THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the First Lady

__________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                June 24, 1996


           STATEMENT OF FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON



On Sunday, June 23, The Washington Post ran a front page excerpt 
from Bob Woodward's latest book, The Choice, which recounts 
meetings I had with Jean Houston and Mary Catherine Bateson and 
suggests that Ms. Houston is my "spiritual adviser."  While I 
have had a number of conversations with Jean Houston, it is 
simply not true that she is my spiritual adviser.

For more than three years, I have met with a wide range of 
contemporary thinkers, including Roman Catholic cardinals, 
bishops, nuns and priests; Protestant clergy and lay leaders; 
Jewish rabbis; Muslim clerics; theologians, ethicists and 
religious activists; historians, political scientists, 
sociologists and anthropologists; professional communicators, 
management consultants and motivational speakers; business and 
labor leaders, writers, artists, poets and entertainers, and many 
other Americans from all walks of life who have interesting ideas 
or insights into what's happening in our country today.

Mary Catherine Bateson and Jean Houston are two of many people 
who have been generous in sharing their ideas with me.  Mary 
Catherine Bateson, the daughter of anthropologists Margaret Mead 
and Gregory Bateson, is herself a distinguished field 
anthropologist and author of a now classic book on women's lives, 
Composing a Life.  Jean Houston, who has published more than a 
dozen books, has served as a consultant to major corporations, as 
well as worked with the international children's organization, 
UNICEF.

Both women were helpful to me in discussing their work in foreign 
cultures as I prepared for a trip to South Asia in the spring of 
1995.  They were also helpful when I returned from South Asia and 
was facing the task of writing my book about the challenges of 
raising children in the modern world.  One of the many meetings I 
held at the time about the themes of my book included Jean 
Houston and Mary Catherine Bateson.

During the hours of free-wheeling discussion, Jean Houston 
suggested that I imagine a conversation with Eleanor Roosevelt, 
who grappled with the difficult social issues of her day.  This 
was an interesting intellectual exercise to help spark my own 
thoughts; it was a brainstorming session for my book -- not a 
spiritual event.  In fact, in previous public speeches, I had 
used the device of an imaginary conversation with Mrs. Roosevelt 
as a way of discussing what Mrs. Roosevelt would think about the 
problems of contemporary society and how she would approach her 
role as First Lady.

Imagine my surprise when what I have been doing since 1993 in 
front of large audiences was now being reported as a sensational 
revelation.

The bottom line is:  I have no spiritual advisers or any other 
alternative to my deeply held Methodist faith and traditions upon 
which I have relied since childhood.

And I do wonder what Eleanor Roosevelt might think of all this.

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