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President [and] Religious Leaders
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Melanne Verveer's Subject Files
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Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. memo
Linda Lader to the President [partial] (1 page)
08/30/1993
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Melanne Verveer
OA/Box Number: 20049
FOLDER TITLE:
President [and] Religious Leaders
2013-0534-S
rc1629
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
b(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
P3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
b(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
b(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
b(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
President (
Religious Leaders
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
Congres'l 'l
Withdrawal/Redaction Marker
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. memo
Linda Lader to the President [partial] (1 page)
08/30/1993
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Melanne Verveer
OA/Box Number: 20049
FOLDER TITLE:
President [and] Religious Leaders
2013-0534-S
rc1629
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
b(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
P3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
b(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
b(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
b(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
LINDA LESOURD LADER
TO:
The President
DATE:
August 30, 1993
It was a home run! Great speech. And surely you get credited with the save as well. It was fun to
watch Hillary's face as you spoke; she looked radiant and very proud of you.
Now, where we go from here. Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I'm meeting with Alexis, Melanne, and Mike
Lux to discuss how we move forward. My current understanding is that you want to:
(1)
Schedule a breakfast for 12 evangelicals (open-minded opinion-makers, not extreme right wing)
ASAP. (October?) I'll run my list of suggested names by you.
(b)(6)
[001]
(b)(6)
Other similar breakfasts would follow, but with more diverse representation.
(2)
Schedule the meeting with Rex Horne and the Baptist leaders. Unless scheduled this week or
next, it will not take place before their Executive Committee Meeting. (Rex and I have been
trying to get this on your schedule since June.) I am pleased that today Rex seemed to smooth
things over with James Dunn, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee. (Mike and
Melanne apparently value his counsel, and Dunn has been apprehensive about this meeting taking
place.)
Other ideas:
(3)
To continue the momentum, I suggest sending a letter to all who attended or regretted today.
It could direct feed-back to a designated person (perhaps Mike Lux) and enclose a copy of your
breakfast remarks. (I assume the transcript would be reviewed and edited first.) I think it is
important to follow-up right away for credibility. I am also concerned that the people in the
room today got the impression that each of them would be invited back again.
(4)
Schedule a larger all-day seminar, perhaps sponsored by another group or a coalition of groups,
with a cross-section of people similar to today, to discuss issues you addressed, e.g., "Beyond
the Culture Wars: Living with our Deepest Differences," "Keeping Unity in Diversity,"
"Challenges in Taking Private Faith Public." You (and Hillary?) could address the group and/or
be briefed by a delegation.
(5)
(b)(6)
(6)
Meet with editors and writers from Christian/religious publications.
(7)
Attend the Senate and House Prayer Breakfast groups.
I am happy to work with the staff in implementing any of the above or whatever else you might suggest.
After we meet Tuesday, I'll make sure you are briefed with a decision memo. Again, I apologize for
the confusion and problems today, and I will endeavor to stay in the loop better going forward.
pls file relegious
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
August 30, 1993
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY DURING WHITE HOUSE INTERFAITH BREAKFAST
The State Dining Room
10:03 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. I want
to, once again, as the First Lady did, welcome all of you to the
White House on behalf of Vice President and Mrs. Gore, and Hillary
and myself -- we're delighted to have you all here.
We wanted to make this new beginning, by beginning with
a group of religious leaders from all faiths and parts of our country
to come here today as we rededicate ourselves to the purposes for
which we're called here.
I wanted to make just a couple of brief remarks. We've
had an immensely interesting conversation at our table about some of
the things which are dividing Americans of faith, as well as those
which are uniting them.
I would say to you that I am often troubled as I try
hard here to create a new sense of common purpose. All during the
election I would go across the country and say that we're all in this
together unless we can find strength in our diversity: our diversity
of race, our diversity of income, our diversity of region, our
diversity of religious conviction; we cannot possible meet the
challenges before us.
That does not mean, in my view, that we have to minimize
our diversity, pretend that we don't have deep convictions, or run
away from our honest disagreements. It means that we must find a way
to talk with respect with one another about those things with which
we disagree and to find that emotional, as well as the intellectual
freedom to work together when we can.
A couple of days ago, when I was on vacation -- let me
say, the most important religious comment made to me this morning was
that several of you gave me dispensation for my vacation. (Laughter.)
You said I did not need to feel any guilt for taking a little time
off, so I appreciate that. (Laughter.)
But I bought a book on vacation called "The Culture of
Disbelief" by Steven Carter, a professor at our old alma mater,
Hillary's and mine, at the law school. He is, himself, a committed
Christian very dedicated to the religious freedoms of all people of
faith -- of any faith in the United States. And the subtitle of the
book is: "How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious
Devotion." And I would urge you all to read it, from whatever
political as well as religious spectrum you have because at least it
lays a lot of these issues out that I am trying to grapple with.
Sometimes I think the environment in which we operate is
entirely too secular. That fact that we have freedom of religion
doesn't mean we need to try to have freedom from religion. It
doesn't mean that those of us who have faith shouldn't frankly admit
that we are animated by that faith, that we try to live by it -- and
that it does affect what we feel, what we think, and what we do.
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On the other hand, it is very important that, as
Americans, we approach this whole area with a certain amount of
humility. That we be careful when we say that because we seek to
know and do God's will, God is on our side and, therefore, against
our opponent. That is important for two reasons: one is, we might
be wrong. (Laughter.) After all, we're only human. (Laughter.)
The other is that the thing that has kept us together over time is
that our Constitution and Bill of Rights gives us all the elbow room
to seek to do God's will in our own life and that of our families and
our communities. And that means that there will be inevitable
conflicts, so that there will never be a time when everything that we
think is wrong can also be illegal. There will always be some space
there because there will have to be some room for Americans of good
faith to disagree.
I think we need to find areas where we can agree and
work together on the restoration of religious freedoms acts is a very
important issue to me, personally. And this administration is
committed to seeing it through successfully. (Applause.) And I
think virtually every person of faith in this country without regard
to their party or philosophy or convictions on other issues agrees
with that; so we are hopeful that that will happen. But there must
be other areas in which we can meet together and talk together and
work together and, frankly, acknowledge our agreements and our
disagreements.
If people of faith treat issues about which they
disagree as nothing more than a cause for a screaming match, then we
also trivialize religion in our country. (Applause.) And we
undermine the ability to approach one another with respect and trust
and faith. And I say that not just to those who disagree with me on
some of the particularly contentious issues, but also to those who
agree with me. Every person in this country who seeks to know and do
the will of his or her creator is entitled to respect for that
effort. That is a difficult job. Difficult to know, even harder to
do. That is hard work.
But people that have that level of depth, that aren't
totally carried away by the secular concerns of the moment must, it
seems to me, find a way to talk and work with one another if we're
ever going to push the common good. We can't pass a health care
program without a conviction that this is in the common interest,
that over the long run we will all win. If this becomes some battle
where I'm trying to slay some dragon of special interest and that's
all it is, we'll never get where we want to go. The American people
have to open their hearts as well as their minds and figure out --
this is this horrible problem, we have to solve it. But we have to
solve it in a way that enables us to be united together.
We can't work our way through a lot of these economic
problems unless we frankly admit that we're moving into a new age
where no one has all the answers. We may have to modify all of us
-- our specific policy positions. But our goal should be to enable
every person who lives in this country to live up to his or her God-
given potential. And if we look at it that way, and frankly admit
we're in a new and different era, then we can go forward.
We can't possibly do anything for anybody in this
country unless they're willing to also do something for themselves.
There has to be a new ethic of personal and family and community
responsibility in this country that should unite people across the
lines of different faiths and even different political philosophies.
And the people of faith in this country ought to be able to say that,
so that if you say that you've got to have that sort of
revitalization at the grass roots, person by person, that the
Democrats can feel comfortable with saying that. No one says "Oh,
you're just being a right-winger." It's just simply true. It is
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- 3 -
self-evidently true; you cannot change somebody's life from the
outside in unless there is also some change from the inside out.
So these are the kinds of things that I've had a lot of
time to think about over the last few days. And I have felt in the
last several months during my presidency that we oftentimes get so
caught up in the battle of the moment, the heat of the moment -- how
are you going to answer this charge, and make that change, or deal
with this difficulty -- that sometimes we forget that we are all in
this because we are seeking a good that helps all Americans. There
must be some sense of common purpose and common strength and,
ultimately, an end which helps us all, that revels in the fact that
there are people who honestly disagree about the most fundamental
issues, but can still approach one another with real respect --
without assuming that if you disagree on issue X or Y, you've jumped
off the moral and political cliff and deserve to be banished to some
faraway place.
So I wanted to have you here today because I wanted you
to hear this direct from your President: I wanted to ask you to
continue to pray for me and for our administration, and I wanted to
invite you to be part of an ongoing dialogue, which we will come
back to all of you later on -- talk about how we can continue to
involve people who care about their citizenship as well as about
their relationship to their God and how we can work through these
things.
There are no easy answers to this. The Founding Fathers
understood that; that's why they wanted us to have the First
Amendment. There are no simple solutions. But I am convinced that
we are in a period of historic significance, profound change here in
this country and throughout the world, and that no one is wise enough
to see to the end of all of it, that we have to be guided by a few
basic principles and an absolute conviction that we can recreate a
common good in America.
But it's hard for me to take a totally secular approach
to the fact that there are cities in this country where the average
murderer is now under the age of 16. Now, there may not be a
religious answer to the policy question of whether it's a good thing
that all these kids can get their hands on semi-automatic weapons.
But there certainly is something that is far more than secular about
what is happening to a country where we are losing millions of our
young people and where they shoot each other with abandon, and now
often shoot total strangers for kicks -- shoot at them when they are
swimming in the swimming pool in the summertime.
So I believe that we have enormous possibilities. I
think we have enormous problems. There will always be some areas of
profound disagreement. What I would ask you today to do is to, as I
said, to pray for us as we go forward, to be willing to engage in
this dialogue, to reach out to others who may disagree with us on
particular issues and bring them into the family of America, and to
give us a chance to find common ground so that we can build a common
good and do what all of us in our own way are required to do. For I
believe that each of us has a ministry in some way that we must play
out in life -- and with a certain humility, but also with deep
determination.
So I thank you for being here. This has been a
wonderful morning for me and for all of us. And I ask you to think
about these things and to be willing to continue to engage in this
dialogue. We have a lot of work to do to lift this country up and to
pull this country together and to push this country into the 21st
century, and we have serious responsibilities beyond our borders.
Every day there is some good news in the press about that. Some of
you have been talking about the Middle East -- how many times have we
thought we had good news and been disappointed? But better than the
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bad. And every day there is some frustration. So we have to go
forward with a much deeper sense of shared values and togetherness
toward the common good than we've had so far. That is what I seek to
do and what I ask for your prayers and guidance and support and
involvement -- active involvement -- to achieve.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END
10:15 A.M. EDT