Chelsea Clinton is insulted by Bible-thumping evangelicals who question her family’s religion, so she’s telling her mother’s supporters about their deep faith in God.
One Democrat took notes at a recent fundraiser and shared Chelsea’s speech with me.
“My mother is very deeply a person of faith,” Chelsea said. “It is deeply authentic and real for my mother, and it guides so much of her moral compass, but also her life’s work.”
While Hillary was raised as a Methodist, Bill grew up as a Baptist, and Chelsea’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish. But their diversity doesn’t diminish their devotion to God, Chelsea said.
“I find it quite insulting sometimes when people say to my mom, my dad or me . . . that they question our faith. I was raised in a Methodist church and I left the Baptist church before my dad did, because I didn’t know why they were talking to me about abortion when I was 6 in Sunday school — that’s a true story.”
The Methodists, unlike the Baptists, are pro-choice. But even the Methodists are too religious for some atheists and secularists who question the sincerity of politicians who go to church. So the Clintons are attacked from both ends of the spectrum.
“I recognized that there were many expressions of faith that I don’t agree with and feel [are] quite antithetical to how I read the Bible,” Chelsea said, “But I find it really challenging when people who are self-professed liberals kind of look askance at my family’s history.”