page 4
monday, february 4, 1980
daily nebraskan
(opOKlOK(SOrO
Eeligioms' spBakei policy too vague
An irresistible force swept into the Nebraska
Union Wednesday evening-and promptly met
an immovable object.
Josh McDowell, Christian activist, returned
to UNL after a five-year absence to speak on
the physical evidence pointing to the resur
rection of Jesus Christ. And, as it is wont to
do, history repeated itself.
' Angry students have charged that McDowell
violated university rules.
According to those rules, "University facilit
ies will not be available for any organized event
or activity if one of the essential features is
religious worship or testimony in any of its
various forms."
' Some students contend McDowell gave testi
mony, McDowell counters that he stopped
short of doing; so, and UNL administrators,
caught in the middle, say they're not sure. Al
though officials in charge of student affairs on
the three NU campuses are reviewing religion
policy , they currently are unable to say
whether or not McDowell broke the rules.
Perhaps they never will reach that decision.
The definition of testimony is subjective
enough that what is testimony for one is intel
lectual argument for another.
Jim Raglin, director of public affairs for the
office of the NU president, said there would be
no violation of NU policy if McDowell's speech
was an intellectual discussion of .religion.
McDowell agreed to discuss the intellectual side
of religion, but the problem which surfaced
Wednesday is -that religion springs more from
the heart than the head. Efforts to separate the
two are doomed to failure.
. The university policy toward religious speak
ers is too vague to be workable. It also may be
indefensible from a legal standpoint.
It is clear, that the university's policy toward
religious speakers and the content of religious
speeches on campus are incompatible. The uni
versity must either change the rules or change
the speech. The first option is the better of the
two and the current policy should be modified
or abandoned.
As long as the Josh McDowells receive no
student fees, they should be welcome on
campus. Those who do not wish to hear them
can stay home.
We realize that university administrators were
treading the line separating church and state
when they made' the rules, but in retrospect,
aside from some overzealous advertising, the
Josh McDowell speech was relatively harmless.
Mike Sweeney
Got a beef about the DN?
Ombudsper son will listen
tt tifcs editor
By Liz Austin
Well, the editor didn't take any "unex
pected" stands, so it has really beeji a calm
week at the Daily Nebraskan.
readers were upset because they apparently
liked a movie that 'the Daily " Nebraskan
reviewer did not. ;
A movie review is the opinion of the
writer and is not meant to be taken as the
DTjOfeDI(So)ffSiD.
Complaints this week have been fairly gospel truth. If they write as if they are an
minor, but the minor things are important expert on the subject, it is because they
too, especially to the reader making the actually are. After all, isn't everyone an
. expert on their own opinion?
Ot course there are things in the Daily.
Nebraskan that offend some readers that
never occurred to anyone on the staff.
These things are not done maliciously and
the best thing that can be done is to have
' them pointed out to the staff, so that more
complaint. The ombudsperson office is de- thought can be put into it if the same issue
signed to handle complaints, so readers comes up again.
with criticisms are encouraged to contact Other complaints stem not from what is
the ombudsperson. in the Daily Nebraskan.but what is not.
The complaints also have been fairly The Daily Nebraskan does its best to make
arbitrary. They range anywhere from a sure all campus organizations get equal
complaint about a factual error in a story - coverage and usually does a good' job.
to disagreement with a movie review. However, sometimes it misses things and
With any factual error the Daily Ne- this is usually because it was, unaware of
braskan will print a correction it-it learns the event.
of the mistake within a reasonable period In other words readers should let the
of time. Daily Nebraskan know if it is missing
But a review is a different story. Many something.
The present system of filling U.S.
military ranks is working smoothly and
effectively. It would be unwise to abandon
that , system in favor of the creation of
another government bereaucracy-selective
service.
The all-volunteer army is a success. The
goals set by nationwide recruiters have
been met until only this past year, Accord
ing to Staff Sgt, Jim Vanderslice of the
Lincoln Army Recruiting Office, this past
year that goal was missed by only 1 per
cent. The other military forces boast
similar figures.
This, 1 percent miss on filling military
enlistment goals does not merit action
being considered by President Carter. His
planned Selective Service program would
cost American taxpayers $10 million, .
according to U.S. News and World Report.
Do the recent developments in Afghanistan
merit this?
Hardly, The last time Afghanistan was
in the news the U.S. Ambassador had just
been murdered and a pro-Soviet regime in
stalled. That action, in 1978, resulted in
little response by the Carter administration
other than a cutoff of American foreien
aid. Last month when the pro-Soviet Amin
government was about to fall, the Soviets
honored an economic and military treaty
signed in 1978 with their Afghanistan ally.
While the invasion of one country by
another cannot be condoned, Afghanistan
is little loss to the United States. Afghani
stan was a USSR satellite before the invas
ion and remains one. today, The invasion
of Afghanistan did not signal the loss of a
U.S. ally. ,
It is true that more men are needed in
the military. However, registration is not
the answer. Military recruiting goals should
be raised. These new goals easily could be
met. The beginning pay being offered by
the military begins as low as $5385.60
yearly. Even when benefits such as
housing, food, clothing, retirement and job
training are added, the figure is increased
only to the Navy's self-professed $8500,
According to - the U,S, Bureau of the
Census, the average American male with
less than eight years TOTAL education
earns $9500, High school graduates with
any college more than double the figure, If
military pay increases are implemented so
the military is competitive with the civilian
world, higher recruiting goals will be met,
Continued on page 5
Perceived 'rift' between blacks, Jews misread
WASHINGTON -Just last fall, news
papers were running stories on the new
"black Jewish rift," a supposed falling out
of old allies in the aftermath-of Andrew
Young's removal as U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations.
ii U
nnnnl n"Nrv"v'"N wmm
It now turns out that the "rift" was
more figmentation than fragmentation-at
least so far as blacks are concerned,
' Hie first survey , by the newly formed
Data Black Public Opinion Polls Inc.
reveals that black Americans remain more
favorably disposed toward Jews than
toward virtually any other American
minority except Hispanics, and even then
by only a slight margin.
The question, asked of 1,146 black
Americans between Nov. 23, 1979, and
Jan. 2, 1980, was: "How do you feel about
each of the following groups (Irish,
Italians, Jews, Hispanics, White Anglo-
Saxon Protestants)?" Possible choices were
"very favorable," "somewhat favorable,"
"neutral," "somewhat unfavorable ," "very
unfavorable" and "not sure,"
Jews and Hispanics were tied for the
most favorable responses (41. percent),
though 11 percent recorded negative feel
ings about Jews to only'6 percent negative
responses toward Hispanics. Thirty -eight
percent described themselves as "neutral" .
toward Jews, compared to 37 percent for
Hispanics.
As to which minorities blacks thought
were most favorable toward them, Jews led
Hispanics by 35 to 33 percent. Blacks liked
WASPs least of all the groups and also
thought they were least well-liked by
WASPs. In every case, blacks said they
liked other minorities more than they felt
they were liked by them.
But blacks, according to the survey
released last Thursday, make a distinction
between their attitudes toward American
Jews and their support of Israel and its
Mid-East policies.
For instance, when asked which country
or group they most supported in the
Middle East conflict. 22 percent of the
respondents named Egypt. Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization were tied
for second at 11, percent, followed by 7
percent for other Arab states. Twenty -eight
percent were unsure of their sympathies.
In short, it appears that what was
widely read as a rift between blacks and
Jews is. nothing more than a difference of
opinion on specific policy questions.
Interestingly, these nuances in black
opinion may never have been revealed
through the more popular public opinion
polls. For while most of the pollsters make
a point of including blacks in their samples,
the total number of blacks in their surveys
is too small to provide more than the most
general of conclusions.
Indeed, it is that very shortcoming in
most polls that led to the creation of Data
Black, a joint venture of groups headed by
Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, a psychologist, and
Percy Sutton, Manhattan Borough presi
dent. Other responses in the first of the
quarterly surveys planned by Data Black
reveal a tendency of black Americans to
see themselves in two distinct lights: as
blacks and as Americans.
For instance, asked what they consider
ed the most important problems facing the
United States today, the respondents listed
Iran at the top, followed in order by
inflation, unemployment and energy. But
unemployment was seen as the No. 1
problem facing black Americans, followed
by racism, job discrimination and housing.
Similarly, the survey indicates that
blacks think Jimmy Carter is doing a good
job as President (though they don't rate
him quite as high as do white Americans),
but the overall response was negative when
the question was how well Carter is keep
ing his promises to blacks.
The survey also found that black3 are
somewhat less supportive of legalized
abortion than are Americans generally,
with only 19 percent holding that abortion
should be legal under virtually all circum
stances. But despite the relatively weak support
of abortion, nearly two-thirds of the res
pondents favored the use of government
funds to pay tor the abortions oi poor
women. This is higher than most compar
able national figures.
(c) 1980. Tht Washington Pott Company