believe in the separation of church and state, have become sometimes too secular in our language, too uncomfortable with the language of faith, too uncomfortable with the honest discussions of the moral dilemmas that a lot of religious people feel,” he said. “And so we have ceded the ground of too many voters to the religious right.”
Clinton continued, “But that's our fault. We should engage in this debate. We should involve them. And we should share our feelings about what our values are. But I don't think that the American government or the government of any great country should become the exclusive province of a particular religious movement. And in the end, it's bad for the religious movement.”