As his guides down a path to redemption, President Clinton has chosen for his personal pastors the Methodist minister who has been a frequent counsellor and two controversial Baptists.
The White House confirmed media reports on Tuesday that the President will receive pastoral care from a small circle of ministers, called an "accountability group", and that the process will remain "an entirely personal matter involving the President". Two of the three ministers, the Rev Gordon MacDonald, senior pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Rev Dr Tony Campolo, an evangelical preacher and popular Christian author, said the care would involve weekly prayer meetings and Bible study in an intense effort to help the President understand "what went wrong with him personally that led to the tragic sins that have so marred his life and the office of the Presidency", Dr Campolo said in a statement.
Mr MacDonald left his job at Grace Chapel in 1987 after publicly admitting adultery with little hope of returning. For two years he went through a "restoration process" much like the one he outlined for Mr Clinton, supervised by the elders of Grace Chapel. In 1993, after a contentious vote, the congregation took him back.
"I think it's very helpful, because he's talking with two very modern, professional, academically sophisticated men," said the Rev James Dunn, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Public Affairs.
If Dr Campolo and Mr MacDonald decide Mr Clinton needs psychiatric therapy, they would not hesitate to refer him, Mr Dunn said.
Since they are advising Mr Clinton confidentially, Dr Campolo and Mr MacDonald are declining interviews, but they have issued statements accepting the sincerity of Mr Clinton's penitence, expressed on Friday at a White House prayer breakfast.
"Tony has been counselling him since before the second inauguration," said the Rev Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, a friend of Dr Campolo.
Dr Campolo is a professor of sociology at Eastern College in St Davids, Pennsylvania. He is also president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, which runs programmes for poor people.