Hillary Clinton on faith, family and the importance of church
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers the keynote address to the United Methodist Women Assembly at the Kentucky International Convention Center, Saturday, April 26, 2014, in Louisville, Ky.
Frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination Hillary Clinton has given an uncharacteristically personal address in which she shared about her Christian beliefs.
As 7,000 women gathered for the United Methodist Women's Assembly in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, Hillary took the opportunity to speak of the impact that faith has had on her career, while also underlining the importance of equal rights for men and women.
As a young girl growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, Christian influences were all around her, she shared. Her grandmother was fond of singing hymns and she remembers her father praying every evening.
"That made a very big impression on me," Clinton said.
"My father had been a football player, had been a petty officer during World War II in the Navy; he was a rough gruff kind of man, self-made, independent, small businessman, and there he was - humble on his knees before God every single night."
The family also went to a local church, which Clinton said "helped to deepen my faith and ground it".
"I love that church," she added. "I love the doors that it opened in my understanding of the world."
It is this understanding rooted in a personal faith that has led Clinton to campaign against such issues as human trafficking.
"Like the disciples of Jesus, we cannot look away," she declared. "'You feed them,' he said. 'Feed them, rescue them, heal them, love them'."
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Hillary Clinton on faith, family and the importance of church