God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life, by Paul Kengor, published Sept. 18, 2007: on Crime


Bill Clinton: 1980s:Sought pastoral counsel on capital punishment decision

In 1976, when Clinton ran for attorney general, he told conservative Southerners that he advocated capital punishment. When he became governor, in the early 1980s, the lives of certain incarcerated citizens once again lay directly in his hands, but whereas during his first time in office he did not have spiritual guidance, now he had a pastor who could sense that Clinton was troubled.

Clinton asked his Baptist minister, Dr. W. O. Vaught, if it was biblically permissible for him to execute a man, and Vaught told him that the death penalty was not prohibited in the original translation of the Ten Commandments. The final decision would be Clinton’s, noted Vaught, but he “must never worry about whether [the death penalty] is forbidden by the Bible, because it isn’t.”

Source: God and Hillary Clinton, by Paul Kengor, p. 67 Jul 18, 2007

Old Testament: Capital punishment not forbidden in Ten Commandments

In 1976, when Clinton ran for attorney general, he told conservative Southerners that he advocated capital punishment. When he became governor, in the early 1980s, the lives of certain incarcerated citizens once again lay directly in his hands, but whereas during his first time in office he did not have spiritual guidance, now he had a pastor who could sense that Clinton was troubled.

Clinton asked his Baptist minister, Dr. W. O. Vaught, if it was biblically permissible for him to execute a man, and Vaught told him that the death penalty was not prohibited in the original translation of the Ten Commandments. The final decision would be Clinton's, noted Vaught, but he "must never worry about whether [the death penalty] is forbidden by the Bible, because it isn't."

Source: God and Hillary Clinton, by Paul Kengor, p. 67 Jul 18, 2007

  • The above quotations are from God and Hillary Clinton:
    A Spiritual Life    , by Paul Kengor.
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2016 Presidential contenders on Crime:
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Dr.Ben Carson(MD)
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