A new role for Hillary.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been banished to the nether world where bad girls are sent when the fates decide they have brought down the wrath of the gods on the polis. Her disappearance from public life suggests that she is willing to undertake at least her fair share of repentance for the election debacle. Yet, as she visited an Indonesian Buddhist shrine on a postelection visit with President Bill Clinton, I imagined her sinking gratefully into a lotus position, sending off the media and the blame-mongers to badger someone else. Everyone and everything from Mrs. Clinton to the baseball strike, from George Stephanopoulous to the health-care bill, have been implicated in the Democratic fall from power, but Mrs. Clinton is the one who has stopped spinning and disappeared. She has become a wifely shade of her former self.

Does Mrs. Clinton's eclipse mean political wives are destined to take on the roles that other women in the United States are no longer required to play: wife and fashion plate? Mrs. Mom? shrinking violet? Barbara Bush looked to be the last first lady who stood by her man mugging for the cameras. Activist professionals on the order of Hillary Clinton are the kind of wives that will come along with future presidents, if they have wives at all. Democratic hopeful Bob Kerrey, who is divorced, would come without a first lady. Marilyn Quayle and Elizabeth Dole may be Republicans but they look a lot like Hillary Clinton. Even harder to imagine, but another obvious alternative, would be the first first lady who turns down the job and sticks with her own career - say as a partner in Little Rock's Rose law firm.

Yet, Hillary Clinton is the kind of woman this society has said it wants; at least in general; and yes, even conservatives have said it. She followed the rules: education, good works, marriage, motherhood, and career. And exceptionally for her generation, her religion holds more than a symbolic place in her life. The Clintons belong to a Washington Methodist congregation and go to church on Sunday; they are not drop-in worshipers. Furthermore, Mrs. Clinton gives every sign of being a serious believer. In an astonishing Torquemada-moment in a recent interview with Kenneth Woodward (Newsweek, October 31, 1994), she submitted to a confession of faith:

"Do you believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?" "Yes."

"The atoning death of Jesus?" "Yes."

"The Resurrection of Christ?" "Yes."

In the same interview, she also said she thinks abortion is wrong, but should not be criminalized. There is a lot of room in that view for public discussion of the whys and wherefores of "individual" choice, and even a look at the social outcome of abortions for women and families. Perhaps in her remaining two years, the first lady could initiate a national conversation on the subject.

Real religious practices and moral beliefs are subdued in our political culture. As with many (all?) politicians, there is a disconnect between the Clintons' policy positions and their moral beliefs. This need not be.

In fact, Hillary Clinton's first lady problem is much like the country's problem with religion and politics - we want religion and first ladies to be seen but not heard, present but not voting. When push comes to shove, religion and first ladies should make way for realpolitik. Can this subterfuge continue to work, whether for first ladies or religion?

The peculiar mix that we have tolerated in politicians of muffling personal belief while enunciating public policy claims a dubious blessing from the Constitution. But over the last two decades, the separation between personal belief and political action has had the effect of draining the very idea of a moral stance from political debate while allowing demagogues of right and left to turn religion to their own purposes. On the right: How far will a school prayer amendment really travel in Republican ranks when it comes time to vote? On the left: Consider how abortion proponents, in emphasizing the religious objections of the Catholic church and other religious groups while ignoring more general ethical and social objections, have short-circuited efforts to even carry on a debate about the pros and cons of abortion.

Maybe the one role Hillary Clinton has left to play as first lady is the one that convention has kept her from - an advocate for personal conversion and social responsibility. That is the kind of Methodism John Wesley preached and that this country could use. She should give it a try, as soon as she gets out of the lotus position.