Remarks in a Discussion at the Ministers' Leadership Conference in South Barrington, Illinois - Interview

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, August 14, 2000

August 10,2000

Rev. Bill Hybels. It wasn't as bad as I told you it was going to be. [Laughter]

The President. It's never been as bad as you told me it was going to be. [Laughter]

Reverend Hybels. You know, there are some cynics out there that think that I'm just going to ask you a bunch of softball questions. They don't know me very well.

The President. They obviously never sat in on any of our sessions. [Laughter]

Buddy

Reverend Hybels. So I'm going to start with a tough one: How's Buddy? [Laughter]

The President. He's doing fine. I'm not doing as well as he is. We took him up to Martha's Vineyard for a little family weekend, and we went swimming in the ocean. And he panicked and jumped on me, and I forgot to give him a manicure first. [Laughter] So it's a good thing I've got a suit on. [Laughter]

Ministers' Leadership Conference

Reverend Hybels. All right. These folks all know you and I have been meeting for many years. I'd just like to ask you, how would you characterize for these people what our meetings are like?

The President. Well, first of all, they all have certain things in common, then they're different from time to time. They all include you asking me point blank about the state of my spiritual life, and if you think I give you an evasive answer, then you do pointed followup questions. [Laughter] And then--and they all end with a prayer. Most of the time we both pray.

Before we came out here, we both prayed. I prayed that you wouldn't give me too tough a time for asking me to come here today. And then we talk about things. We talk about what's going on, what's going on at the office. You ask about the other people that work for me and how they're doing. If there is some particular issue in the news, we talked about that, or particularly if there's a big development involving war or peace, we talk about that.

And you've given me the opportunity to ask you questions about what you do. I mean, I was fascinated about how Willow Greek was born and grew and how you got into this business that I think is so important, of trying to build up the strength of local churches throughout the country and throughout the world. And I've learned about how I do my work by talking to you about how you do yours. And I hope that the reverse is true on occasion.

But basically, they've been spiritual conversations, conversations between two friends. There are some things that are always the same, and then they change based on what's going on.

Reverend Hybels. Now, recently, you told me that you think more pastors should try to help politicians; they should make themselves available and offer to kind of play the role that I've played.

The President. Yes, I really believe that.

Reverend Hybels. Why?

The President. First of all, because we need it, and not just someone like me, who obviously does. But we do. In 1918 the German sociologist Max Weber wrote an essay. You and I never talked about this before; I just thought about it while you asked me the question. It's called "Politics as a Vocation." And Weber was a Christian Democrat, a devout Catholic. And he said politics is a long and slow boring of hard boards. And anyone who seeks to do it must risk his own soul.

Now, what did he mean by that? What he meant by that was, even in a democracy, where you draw your authority from the people, you have it or a limited amount of time, and it's self-circumscribed by the Constitution. You get the ability to make decisions which affect other people's lives, decisions which are beyond your own wisdom, often made under circumstances which are unimaginably difficult, either because you're under political or personal duress.

And I just think it's--most people who don't know any people in public life who have to make those kind of decisions may think, well, they're just--they don't have a spiritual life, or they're all automatons, or they're not this, that, or the other thing. I can tell you, most of the people I've known in 30 years of public life, Democrats and Republicans, have been good, honest, honorable people who tried to do what they thought was right, and when they differed, it was because they honestly differed. Ninety percent of the time-plus that's been true. But if you're not careful, when you have this kind of job, it can overtake you. You can believe it's even more important than it is. You can let it take up even more time than it should. And it can crowd out all that other stuff inside you that keeps you centered and growing and whole.

And it's very important that everybody in public life has somebody who's talking to them who either has no interest in either playing up to them and telling them what they want to hear, no interest in getting something from them, and no interest in attacking them--that has anything to do with the fact that the person is in public life. And a pastor can do that in a way that, and you just sort of--you can't imagine how much time that I've spent with you and, over the last couple of years, the time that I've spent also with Gordon McDonald and Tony Campolo and Phil Wogaman--how much it means to me, because it sort of takes me out of all the stuff that's going on and forces me to look at it in a different way and to look at my own life in a different way. And it really kind of keeps me anchored. And you can--all of you can do that for somebody else.