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Show RELIGION EDITOR: GAYLON GARBETT SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, I9 THE DAILY HERALD 5 MATTER UNORGANIZED AG Going up LLPS $mmfo feafliM ft President Hinckley vocal about Mountain Meadows v n Marden Clark V & A By ROBERT GEHRKE Public veto Associated Press Writer SALT LAKE CITY A pile of rubble and rocks is all that marks the resting place of 34 members of a wagon train, ambushed and massacred 141 years ago by militant Mormons and a band of Year 2000 bug has families ready for likely disaster i I ! a.. The biggest problem that technolhas created for us may be how to deal with the change in dating for the year 2000. It started out simply as the computer specialist's enigmatic Y2K. Computers from the beginning have been programmed to give the date with a digit for the year: 122798. But the computer has no way of handling 00 for the year 2000. In the most pessimistic of scenarios, all computers that have not been made "Y2K compatible" will simply shut down. And since nearly all our modern mechanisms are controlled by computer chips, power plants will shut down, elevators will stop between floors, trains will stop wherever they are, traffic lights will shut down so traffic will have to stop, armies and navies and airplanes will have to cease operations, and much more. But I can't quit fretting about some of the related problems. I recently heard of a mother describing how her family is preparing for the crisis: They will all get together on 123199; they will have stored food and supplies for a several-week- s isolation; they will have anticipated all the problems of civilization shutting down; they will be able to survive any such shutdown at least until the world is either destroyed or has solved the problems. ' ? " t . graveslte memorial at the Mountain Meadows Association's website at: Paiute Indians. The victims of the slaughter had camped at Mountain Meadows, a pastoral area in Utah's extreme southwestern corner and a common campsite on The Spanish Trail. r The party 120 men, numbering women and children, mostly from Arkansas was en route to California when it was besieged and, after being promised safe passage to nearby Cedar City ruthlessly slaughtered. "There was nothing like it in the history of the West and it's the second largest loss of ; '. ogy can vote on a preferred design for the The public said Ron Loving of Tucson, t Ariz., whose uncle led the wagon train. Thirteen other Loving ancestors also perished in the attack. Loving is referring to Mormon church President Gordon B. Hinckley. In 1990, when he was the church's No. 2 man, Hinckley dedicated the monument at Mountain great-grea- Baker-Fanche- two-numb- mass-grav- life in America's move west," said David Bigler, a historian and author from Roseville, Calif., who has written on the topic. But the site of the infa- mous Mountain Meadows Massacre, 250 miles southeast of Salt Lake, had been largely ignored until this decade. In 1990, descendants of both sides erected a monument overlooking the field. Now, the Mormon church has volunteered to rebuild the marker on the mass grave, first erected in 1859. THE OTHER PARABLE, the Samaritan, carries far more weight for me. Both the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side man. Only the the despised Samaritan stops to bind up Good half-dea- d iv See CLARK, A7 crane raises a statue of the angel Moroni to the top of the new LDS temple in Anchorage, Alaska. The new temple will serve 25,000 members of the church in the state. It opened to the public from Tuesday to Thursday and will be dedicated later this month. A area with' e either a smooth granite wall inscribed with the surnames victims, or a stone wall like'; the original built in 1932. In! the center of the walled area ' the conical stone the cairn pile that is a traditional. Scottish memorial may be' rebuilt. Work will also have to be, done to solidify a gully that.,' runs past the mass grave to keep the ground from collaps-- ; ing and the remains washing of;-th- away. j. for-voti- e g ; Looking at history STKPHKN NOWERS Ihe Associated I'ress park-lik- The association has set-- . Jan. 18 as the deadline on the new monu Meadows. ment's design with work Last October, Hinckley scheduled to begin in the again visited the site and was spring, weather permitting,., saddened by the condition of and be completed sometime, marker. He during the summer. the called Loving and offered the "It will cost whatever it.' church's services and funds costs and we will do it so it's to rebuild the memorial. nice," said Glen Leonard, "I did not like what I saw," director of the Museum of Hinckley said during a meetChurch History and Art. ing on Oct. 30. "I was embar- Loving said Hinckley told' rassed at the condition.... I him it may cost as much as was ashamed." $200,000. "We wouldn't have been Memorializing the site has been a decade-lontask for able to do what they're going the Mountain Meadows to do for us. There's no way,"1; Association, a group of said Loving. "This also gives 4, descendants of victims that us an opportunity to go out Loving now heads. there and find the other bod- Harsh winters caused the ies." v0 monument to fall apart An Army group buried the shortly after it was erected in bodies of the massacre in 1990. Last month, the state, mass graves in 1859, but the which assumed the task of piles of stones used as markmaintaining the monument, ers have disappeared, leaving;-onlfinished extensive repairs. the cairn for the largest Now Hinckley has commitof the mass graves behind. ted the church to building a The Utah Trails and park-likmemorial to mark Landmarks Association built ' the resting place for 34 vicstone wall around the'' tims buried in the mass grave. a memorial in 1932. More than "This is sacred ground," bodies are buried else--Hinckley told the associa""' where in the meadow. tion's leaders. "We owe them Historians believe the respect." stemmed from The cost of the repairs massacre sentiments of which on three depends designs is chosen by the mas A7"! See The offer by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daSaints is viewed as a departure from the faith's history of reluctance in acknowledging the role of Mormon settlers in the Mountain Meadows massacre. "They finally have a man in the (church) president's seat that knows the story and understands the pain and anguish that a lot of the families are still going through," y THIS ALL SOUNDS so sensible, so forward looking, such intelligent emergency preparedness that I should simply cheer and wish them well. It emphasizes the family. It suggests the great value of being prepared, of anticipating problems, of intelligent planning. Yes, I should simply cheer and wish them well. But I can't. Well, maybe I can at least wish them well. But I can't quit fretting about the implications. I should rejoice that at least the focus is on family survival, not on the single individual. And if the real focus is on what this family can do not only to help their own family to survive but also to help any other families or individuals to survive, then I could only rejoice. But if what they really are striving for is to assure their own survival regardless of what happens to neighbors or neighbor families, then I have to look closely at the moral and spiritual implications. For one, it seems possible that if enough people decide that they must do the same thing, the fear of Y2K may itself help generate the consequences we fear. By enough of us expecting it we can create it. Much more important for me, though, is the moralspiritual motivation implicit in the story: We will take care of ourselves and let the to rest of the world be damned put it with nasty frankness. I can be almost certain that the mother would refuse any such description of what she was planning. But the problem is only too real. At least two parables catch the two possible responses. The parable of the ten virgins which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. But the five wise ones took oil with them, the five foolish ones took no oil. And only the five wise ones were able to meet the bridegroom. We may wonder about the wise ones being unwilling to share. But at the very least the parable says to prepare. sacre's descendants and those1' who vote on the Mountain" Association's' Meadows Website. i All three plans call for e 1 MARKER, Bethlehem still makes clear need for peace, good will Christmas celebrations were inaugurated in Bethlehem by a procession of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He was preceded by about fifteen local scout troops carrying troop banners and Palestinian flags, each accompanied by drum and bagpipe bands. The repertoire of songs was limited, including somewhat distorted bagpipe renditions of "Jingle Bells" and "Angels We Have Heard on High." The roads leading to Bethlehem were closed to traffic on Christmas Eve, so we walked a mile or so to Manger Square. Many of the stores along the road were decorated in gaudy American Christmas kitsch: Santa balloons; large plastic Wise Men Web HIGHER THINGS William Hamblin & Daniel Peterson with flashing lights inside suspended over the street; long strings of lights spelled out "Welcome" in several languages. A disco pulsed with neon lights and large speakers reverberating rock versions of Christmas carols. Manger Square is a large rectangular plaza somewhat smaller than a football field, surrounded on three sides by tourist stores and restaurants. The atmosphere was rather like that of the Fourth of July; fireworks exploded intermittently directly over head. Street vendors hawked their wares, ranging from tea and Middle Eastern pastries to tacky religious art. Portable charcoal ovens smoked with kabob and shwarma, while Arabs and tourists sat on chairs sipping thick coffee or smoking water pipes. A small group of Muslims evangelized Islam, trying to sell Qur'ans, apparently with little success. Throughout the evening Bethlehem hosted a series of . choirs singing Christmas music, including several numbers by the Salem Baptist Church Choir from Chicago, who were there to "lift the name of Jesus," which they proceeded to do with great gusto through several gospel hymns, ending with a version of the Hallelujah Chorus. Mo-Tow- n AS WE TRIED to enter the nearby Church of the Nativity we were temporarily blocked by a line of soldiers and police; up drove a silver limousine which we were told belonged to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Despite my best intentions, I couldn't help being remind- fiya. When we were finally ':' able to enter the Church of " the Nativity and the noise and tumult of Manger . Square was completely -silenced by the massive thick stone walls. The seventeen hundred year old church is built over a small network of caves including, the Grotto of the Nativity, , the traditional site where Christ was born. The grotto "' contained a group of about fifty, praying and meditat-inin silent vigil. At mid- - ,; the traditional night moment of the birth of ' Jesus and the beginning of ' Christmas four Catholic priests entered the Grotto r. . '. g ed, however vaguely, of Father Christmas in a m See HAMBLIN, kaf- - - aV site focuses on church disaster relief efforts tains By RAJU CHEBIUM Associated Press Writer Md. Jim OELLA, Skillington no longer preaches full time from the pulpit, but by no means has he given up God's work. He keeps very busy working on an Internet news service focusing exclusively on disasters and chronicling the relief work of church-based groups. The Disaster News Network (www.disasternews.net) con human-interes- t articles from disaster sites in the United States and territories, a database of church-base- d agencies, and links to aid groups. The Web site, operational since May, was conceived by Skillington and is sponsored by Church World Service, a New York-basecoalition of 34 denominations. Skillington, who preached for more than eight years in Silver Spring and continues ta preach part-tim- e at Baltimf a d re-are- churches, said he is fulfilling God's directive by running DNN and helping those in need. "This is my ministry," said Skillington, 48. "Our goal is to provide information. Our goal is to connect people who want to make a difference. This is fascinating stuff. These are stories crying out to be told." This month, the Web site has stories about how disaster groups are having to spend thousands of dollars to store unwanted items that people donated after Hurricane Mitch; the need for volunteers in central Florida, where tornadoes killed 42 people in February; and how neighbors are helping neighbors in Texas after devastating floods in October. No individual church site has as much information as DNN, said Stan Hankins of prior to establishing this Web,-- , site," said Hankins, a member of DNN's board of directors. hJ The ultimate goal is to be a,, service to those in need." ; Skillington, a former inves-- ' tigative journalist whose expe-"'- l rience includes, working at the Frederick (Md.) News-Po- s Disaster his five freelancers. T'i' j He knows he can't compete with major media outlets -- r- the ,' Presbyterian Response, based in Louisville, Ky. didn't have any jKmnunication vehicle demands human-intere- st hard-new- and stories from. s "We really similar (POOR |