President continues to receive counseling Religion Today Monday, October 4, 1999 President Clinton has continued to receive counseling from three Protestant ministers since his adulterous affair with Monica Lewinsky, and says he has experienced God's grace in his life. "I have been profoundly moved as few people have by the pure power of grace – unmerited forgiveness through grace," Clinton told 130 clergy of various faiths gathered at the White House Sept. 28 for the president's annual prayer breakfast. He thanked his wife and daughter, his staff, the American people, and "the God in whom I believe." Clinton offered a tearful apology at the breakfast a year ago for having "sinned," and promised to undergo counseling with J. Philip Wogaman of the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., Gordon MacDonald of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Mass., and Tony Campolo, an American Baptist pastor and professor at Eastern College in St. David's, Pa. The pastors "have kept their word to meet with me over the last year, both to help me and to hold me accountable, and I have kept my word to meet with them and work with them," he said. Last year's apology came on the day independent counsel Kenneth Starr turned over his report to Congress detailing the affair. Clinton called on religious leaders to help combat violence and gun deaths. He urged the House of Representatives to approve Senate-backed legislation to add "sexual orientation" to other categories protected under federal hate-crime laws.

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