Southern Baptists believe faith in Jesus will guarantee them a place in heaven. But that doesn't mean President Clinton can sin as he pleases, the denomination's leader said.

The Rev. Paige Patterson, leader of the 15.8 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, says his denomination has been badly misunderstood. Some people suggest that Clinton, a Southern Baptist, assumes that his affair with Monica Lewinsky doesn't matter because his salvation is assured.Speaking to pastors gathered for the Missouri Baptist Convention, Patterson said many Christians, including some Baptists, believe that what they do in life can make them more acceptable before God. That places them with Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists on the "other side of the religious continental divide," he said.

Even one evil thought makes a person unworthy before God, as three cockroaches make an operating room unsterile to a heart surgeon, he said.