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Pag* 4A
Opinions
Chuck
Morley #
The miracle is —
I still believe
in miracles • • •
Father Tracey was a young priest at a
Catholic parish in Washington, D.C. He was
handsome, soft-spoken, serious, intelligent -
and to the best I can guess - theologically, a
heretic.
I met Father Tracey over ten years ago in a
Saturday morning graduate philosophy class
we were taking at Georgetown University.
I knew why I was taking the course, but to
this day I still can't come up with a reason why
a priest would be interested in DeCarte.
After class we would usually go down to a
coffee shop in Georgetown, grab a cup of
strong Joe and sit and talk for hours about the
world. Of course, the subject of religion
always inspired a heated debate. Not because
he was a priest spouting out Catholic dogma to
an unfortunate sinner but 1 believe he was
trying to resolve his own conflict of scholarship
and devotion.
One particular debate raged for months
running into the holiday season.
"Do you believe in miracles?" he asked.
I suppose I do. I'd been raised to believe.
Never question. Never doubt. But as you leam
to think, as you leam to reason...
"Do you believe in the Virgin Mary and the
virgin birth?"
Well, I've never claimed to have seen her
reflection on the bumper of my Chevy, or in a
cloud or her image dancing in the sky on some
secluded farm in Georgia. But I've been taught
that Jesus was bom of a virgin and was the son
of God. I've never questioned. But this
modem reasoning of ours...
"Do you believe that Jesus walked on water,
healed the sick, arose from the dead?”
Yes, yes and yes. But what about that little
voice...?
Father Tracey's questions were endless. So
were his explanations.
He questioned that the events he asked me
about ever happened.
He explained that it may not be blasphemy to
say the virgin birth and the resurrection never
happened, because the accounts could be
metaphorically. The birth and resurrection
were in the lives and dreams of his followers.
The birth and resurrection represents an
explosion of power, a promise of salvation that
does not depend on a literal belief in physical
birth or resurrection.
He argued that many scholars are not talking
about the birth and resurrection of flesh but of
• the birth and resurrection of Christ's essence.
There was even scholarly evidence that
Christ's actual words as reported in the Gospels
were never uttered. Some scholars argue that
the Bible is made up simply of legends crafted
by the Gospel writers to serve a political
. agenda in the early stages of the church.
My side of the debate was simply faith.
That Hannibal's unlikely crossing of the Alps
with 38 elephants is a story that has been
handed down. I've never questioned. My faith
in history leaves with me little doubt that it
happened.
If I were questioning the existence of God, I
would aim right at the heart of the matter - the
birth and resurrection of Jesus. If you could
convince a man it never happened you could
start closing churches and temples right now.
Doubt. A sturdy faith can bear a lot of doubt.
Believers build muscles by raising questions.
We have to go back to the basics.
I can accept Jesus and his works by faith.
You can’t prove everything scientifically. I
can’t hit the remote control and get a live, play
by-play of the great event that happened in
Bethlehem nearly 2,000 years ago. But I can
read and I can believe.
It's been nine Christmases since I’ve seen
Father Tracey but I'm expecting a message on a
beautiful handwritten card soon.
"Keep the faith, son,." it always says.
"Believe in the miracles of Christ."
The Meeting Place
Peach County Commission - meets every
second Tuesday of month in jury room of court
house at 6 p.m.
Fort Valley City Council - meets every third
Thursday of month in courtroom at city hall at 7:30
p.m.
Board of Education - meets every first Tues¬
day of month in board office on Vineville at 7:30
p.m.
Byron City Council -- meets every first Mon¬
day of month at the old school at 7 p.m.
Utility Commission - meets every second
Monday of month in courtroom at city hall at 7:30
p.m.
Hospital Authority - meets every fourth Thurs¬
day of month in hospital conference room at 9 a.m.
The Leader-Tribune Wednesday, November 22,1995
COLUMNISTS
Clinton hoping you'll forgive and forget e e e
In the past few weeks, the American people have
heard one apology after another from the president. One
wonders why he feels the need to vet himself in public
so often.
At a Houston fund-raiser in mid-October, the president
confessed he had raised our taxes too much:
“Probably there are people in this room still mad at me
at that budget because you think I raised your taxes too
much,” the president said. “It might surprise you to
know that I think I raised them too much, too.”
In attempting to take back his statement the next day,
Clinton blamed it on not following his mother’s
admonition that someone should never give talks after 7
p.m.
At the end of October, after months of saying it would
take ten years, rather then seven, to balance the budget
— and harshly criticizing Republicans for moving too
fast — Clinton admitted: “Well, I think we could reach
it in seven years."
Last week, in a rambling, one-hour phone call to
nationally-syndicated columnist Ben Wattenberg, who
recently released a book critical of the president,
Clinton admitted his presidency had drifted to the left
and that his welfare reform and education initiatives had
been failures.
The following are excerpts from Wattenberg’s
interview with our nation’s leader, as published in The
Washington Times on November 2:
I [Wattenberg] said I had not been pleased with his
welfare bill, which I thought was soft and weak. He
[Clinton] agreed, saying, ‘I wasn’t pleased with it
I can't join the attacks on television talk shows
What's wrong with me?
I can't seem to get into a spasm of cultural and moral
superiority that would allow me to join in the attacks on
the talk shows of Sally and Ricki and Montel and the
like.
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, Sen. Joseph
Lieberman (D-Conn.) and others are trying to shame
TV hosts and stations into abandoning what they call
“sleazy” shows that feature and exploit “freaks.
I admit to being amazed that so many Americans are
willing to appear on these “talk’ shows to spill their
guts about intimate, abnormal, often painful, aspects of
their lives. But my
dictionary says a
“freak” is some Carl
kind of monstrosity,
a word 1 would not Rowan
apply to a young
woman who
complains that her Syndicated
mother stole her
boyfriend and gets Columnist v.
both Mom and the
___
boyfriend to talk about it on TV.
Am I supposed to look down on a battered woman
who tells of the horrors of her marriage—or “live-in”
relationship—on a television talk show? The Justice
Department says there are 572,000 cases of battered
females reported every year and probably a
larger.number of unreported cases. It is not sleazy to air
real cases of spousal abuse on television just because
some “highclass” women are made uncomfortable when
“low-class” women tell the ugly, self-humiliating truth
about a very serious problem.
Most talk show producers find amazingly titillating
and provocative ways to deal with issues such as incest,
marital infidelity, runaway teenagers, teenage
pregnancy, venereal diseases, homosexuality, alcohol
and drug addictions, interracial sex and, of course,
fornication in all its permutations. But these are all
compelling problems and widely felt issues in America.
Tne talk show people merely TALK trash; the soaps
simulate lurid, dirty behavior in living color; and HBO,
Showtime, many other networks and Hollywood give us
graphic, steamy versions of sexual intercourse as early
as 8 p.m., complete with gratuitous breasts-and buttocks
nudity.
Bennett and Co., like all the morality cops of our time,
swear that they don’t advocate censorship. But many of
their conservative disciples are screaming for boycotts
and other pressures on advertisers who sponsor
Donahue, lenny, Leeza, Geraldo and others. Such
boycotts are a form of censorship.
There’s a measure of self-preservation in my refusal to
join Bennett and Lieberman. I’ve been on a political
talk show, “Inside Washington,” for more than 30 years.
During such times as the Watergate scandal, the Iranian
hostage crisis, the S & L thievery, and this very day,
some offended pols have regarded OUR talk show as
blasphemous of presidents and congressional leaders
and thus inimical to ‘a stable government.”
I figure that to protect my right to free speech I’d
better also protect hose of Maury Povich, and even the
rights of Jerry Springer.
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either. m
“He agreed with my
analysis in the book that
his plan, ‘Goals 2000,’
started out as a fine piece COVERDELL
of work, but didn’t end
up that way.”
“He [Clinton] says that
in 1993 and 1994 he was U.S. Senator
too interested in the
‘legislative scorecard
rather than in philosophy.’ He was ‘so anxious to fix the
economy’ that he ‘changed philosophically and missed
the boat.’ He ‘lost the language’... After the 1994
election, he realized he
These apologies are classic Clinton. 1 throughout
political career, whenever he gets in trouble, he thinks if
he just apologizes, voters will forgive and forget In
1982, former Gov. Bill Clinton, beaten by a dark horse
candidate in 1980, began his bid to retake the office
with a public apology to the people of Arkansas. In a
TV commercial, Clinton said he wished he hadn’t raised
their tag and transfer fees. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Clinton describes himself in his own words as a
president who doesn’t know what he stands for or where
he wants to lead the country. No wonder The Wall
Street Journal characterized recent polling results as a
“Crisis of Confidence” in his presidency. On November
2, a Wall Street Joumal/NBC News poll found that 70
percent were “not very confident” that Clinton “has the
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Let's have a balanced or else • • •
So far, at least, this year’s fight to balance the federal
budget is a lot like last
year’s fight over health
care reform. Sanford
Remember health care
reform? Bishop
For nearly two years,
the White House and
leaders of both parties in u.s.
Congress talked about Congressman
overhauling the badly
broken system. Then,
after raising
expectations, they lapsed into a prolonged period of
partisan conflict and gridlock. Although both sides
agreed on many of the most critically needed reforms,
they were never able to get beyond the political
differences that stood in the way of a reasonable
agreement. The debate eventually fizzled out without a
vote ever being cast, leaving Americans more
discouraged, disgusted, and eager for political upheaval
than ever.
Expectations have now been raised over balancing the
federal budget Both sides agree a long range budget¬
balancing plan should be passed. They differ over
details.
The Republican leadership plan cuts Medicare,
Medicaid, student loans, school meals, veterans’
services, farm programs, and other safety-net programs
much deeper than necessary in order to provide tax
right set of personal characteristics to be president”
Clinton’s waffling, back-tracking and uncertain
leadership stand in stark contrast to Republicans in
Congress who ran on a positive, specific agenda for
change and have done exactly what they said they
would do — and what the country voted for.
Republicans have not wavered from the fundamental
principles our party believes in — smaller government,
lower taxes, more personal responsibility. Shortly,
Republicans will send to the presidents desk — without
apologies or excuses — the first balanced budget in 26
years; a plan to preserve, protect and strengthen
Medicare which still allows Medicare spending to
increase for every senior, every year; genuine welfare
reform that emphasizes work, families, and hope for the
future; and tax cuts for families and for economic
growth and job creation.
It would be the height of hypocrisy for Clinton to veto
these measures since he now admits Republicans have
been right all along: We can balance the budget in seven
years; we can allow Medicare spending to increase, but
at a slower rate; we can have tough work requirements
for able-bodied welfare recipients; and we can lower
taxes on hard-working American families.
If President Clinton is really sincere in his new-found
views on taxes, the budget, and welfare reform, he
should sign the Republican bill and let us bring about
the change American voted for — before he changes his
mind, again.
breaks mainly for people earning $100,000 and up
while balancing the budget in seven years. An
alternative plan by conservative House Democrats,
which I support, balances the budget in the same length
of time without such deep cuts in these programs. The
alternative envisions tax breaks after the budget is
balanced rather than before.
The difference is not about tax breaks, but the timing
of tax breaks.
If a reasonable compromise was to be reached in the
health care debate, the President and Democratic
leaders in Congress had to take the first step by
yielding to some degree on several key differences.
They refused. In the budget debate. Republican
leaders must bend on tax breaks. Democrats controlled
the White House and Congress last year, and they
primarily took the blame for the health care debacle.
This year, control is shared by both sides. And both
risk taking the blame if nothing is done to balance the
budget.
So far, Republican leaders have refused to yield on
tax cuts for the wealthy and deeper-than necessary
program cuts. But they cannot override a Presidential
veto.
If their plan is vetoed as expected, real negotiations
can begin. Last year’s opportunity to make progress on
health care form was lost. Let’s hope this year’s ending
is happier.
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