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TTri rr'HT wy f i iTfi'i 'ri" !T"rr rTTrrrrrrrr'T'm ”T r r i f Page 28— The Herald Journal Logan Utah Thursday March 30 2000 5“ tough issues of repentance justice and integrity By Sctlpps Howard News Service That’s the problem with White House religion What you see is The more Richard Nixon talked about Ins faith the more his’ enemies complained about it Critics of the troubled president accused him of hiding behind a smokescreen of “White House religion” which an Associated Press report described as “personalized rarely what you get It’s so much easier to offer positive talk about personal feelings and faith rather than to answer divisive reli- gious questions about the public piety detached from its social demands” Liberal church leaders square That was true in Watergate scandal in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and now the Y2K White said Nixon was using Christianity as a shield Critics said he needed to get some new religious advisers instead of surrounding himself with clergy who would only tell him what he wanted to hear Sound familiar? A quarter of a century later it was the conservative Religious Right's turn to complain while a president kept talking and talking and talking about forgiveness “It’s all very ironic" said Gabriel Fackre a theologian in the progressive United Church of Christ "One of the lessons we were supposed to have learned from the Clinton crisis was that a leader’s private affairs are not supposed to be very relevant when it comes to judging hinf as a public leader: We were not supposed to confuse the personal and die pub- Houselibe lic” sin and grace rather than facing But' there’s a problem and it’s one that haunts Republicans and Democrats In reality it’s impossible to separate these two spheres of life “They are distinguishable but inseparable” said Fackre a Democrat who edited a controversial volume about the Clfa ton scandals entitled ‘‘Judgment Day at the White House” and recently wrote n sequel calleF‘‘The Day AfterV Confirmed from Page 17 ' were both proclaimed good Holy writ it seems does pay some obeisance to the fact that sometimes avenge or good is quite satisfactory An argument can be made that being an average student while at the same time bolding fast to honesty clean speech and virtue while at convictions Sen John McCain preaches about character and the faith of his fathers but won’t discuss his moral and cultural views ‘ Vice President A1 Gore keeps showing up in pulpits talking about his lively nidi but loathes questions about his days as a Southern Tennessee politician Baptist-friend- ' : ly Former Fellowship of Christian The “character issue” looms over Athletes leader Bill Bradley insists America’s political landscape even if that his faith is strong yet totally pr" the candidates are afraid to discuss it ivate discuss would how rather with any degree of candor Instead Everyone die major players are offering varia- they were bom again than discuss die tions on the classic “White House details of partial-birt- h abortion It's religion” formula — talking warmly safer to talk about spirituality and about their private faith while bat: renewal than to make a case for or vouchers a ting away pesky questions about reli- ' against private-schogreat portion of which would go to gious issues in public life Tims Gov George W Bush keeps schools giving his testimony but seems gun-sh- y Right now American politicians alien asked to describe how his keep saying that faith is goodbut it’s ol church-support- the same time engaged in doing good just might in the rad trump the life of a few stu' personal faith is linked to bis public dents who earned all “A’s” but left the weighter matters of the law securely locked away in storage Mos of us must be average or the word loses its meaning If everyone receives an “A" grade then “A" becomes average and the real climbers will not be happy unless they are awarded an “A” or two If we try hard and achieve our best then we should be satisfied Ggd I am certain will be ed There is I fear far too much competition in our world Too many of us uncomfortable with our gifts try to cheat our way to what we pep ceive as die topToo many of us have to have bigger homes better automobiles more money more fame and moreover have to send our children to only the best universities so that no one will believe we are only average Having spent my life being average and feeling quite comfortable among average folk I hope that my eternity is lived with good decent average people who have lived in average sized t clear that talking about the details is deadly Tim subject is just too hot So candidates keep shouting their testi- monies rather than answering detailed questions about policies - What goes around comes around Backinthe 1970s noted Fackre pro- gressives used to attack conservatives whenever they failed to link their ' evangelistic words with efforts to change society Thus they said con- servatives like Nixon were guilty of separating “their words and their deeds" Then during the Clinton cri--‘ sis dm political and theological left ' turned around and chanted: “Why don’t you take him at his word? lie said he’s sorry What more do you : want?" At the moment everyone seems to have a plan for talking about their ' ?' f ‘ religious convictions but no one : wants to discuss how their faith will affect their actions said Fackre 'v' ' 'v : homes driven average size cars went to aver- age universities or trade schools and made honorable average livings while at the same time being honest loving mercy and walking T‘ humbly with God these are not people quite as average Pohaps asIthougfaL'""' ' Kenneth W Godfrey is a raHgious historian living jn Logan Continued from Page 17 The majority according toShapiro reported feeling heat or energy emanating from the skulls “Sane felt energy even from the slide presentation we did” he said t least one wqman present at an interview with Shapiro and Van Dieten Wednesday reported receiving “answers to some of my questions” ven before she had her session - Crystal skulls have been unearthed all over the world but seem to be concentrated mostly in Central and South America where craftsmen still ‘carve them today although any spiritual significance they had is not remembered by modem natives Shapiro who has traveled all over the world to examine crystal skulls believes they are a sort of ancient library holding information that may help humanity at a crucial juncture “It’s just like if you brought a compact disc from our time to an ancient civilization” he said “To them it would just look like a shiny disc They would have no way of knowing how to extract information from it” Van Dieten believes one of her skulls which she has dubbed “ET" because it has attributsane es has healing powers In fact she credits it wife helping her recover from die removal of a baseball-siz- e brain tumor “The surgeons told me I would cone out either Mind lame or dead" she said “But within a week I was touring Europe” The fact that the skulls are made out of prystal is signifi- jjfjafj cant according to Shapiro There Will Be A Drawing who worked with computers before deciding to tour fulltime with the skulls “We know crystals have electromagnetic properties” he said “That's why we use silicon in microchips” Different cultures around the world — for instance the gypsies with their crystal balls — Cache Valley Community Gigantic Garage Sale for Door Prizes Reservation Form have used various types of ctystal for both healing and C: r divination Shapiro admits he encounters a la of skepticism on Ms tours and hasn’t been able to interest professional archeologists or geologists in the crystal skulls He asks only that people reserve judgment until they have sera the skulls for themselves “When you meet an individual who has had an experience that doesn’t fit into yrair reality you either think that individual is crazy or you don’t want to talk to them” he said “I would just invite people to come and have their own experience (The skulls) are literally facing us to think beyond what we think possible” FI : ' ' 1 have enclosed 25°° for a Txt booth Student I've enclosed 15“ for a 7'x7' ' Bridgerland's Daily M A Pancake Breakfast will be Sponsored By THE LOGAN LIONS j T one r xrr 2r SEES 2F Deadline April 1 4 2000 ' ! Send to: Garage Sale 'Y ? Y The Herald Journal PO Box 487 Logan UT I V 84323-048- 7 I V I I I booth (Student ID Required) 1 These are the items 1 would like to list in my ad Tlia FOR ABUSE bonioffH ntp wwi rlit domestic vtoianca ' - i— l I'm a USU NO EXCUSE rOf 1 ' 1 THERE'S Call ' 2I Phone rr r i ' I ' i 9 Tsev' FrtrrrM'W-t— - -- ii innn-i-ir- tr —- 'fU'irAi " 1 |