'I think the pulpit is one venue where she can preach without worrying about being political.'
Hillary Clinton might be thinking of stepping back from politics and stepping up to the pulpit. Her longtime pastor Reverend Bill Shillady has revealed she reportedly told him that she was considering preaching, now that she’s got more time on her hands.
The former secretary of state identifies as a Methodist and met Reverend Bill Shillady at a 9/11 service in New York. They began corresponding and she turned to him for religious guidance throughout her presidential campaign last year.
Following her close loss to President Donald Trump, she withdrew from the public eye to spend time with her family before emerging in an all-white outfit at Trump’s inauguration - a veiled throwback to the suffragettes of old.
Shillady also provided an insight into her mental state in those dark days, revealing to PEOPLE, ‘She really concentrated on her faith in the midst of the loss, and her faith has helped her come out of the woods. I think the pulpit is one venue where she can preach without worrying about being political.’
He also continued, ‘We both are concerned about the incivility and crudeness in our political discourse. Preachers have the opportunity to direct thoughts and encourage people for moving toward moral courage and compassion and love, which seems to be in shockingly short supply.’
While Hillary Clinton may not be involved in the dealings of the Trump administration, she has been busy penning a tell-all named What Happened about the 2016 election and continued to fight for issues such as healthcare and climate change. She hasn't strayed far from the White House however, as her new initiative Onward Together also aims to bring more women into politics. She’s also had some time to throw shade at Donald Trump, but that’s another story.
More recently, she has responded to the Charlottesville crisis with messages of condolence and support on Twitter. She also indirectly attacked Donald Trump for his delayed condemnation of American Neo-Nazis and further white supremacists groups who incited the violence, saying, ‘Now is the time for leaders to be strong in their words & deliberate in their actions. We will not step backward. If this is not who we are as Americans, let’s prove it.’
While Donald Trump did eventually condemn white supremacists groups for their actions, a new transcript of a recent press conference has revealed that he has since gone back on his previous statement.
Reverend Bill Shillady has just released a book named Strong For A Moment Like This, which is a collection of the daily devotionals he emailed to her throughout her 2016 presidential run. While it has recently been revealed that he plagiarised a section of arguably the most important devotional - the one he sent to her after her election loss - the book is being published with a foreward written by Clinton herself.
She said in the introduction, ‘Every single day of the campaign, [Reverend Bill Shillady] woke up before dawn, sat down at his computer, and wrote me an email message of Scripture and lessons that he or the other writers had written. There was one day in particular when I needed Rev. Bill’s wisdom more than ever: the day after … Election Day — one of the hardest days of my life. His words were a lifeline to me then — something to hold onto while I recaptured my footing. ‘Sunday is coming,’ he wrote. He was right.’
