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Show ATLAS UPDATE I have often called this little burg of ours Schizo County, because we seem to be capable of exhibiting multiple personalities at times. So imagine a county that will not lift a finger to stop rampant growth and development; then imagine that the same county would file a lawsuit against the federal government because it failed to enforce the Endangered Species Act. That is exactly what we have here. Grand County and a coalition of environmental ' groups...environmental groups!...have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. USFWS recently supported a plan by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to simply cap, in place, the 10.5 million tons of uranium tailings that lie adjacent to the Colorado River. The suit claims that USFWS crumpled under pressure from the NRC to support the plan. Grand County wants to re-locate the pile to a safer location away from prohibitive. the river, but the NRC has maintained that the cost of such a move is While the final draft of Fish & Wildlife’s biological analysis of the tailings’ impacts supports leaving the tailings in place (an un-lined pile on the Colorado flood plain), its two previous drafts expressed alarm that leaving the pile would jeopardize the endangered Colorado squawfish and the razorback sucker. Former Grand County Councilman Bill Hedden, who now works for the Grand Canyon Trust, told the Associated Press, "Wé’re suing the Fish and Wildlife for being ridiculously naive. Atlas and the NRC beat on them and beat on them after the first two drafts and Atlas convinced them a cap would solve the problem." But as Cullen Battle observed, the attorney who filed the suit, what might be the most amazing aspect of this process is seeing a rural western county attempting to enforce the Endangered Species Act. Said Battle, "This is a real ‘man bites dog’ story." If only our council had teeth all the time. A NOTE ABOUT THE ‘GUEST SERMON’ THAT FOLLOWS This publication is about as secular as it gets, but the recent non-stop assault on President Clinton by the Christian Right sent me running to my favorite preacher, former Moab resident Don Falke for an opinion. And he gave a dandy...here it is: Giesi Editorial/Sermon Pastor Don Forgives President Clinton By Pastor Don Falke Picture this. Bill Clinton before the television cameras: "My fellow Americans, my sexual affair with Monica has become public knowledge. The fact that the affair has become public is no fault of mine; in fact, I consider ‘kissing and telling’ most ungentlemanly. But since this affair has been made public, I feel that I must have a brief, and I hope final word with you about my private life. "The fact is, for many years, I have been a man of considerable power. First as governor of a state and now as President of the United States. Many women have been attracted to me; indeed it may well be because of their perception of me as powerful. At times I have had sexual affairs with some of these women. To put it bluntly, I enjoyed them, sexually and otherwise. "My sex life is my sex life. I am aware that many of you disapprove of it, some no doubt enjoy it. But, I repeat, it is my sex life. And I would have preferred that it remained private as is the case with most Americans. "My sex life is but a small part of my life. I would like to think that the American people would be more concerned with my policies than my libido. Now it is my intention that my private life remain private and my public life be useful to you, the American people. Thank you and God bless America." 1 wonder if my fellow Christians would have applauded Bill for his candor and honesty after such a speech. Would we have said something like, "Well, I don’t agree with the way Bill lives but at least he’s not a hypocrite!" Would we have felt better if Bill had told us to go take a flying leap and stay out of his sex life? Truth is, we'll never know because Bill did not say any such thing. What he said was "I did wrong." "I hurt myself, my family and you.” “I’m sorry." “I ask your forgiveness." Now how is the Christian community to respond to that? Some have responded by saying, "I don’t believe him, he’s not really sorry." Peter once went to Jesus and said, "How often should I forgive a man...seven times?" Now that’s a pretty high number if you count it out real skow—one...two...three...And Jesus said to Peter, "Not seven times but seventy times seven." If my math is right, that’s 490 times; try counting that out slowly. When Bill Clinton gets to 491, then my Christian friends, we can question his sincerity. The radical truth is, as Christians, we are obligated to forgive because we are forgiven. | believe, and this is my opinion, that it is forgiveness that changes a man, not punishment. Another response is something like this: "I forgive Bill; after all I’m a Christian. Now let’s get on with the hanging." The Lord told a story about a man who owed his employer a large sum of money. When the account came due the employer decided to sell the man and his family into slavery so that the debt should be paid. The man fell at his employer’s feet and begged not to be sold. "Give me more time,” he cried, "I will repay the debt." The employer felt compassion and did not sell the man and his family. In fact, he forgave the debt. That same man then went to a fellow worker and asked for a small sum that was owed him. The fellow worker could not pay. He fell at the feet of the one who had just been forgiven a large debt and said, "Give me time, I will repay the debt.” But the man was unmoved and threw his fellow worker into prison. When the employer heard of this he was consumed with anger. He had the man “handed over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him." But the sobering of this story is Jesus’ summation. Again I quote, "So shall My heavenly father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart." "I forgive, now let’s get on with the hanging" is not forgiveness from the heart. Bill Clinton does not owe me a hanging. I have forgiven him; he does not owe me anything. My Christian brothers, you want to hang him and I suppose I can’t stop you. But remember, we hang Bill today, we hang you tomorrow. There is another issue that I would like to discuss, but since Jim has a small tolerance for preaching in his paper, at least theological preaching, this will have to suffice. But allow this final word; as a pastor I have had the occasion to help people with the brokenness of their lives and yes, I have had to deal with the brokenness of my own life. There are many who believe that people should get what they deserve but what people, what you, what I need is what we don’t deserve—-forgiveness. There’s a Bible word for that. It’s called Grace. HEATING Lou's Christmas Message & REFRIGERATION 1070 Bowling Alley Lane "We can embroider darn ything." 259.5625 FAX: 259.5083 \ ie \ Wal Warm every foot in your home with our radiant floor heating systems. It’s Hard To StopA Trane” | = |