Hillary Clinton's pastor has claimed the former Democratic presidential nominee "knows the Bible remarkably well" and hopes to one day share her knowledge from the pulpit. She also relied on her faith to deal with the disappointment of losing to Donald Trump, the pastor said.
"She knows the Bible remarkably well, and I think she knows what passages to turn to when she needs inspiration or solace," the Rev. Bill Shillady, a United Methodist Minister, told CNN. "She reads her Scripture every day. That, for her, is a practice of spiritual discipline."
He revealed he began sending Clinton daily devotions in Easter 2015 when she told him she was running for the Presidency.
"She told me that my email was the first she opened every day and and it helped keep her grounded and centered," he said.
After her shocking loss to President Trump last November, Clinton was "heartbroken", the pastor said, "but her faith helped her move through that darkness." He said it's "partially true" that Clinton lost because she didn't talk enough about her faith, unlike President Trump.
"She talked about her faith every time she was asked about it, but within the Methodist culture, we aren't people who wear our religion our on sleeves," he said.
Shillady added that since the election, Clinton has also "spent time walking in the woods and having time to think and pray. Now she says she's coming out of the woods."
Now, the former first lady wants to try her hand at preaching, he said.
"We were having a photo shoot for the book and chatting about preaching and she said, 'Bill, I think I'd like to preach,'" he said. "In United Methodism, there's a tradition of having laypeople preach from the pulpit, and I think she's going to look at occasionally doing that and sharing the good news without it being a politically charged environment."
At Clinton's encouragement, the pastor is set to publish 365 of the 600 devotionals in a soon-to-release book titled "Strong For A Moment Like This: The Daily Devotionals of Hillary Rodham Clinton." The devotionals will be organized into 12 themes, such as Forgiveness, Doing Good, Courage, and Women, the pastor said.
While on the campaign trail, Clinton regularly touted her Christian faith, which she said allowed her to be more tolerant toward others with different religious beliefs.
"I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist," she said during a 2016 campaign stop in Iowa, according to the New York Times. "I have been raised Methodist. I feel very grateful for the instructions and support I received starting in my family but through my church, and I think that any of us who are Christian have a constantly, constant, conversation in our own heads about what we are called to do and how we are asked to do it, and I think it is absolutely appropriate for people to have very strong convictions and also, though, to discuss those with other people of faith."
But while many conservative Christians feel that abortion is sinful, Clinton last year said that religious beliefs against abortion have to be "changed."
"Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will," she explained. "And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. As I have said and as I believe, the advancement of the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the 21st century and not just for women but for everyone - and not just in far away countries but right here in the United States."
