Donald Trump’s ignorance makes him challenging to cover. It’s sometimes hard to know whether his falsehoods are the product of willful deceit or mere lack of information.
Take his statement on Tuesday to evangelical leaders that “we don't know anything about Hillary in terms of religion. Now, she’s been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there’s no—there’s nothing out there. There’s like nothing out there.”
Nothing out there? Biographies and magazine profiles have been stressing Clinton’s religiosity for decades. In his 1993 New York Times Magazine profile, “Saint Hillary,” the late journalist Michael Kelly stressed Clinton’s relationship with Reverend Don Jones, the youth pastor in her Methodist church in Park Ridge, Illinois.
In his book, A Woman in Charge, Carl Bernstein notes that Clinton corresponded with Jones for twenty years after leaving home. He calls Jones “the most important teacher in Hillary’s life” until she reached adulthood and declares, “Aside from her family, Hillary’s Methodism is perhaps the most important foundation of her character.”
Nor did Clinton’s faith dissipate once she entered politics. While working on George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign in San Antonio, Texas, she carried around a heavily marked Bible, something she did again while campaigning for Bill in 1992. As First Lady of Arkansas, she taught Sunday School, served on the board of her Methodist church, and gave guest sermons across the state on Methodist theology. In the White House, she carried around prayer cards, frequently said grace before meals, and joined a prayer group, something she continued in the Senate.