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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Long to speak at FVSU luncheon
Lithonia pastor to deliver Black
History Month Observance
Scholarship Luncheon address
Special to the HHJ
FORT VALLEY - Bishop
Eddie L. Long, pastor of the
New Birth Missionary
Baptist Church in Lithonia,
will be the guest speaker at
Fort Valley State
University’s 18th Annual
Black History Month
Observance Luncheon, Feb.
21, on the FVSU campus.
According to FVSU offi
cials, Long will speak at the
noon luncheon in the uni
versity’s new Health and
Physical Education
Complex. The luncheon will
follow an 11:30 a.m. press
conference at the same site.
Since becoming pastor of
the New Birth Cathedral,
Long has seen his congrega
tion grow from 300 to
25,000. Under his direction,
the church has expanded
from a 500-seat chapel to
include a 3,700-seat sanctu
ary, a 5,000-seat Family Life
Center and a 10,500-seat
complex.
Long earned a bachelor’s
degree in business adminis
tration from North Carolina
Central University and a
master’s of divinity degree
from Atlanta’s
With Republicans in charge, what can the social right expect?
By KRISTEN WYATT
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA - They’ve
toiled in the vineyards for
years, and now social con
servatives in Georgia can
rest assured their work will
pay off. Republicans control
the full Legislature and the
governor’s office. Surely,
some may think, the laws
long yearned for by the
social right will have no
trouble breezing through
the Capitol.
Or will they?
The GOR set to begin its
historic first session in full
control of Georgia’s govern
ment since Reconstruction,
is getting a barrage of
requests for conservative
social measures when they
take office.
Ideas that include waiting
periods for women seeking
abortions. A law to shield
county courthouses that
choose to display the Ten
Commandments. A boost to
faith-based charities by
repealing a state ban on
spending tax dollars on reli
gious groups. Maybe even a
renewed ban on gay mar
riage, that is, if a judge
throws out the constitution
al amendment resoundingly
approved by Georgia voters
in November.
But political watchers and
even Republicans them
selves warn that all will not
be smooth sailing for the
religious right, even if they
feel they’ve been good and
faithful servants to the GOP
for so long that they’re due a
payback in the form of
socially conservative laws.
That’s because Georgia
Republicans have a long
wish list of things they’d
like to get done, not just
social matters. And they
may be looking to attack less
controversial bills first while
they get their lawmaking
legs under them.
At a glance
Social issues that may come up in the Georgia Legislature in 2005:
ABORTION WAITING PERIOD:
Republicans say the social matter most
likely to be approved in 2005 will be a bill
mandating 24-hour waiting periods and a
doctor’s lecture for women seeking abor
tions. The bill passed the Senate in 2003,
but never came to a vote in the
Democrat-controlled House.
FAITH-BASED CHARITIES: Expect to
see a revival of a constitutional amend
ment repealing the state’s ban on tax dol
lars going to religious groups, including
charities. Gov. Sonny Perdue advocated
the amendment in 2003, but it also
stalled in the House.
TEN COMMANDMENTS: It’s possible,
Interdenominational
Theological Center. He has
been awarded honorary doc
torate degrees from NCCU
and the Beulah Heights
Bible College of Atlanta.
Long, founder and CEO of
New Birth’s Faith Academy
and vice chair of the
Morehouse School of
Religion’s Board of
Directors, is listed as one of
America’s 125 most influen
tial leaders. His honors
include the Legacy Award
from Big Brothers Big
Sisters of Metro Atlanta;
and the Distinguished
Leadership Award from the
Urban League.
Long ‘ s messages on video
and audio tapes are broad
cast in more than 170 coun
tries. His books include “I
Don’t Want Delilah, I Need
You,” “Called to Conquer”
and “Taking Over.”
Traditionally the annual
Black History Month
Observance Scholarship
Program is the University’s
annual scholarship fund
raiser for the C.W. Pettigrew
Endowment Fund. Named
for Cleveland W. Pettigrew,
“I think the average voter
is more concerned with,
‘How am I going to get to
work down Georgia 400?
And what about my rising
property tax bill? And my
child’s education?’ That’s a
lot more important to most
people than whether there’s
the Ten Commandments in
the courthouse,” said Rep.
Fran Millar, a Dunwoody
Republican who is entering
his eighth year in the
Legislature.
Republican lawmakers
were vague about what
social matters they would be
willing to tackle. The so
called Women’s Right To
Know Bill, which would
mandate a 24-hour waiting
period for any women seek
ing an abortion, is likely the
first on the list.
The measure has passed
the Senate, which has been
controlled by Republicans
for two years now, but
stalled in the Democrat-con
trolled House. Now that the
GOP is also in charge of the
House, lawmakers said to
look for that bill to be quick
ly revived.
Another likely topic for
debate will be a faith-based
charities measure first
pushed by Republican Gov.
Sonny Perdue. That would
be a constitutional amend
ment repealing the state’s
prohibition of tax dollars
going to religious groups,
which prevents religious
charities from competing for
state grants.
The federal government
has already changed its
rules to allow religious char
ities to compete for public
funds, as long as the money
is not used to proselytize.
Georgia’s proposed rules
would be similar.
Lawmakers seemed less
likely to take up a Ten
Commandments bill, for
several reasons.
but unlikely, that lawmakers will vote to
shield counties from lawsuits over Ten
Commandments displays in courthouses.
The bill could potentially cost millions,
and lawmakers will probably just wait for
the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the
question, given that a Ten
Commandments case is slated to be con
sidered by the nation’s highest court.
GAY MARRIAGE: If a court throws out
the state’s constitutional ban on gay mar
riage, expect the Legislature to revisit the
topic to write a ban that would withstand
court scrutiny.
- By The Associated Press
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BISHOP EDDIE L. LONG
FVSU’s fourth president,
the fund provides scholar
ships, encourages faculty
development, expands aca
demic programs and
enhances student enrich
ment activities. To date, fed
eral grants and contribu
tions to the Endowment
Fund have surpassed $2.8
million. Beginning this year,
funds raised from the lunch
eon will not be placed in the
Endowment but used for
scholarships immediately.
First, it was pushed last
year by a Republican law
maker (Rep. Lynn
Westmoreland of Newnan)
who has left the Legislature
for Congress. Second, the
proposal would call for the
state attorney general to
pick up the defense tab for
any lawsuit filed over a Ten
Commandments display, an
idea some may support in
principle but not want to
enact given the state’s tight
budget. Finally, state law
makers are inclined to sit
back on the issue now that
the U.S. Supreme Court has
agreed to take a Ten
Commandments case, prob
ably by next February.
The Georgia GOP is
unlikely to run away with a
batch of social bills, even
though their conservative
stances helped put them in
power, said Mike Digby, a
political scientist at Georgia
College & State University.
“Every party is a coalition
of a lot of different groups,”
Digby said. “While the
Republican majority is due
in part to the votes of the
Christian right, it’s also due
in part to votes that are
much more secular.”
In other words, evangeli
cal Republicans who consid
er social matters like abor
tion to be the most impor
tant will have to compete for
attention with Republicans
who think a smaller state
budget or civil-lawsuit
reforms are more pressing.
“Some parts of the coali
tion are not nearly as tuned
in to the Christian right,”
Digby said.
Even a former head of the
Georgia Christian Coalition
agreed. Rep. Jerry Keen, R-
St. Simons Island, who once
led the coalition and recent
ly was elected state House
Majority Leader, said any
one who expects his reli
gious leanings to drive his
LOCAL
Fort Valley State
University has distin
guished itself as an out
standing institution of high
er learning by providing
educational opportunities
for American youth for more
than 100 years.
Tickets for the luncheon
are SSO. To purchase tickets
or for more information on
the luncheon, contact
Keishon Thomas at (478)
822-1062 or Janice Nelson
at(478)825-6474.
agenda would be wrong.
“The first priority is going
to be the budget,” he said,
then disputed the idea that
Republicans owe legislation
to religious voters who have
supported them. Even very
religious voters, Keen said,
were wooed to the GOP
slowly, by more than a prom
ise of action on abortion or
some other matter.
“This is not something
where everybody got up one
Sunday, ran to the church
pews and got them to vote,”
Keen said.
Still, the Republicans can
not afford to ignore their
religious base. For years the
GOP has taunted that rul
ing Democrats were afraid
to let social matters come to
a vote, a charge that was
mostly true. Now the GOP
needs to walk the walk, as it
were, and allow debate on
social matters even if they
don’t all agree, said the Rev.
Ray Newman, a public
affairs specialist for the
Georgia Baptist Convention.
“Some of these things
have been introduced and
reintroduced and never had
a chance to come out and be
debated or to come to a
vote,” Newman said. “So
that’s what I’m hoping wall
be one difference. It remains
to be seen whether that will
happen.”
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VERNIE G. STEWART
WARNER ROBINS - Vernie G. Stewart, 62,
of Warner Robins, died Jan. 2, 2005. Funeral
services will be held at a later date in Illinois.
The family received friends from 7-9 p.m.
Monday at Heritage Memorial Funeral Home,
Stewart, a native of Muskogee, Okla., was the son of the
late Theodore Stewart and Lorene Peterson Ricketts. He
was retired from the U.S. Army and was employed at Robins
Air Force Base.
Survivors include his wife Linda L. Stewart of Warner
Robins; children: Michael S. Stewart, Bradley Meek, Terry
Meek and Sandy Flynn; three brothers; two sisters; five
grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis,
TN 38105.
Heritage Memorial Funeral Home has charge of arrange
ments.
BILL TRAYNER
WARNER ROBINS - William “Bill” Douglas
Trayner, 81, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 1,
2005, at his home. Services were held at 11
a.m. Monday, Jan. 3, 2005, in the chapel of
McCullough Funeral Home, with interment
following in Glen Haven Memorial Gardens. Visitation was
from 4 until 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 2, at McCullough Funeral
Home. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be
made to Hospice of Houston County 103 Westridge Drive,
Warner Robins, GA 31088.
Bill was born in Blythel, England, to the late Danniel and
Louisa Trayner. He served during World War II in the U.S.
Air Force and retired from civil service at Robins Air Force
Base as chief of Production Control. He was a member of
the Masonic Tyrian Lodge, Moose Lodge and NCO Club.
His wife, Billie Hubbs Trayner and son, Danny Trayner
preceded him in death.
Survivors include his children, Gail Trayner of Yuba City,
Calif., Doug Trayner of Jacksonville, Fla., David Trayner of
Warner Robins, Denice Layfield of Warner Robins, Brian
Trayner of Jacksonville, Fla.; 10 grandchildren; 11 great
grandchildren.
Go to www.mcculloughfh.com to sign the Online Registry
for the family. McCullough Funeral Home has charge of
arrangements.
ELIZABETH NIX OZMORE TUCKER
WARNER ROBINS - Elizabeth Nix Ozmore Tucker, 87,
passed away on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004, in Ellijay. Services
were held at 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 3, in the chapel of
McCullough Funeral Home, with interment following in
Glen Haven Cemetery. Visitation was from 6 until 8 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 2, at McCullough Funeral Home. In lieu of
flowers, the family suggests donations be made to Shirley
Hills Baptist Church Building Fund, 615 Corder Road,
Warner Robins, GA 31088.
Tucker was born in Leary. She was a homemaker and also
retired from civil service at Robins Air Force Base. She was
a member of Shirley Hills Baptist Church and the
Keenagers group. She was predeceased by her husbands,
Walter Mervin Ozmore and John Thomas (J.T.) Tucker, and
her daughter Sheila Y. Cummins.
Survivors include her children, Walter Ray Ozmore
(Gwen) of Ellijay, Carlos Dwight Ozmore of Jacksonville,
Fla., Judy Elizabeth Micik (Joe) of Warner Robins; son-in
law, Robert Cummins of Byron; 10 grandchildren; 14 great
grandchildren.
Go to www mcculloughfh.com to sign the Online Registry
for the family. McCullough Funeral Home has charge of
arrangements.
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