V&V:  Do you talk about Bill and Monica and some of those things?

Kengor:  It was Bill’s philandering that drove Hillary to look upward unlike anything else. I tried to avoid unnecessary detail on his sordid behavior, but the story of the faith of Hillary Clinton cannot be told apart from her husband’s humiliation of her.

V&V:  Overall, is the book positive or negative?

Kengor:  That will be determined by the reader. I tried to include the pros and the cons—to write something “fair and balanced.”

On the positive, I do say from the outset that she seems a sincere Christian and has been since childhood. That’s defined by the basic fundamentals of the faith, such as believing in the resurrection and atoning death of Christ, the Trinity, of accepting Christ as one’s Savior, all of which she has openly and clearly professed. She prays, reads the Bible, gets counsel from ministers, raised a Christian daughter, goes to church weekly and frequently attends and has even led Bible studies.

On the negative, readers will see that a major theme of the book is the total disconnect between her faith and her stridency on abortion. She is not simply pro-choice but fanatically pro-choice. She will not compromise on any matter of abortion policy, from banning partial-birth abortions to supporting funding for ultrasound machines to backing legislation to protect babies injured in the womb by outside parties. She’s to the left of everyone on this issue, including even her husband, who pro-lifers dubbed “the Abortion President.”

By the way, as a “pro-choice Christian,” she points to the lead of her denomination, the United Methodist Church, which is a member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The author of Roe v. Wade was a Methodist, and was invited to address Hillary’s congregation by her pro-choice pastor at the historic Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington in 1995.

So far, the reviews from both liberals and conservatives have been good. But it will not take long before I get hit with a few grenades, which I’m sure will be well-deserved.

V&V:  Do you plan to do more of these “God and …” books, including on liberal Democrats?

Kengor:  None are planned, though anytime I encounter an article on the faith of some leading Democrat or Republican, I continue to tuck it away in a file or, in some cases, a box. At some point, the material, or my interest, reaches a critical mass and I decide to write something. The Hillary box in the corner of my office eventually reached critical mass.

Paul Kengor is author of God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life. He is also executive director of the Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania.