Old Testament in God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life, by Paul Kengor, published Sept. 18, 2007

On Abortion: Biblical "personhood" defines life starting at birth

Vaught was one of the leading abortion opponents among Little Rock clergy, but he said he shared some of Clinton's ambivalence, having personally witnessed "some extremely difficult" pregnancies. He was not convinced that the Bible forbade abortion in all circumstances.

The minister went to his Bible to reconsider, after which Vaught determined that in the origina Hebrew, "personhood" stemmed from words translated as "to breathe life into." Thus, he averred, the Bible would define a person's life as beginning at birth, with the first intake of breath. He reportedly told the governor that this did not mean that abortion was right, but he felt one could not say definitively, based on Scripture, that it was murder.

In all of his discussions about abortion thereafter, Clinton relied on his minister's interpretation to bolster his pro-choice position.

On Crime: Capital punishment not forbidden in Ten Commandments

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."