Clinton criticizes SBC iVoteValues.com campaign in addressing NYC church

(BP) - Former President Bill Clinton criticized the Southern Baptist iVoteValues.com voter-awareness initiative Aug. 29, saying that the values debate should not be framed around the issues of abortion and same-sex "marriage."

"[P]olitics and political involvement dictated by faith is not the exclusive province of the right wing in America," he said to applause at New York City's Riverside Church.

Riverside Church is perhaps best known as the church where Harry Emerson Fosdick, a popular liberal minister of the 20th century, denied such Christian beliefs as the virgin birth. The congregation was founded in 1930; Fosdick preached there from 1930-46.

"[Republicans] have claimed the exclusive allegiance of America's real Christians," Clinton said. "I looked at the recent meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention ... and one of their leaders was wearing a button he was giving everybody else that says, 'I'm a values voter' - implying that those of us that didn't agree with them didn't have any values.

"And to them, values are anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, concentration of wealth and power. But as I said, Jesus didn't have much to say about what they say are the values of Christians today. And yet, these people really do believe they are in possession of the absolute truth."

It was not clear whether Clinton, a Southern Baptist originally from Arkansas, was referring to Republicans or Southern Baptists when he said "these people."