Mark Galli is hardly the one to be lecturing Christians on breaking the 10 Commandments

• “volatile Italian woman who, upon discovering her husband’s unfaithfulness, yells and throws dishes”
• “a melodramatic God [who]… yells and throws dishes, and walks off in a huff, slamming the door behind him…”
• “He’s anything but calm and collected, reassuring and reasonable. He’s as mercurial as gods go”
• “He’s like the crazy uncle in the family. At some point, you have to let your friends know about him, but you’d just as soon avoid having to introduce him”
• “The road to hell is paved with reasonable religion with a non-anxious god. Most days, I’m pretty happy driving down that road. But I keep running into this Crazy Fellow along the way”
• When God sees the space shuttle hurtling toward its destruction, he weeps, he rants, he pulls his hair out. And something inside him dies”
• “He’s such a drama queen”

The President’s failure to tell the truth—even when cornered—rips at the fabric of the nation. This is not a private affair. For above all, social intercourse is built on a presumption of trust: trust that the milk your grocer sells you is wholesome and pure; trust that the money you put in your bank can be taken out of the bank; trust that your babysitter, firefighters, clergy, and ambulance drivers will all do their best. And while politicians are notorious for breaking campaign promises, while in office they have a fundamental obligation to uphold our trust in them and to live by the law.

Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president. Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.

At this writing, we expect Clinton to hang tough, to remain the comeback kid he is known to be. He has played that role well in the past, and we see little evidence that he will try a fresh approach. As we pass through a period of increasingly intense political struggle, we cannot help thinking what a difference true contrition could have made.

Bill Clinton missed a truly historic moment. August 17 could have been a great opportunity for national healing. A straightforward admission, with some evidence of contrition, would have brought openness and resolution.