President Clinton has now chosen a small group of religious ministers to counsel him regularly on how to get back on the straight and narrow and stay there. They will help him to resist "the temptations that have conquered" him in the past, according to one of the clergymen.
One of the ministers, the Rev Gordon McDonald, by his own account had to leave the ministry over an extra-marital affair but returned two years ago and wrote a book about his experience, entitled Rebuilding Your Broken World.
Mr Clinton's sinning with Ms Monica Lewinsky provided pastors throughout the country with the topic for their Sunday sermons.
Not all clergy wanted to be dragged into moralising about the steamy sex of the Starr report, even if they made it clear that the details shocked them. Cardinal O'Connor told the congregation at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York, that his silence on the Clinton matter had caused "perplexity and has provoked others to question my courage".
"Is this to be the church's new approach? That I point to people in the congregation and say, `I know your sins, you shouldn't be here. Stand up'." The cardinal said: "I have no intention of starting such a business."
At St John's Church, near the White House, where many presidents have worshipped, the rector, the Rev Luis Leon, told his Episcopalian congregation that President Clinton "can be forgiven by God". But he went on to say: "I don't think he has the moral authority to continue to lead this country."
President Clinton who is usually filmed on Sundays entering and leaving the Foundry United Methodist Church holding a Bible, with his wife at his side, missed the service last Sunday.
He had learned that his pastor, the Rev J. Philip Wogaman, was intending to preach on forgiveness and "the President did not want to make the congregation uncomfortable by attending", a White House aide explained.
At Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, where President Kennedy used to worship, Father Douglas Perduti preached on the Prodigal Son as a lesson in compassion for those who had wasted opportunity.
The congregation prayed for President Clinton and other leaders and sang Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Pastor Fred Carrell of the Central Baptist Church questioned the sincerity of President Clinton's repentance. "If he truly repented, he would not have his spin doctors all over television defending him. He would accept responsibility for his actions."
But Pastor Melvin Brown of the Greater New Hope Baptist Church said that "those who would condemn Mr Clinton should recall the Gospel message `He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone'."