[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[September 11, 1998]
[Pages 1565-1566]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1565]]


Remarks at a Breakfast With Religious Leaders
September 11, 1998

    Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the White 
House and to this day to which Hillary and the Vice President and I look 
forward so much every year.
    This is always an important day for our country, for the reasons 
that the Vice President said. It is an unusual and, I think, unusually 
important day today. I may not be quite as easy with my words today as I 
have been in years past, and I was up rather late last night thinking 
about and praying about what I ought to say today. And rather unusually 
for me, I actually tried to write it down. So if you will forgive me, I 
will do my best to say what it is I want to say to you, and I may have 
to take my glasses out to read my own writing.
    First, I want to say to all of you that, as you might imagine, I 
have been on quite a journey these last few weeks to get to the end of 
this, to the rockbottom truth of where I am and where we all are. I 
agree with those who have said that in my first statement after I 
testified, I was not contrite enough. I don't think there is a fancy way 
to say that I have sinned.
    It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the 
sorrow I feel is genuine: first and most important, my family; also my 
friends, my staff, my Cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the 
American people. I have asked all for their forgiveness.
    But I believe that to be forgiven, more than sorrow is required--at 
least two more things: first, genuine repentance, a determination to 
change and to repair breaches of my own making--I have repented; second, 
what my Bible calls a ``broken spirit,'' an understanding that I must 
have God's help to be the person that I want to be, a willingness to 
give the very forgiveness I seek, a renunciation of the pride and the 
anger which cloud judgment, lead people to excuse and compare and to 
blame and complain.
    Now, what does all this mean for me and for us? First, I will 
instruct my lawyers to mount a vigorous defense, using all available 
appropriate arguments. But legal language must not obscure the fact that 
I have done wrong.
    Second, I will continue on the path of repentance, seeking pastoral 
support and that of other caring people so that they can hold me 
accountable for my own commitment.
    Third, I will intensify my efforts to lead our country and the world 
toward peace and freedom, prosperity and harmony, in the hope that with 
a broken spirit and a still strong heart I can be used for greater good, 
for we have many blessings and many challenges and so much work to do.
    In this, I ask for your prayers and for your help in healing our 
Nation. And though I cannot move beyond or forget this--indeed, I must 
always keep it as a caution light in my life--it is very important that 
our Nation move forward.
    I am very grateful for the many, many people, clergy and ordinary 
citizens alike, who have written me with wise counsel. I am profoundly 
grateful for the support of so many Americans who somehow, through it 
all, seem to still know that I care about them a great deal, that I care 
about their problems and their dreams. I am grateful for those who have 
stood by me and who say that in this case and many others, the bounds of 
privacy have been excessively and unwisely invaded. That may be. 
Nevertheless, in this case, it may be a blessing, because I still 
sinned. And if my repentance is genuine and sustained, and if I can 
maintain both a broken spirit and a strong heart, then good can come of 
this for our country as well as for me and my family.
    The children of this country can learn in a profound way that 
integrity is important and selfishness is wrong, but God can change us 
and make us strong at the broken places. I want to embody those lessons 
for the children of this country, for that little boy in Florida who 
came up to me and said that he wanted to grow up and be President and to 
be just like me. I want the parents of all the children in America to be 
able to say that to their children.
    A couple of days ago when I was in Florida, a Jewish friend of mine 
gave me this liturgy book called ``Gates of Repentance.'' And there was 
this incredible passage from the Yom Kippur liturgy. I would like to 
read it to you: ``Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning 
to turn from green to red to orange.

[[Page 1566]]

The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the 
south. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the 
winter. For leaves, birds, and animals, turning comes instinctively. But 
for us, turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us 
to make a turn. It means breaking old habits. It means admitting that we 
have been wrong, and this is never easy. It means losing face. It means 
starting all over again. And this is always painful. It means saying I 
am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These 
things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped 
forever in yesterday's ways. Lord, help us to turn, from callousness to 
sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from 
envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to 
faith. Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our 
lives as at the beginning, and turn us toward each other, Lord, for in 
isolation there is no life.''
    I thank my friend for that. I thank you for being here. I ask you to 
share my prayer that God will search me and know my heart, try me and 
know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any hurtfulness in me, and 
lead me toward the life everlasting. I ask that God give me a clean 
heart, let me walk by faith and not sight.
    I ask once again to be able to love my neighbor--all my neighbors--
as myself; to be an instrument of God's peace; to let the words of my 
mouth and the meditations of my heart and, in the end, the work of my 
hands, be pleasing. This is what I wanted to say to you today.
    Thank you. God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:40 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former White House intern Monica 
S. Lewinsky.