Wednesday, November 17, 1982
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
ditoria
Nuclear issue
is naturally
moral, political
Those who complain that the Catholic
Church is still living in the Middle Ages
should be pleased with this week's bishop's
conference.
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops
Monday began a four-day meeting of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Their main topic is a 105-page pastoral
letter condemning the use of nuclear wea
pons. The letter is strongly worded and
controversial and should eradicate criti
cism that the Catholic Church is behind
the times.
Pastoral letters are meant to help
Catholics form their opinions on particular
moral questions. If Catholics choose to
follow the nuclear war letter then nearly
50 million U.S. citizens (the church's
membership) will: 1) condemn "first use"
of all nuclear weapons, 2) urge a bilateral
freeze on development and deployment of
such nuclear weapons and 3) promote
skepticism of the deterrence policies of
the United States and the Soviet Union.
But the letter discusses more than a
moral issue. It outlines a highly volatile
political issue.
A leader at the bishop's conference,
Archbishop Joseph L. Bemardin of
Chicago, said meshing the political and
moral aspects of an issue is natural for
the Catholic Church.
"Because the nuclear issue is not simply
political, but also a profoundly moral
and religious question, the church must
be a participant in protecting the world
and its people from the spectre of nuclear
destruction," Bernardin said in a Los
Angeles Times' article.
But not all of the bishops agree with
Bernardin's stance.
The archbishop of New Orleans, La.,
Philip Hannon, said the pastoral letter
would unnecessarily involve the church
in national defense issues and the 1984
presidential campaign.
Hannon said the letter does not
emphasize the evils of communism and
"ignores the need for qualitative equality
in weapons and the need for research to
protect ourselves and Eastern Europe."
And a third archbishop, John Roach of
St. Paul-Minneapolis, made the obvious
connection between the church's stand on
abortion and nuclear weapons.
"Concern for human life is the nexus
between our positions on these two large
issues." he said.
We tend to agree with Bernardin and
Roach. The church has long associated
itself with protection of human rights.
Consistency alone mandates a firm "anti
nuke" stand on the nuclear weapons issue.
If pastoral letters arc to be a meaningful
guide for Catholics and other Christians,
they must deal with issues that are at times
both moral and political.
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Letters
Mormonism explained
The recent focus of attention of Mor
monism has been instructive on the diffi
culty of obtaining an accurate under
standing of the faith and beliefs of
others. The letter titled "Let the reader
decide" quoted from a non-Mormon source
concening Mormon teachings. The problem
with this is the (probably unintentional)
distortion of the facts.
For example, the statement that Mor
mons believe Christ was born through
sexual relations with God and Mary is
untrue. It is true that a few Mormon
individuals have expressed this opinion.
But mainstream Mormons and official
Mormon doctrine do not go beyond the
teachings of the Bible. Simply put, we
don't know any more about how this
event occurred than anyone else.
Another error concerns faith and good
works. True, there is an emphasis on
these teachings within the Mormon church,
but salvation comes through the grace of
Christ (Book of Mormon & Bible
teachings).
The grossest error was the paragraph
concerning the covenants of the temple.
The covenants obligate the individual to:
be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and
pure; devote both talent and material
means to the spread of truth; maintain
devotion to the cause of truth; and seek
in every way to prepare the earth to
receive her King the Lord Jesus Christ.
These covenants are sacred to Mor
mons. On a personal level, a covenant (or
promise) is sacred when an individual
feels within his heart that he would rather
die than break the covenant. Have not
all true Christians felt they would rather
die than deny Christ? Thus it is with the
temple covenants. The individual feels
that devotion to the truth is more im
portant than life itself.
.The letter's author asked some funda
mentally important questions: "You say
you believe in God, but who is it?",
"What think ye of Christ?" and "What
is your interpretation of the Bible?".
According to Mormons, the answers to
these questions form the issues that divide
the "universal Christian church" into
several hundred diverse fragments.
Such a comparative study of specific
doctrinal differences among Christians is
worthy of a special issue of the Daily
Nebraskan. Less space could not do the
subject justice. Might I recommend that
only authorized sources from each reli
gion studied be used as sources? There
is really no such thing as complete ob
jectivity on matters of religion.
Bronson Gardner
graduate, agricultural meteorology
Letters policy
The Daily Nebraskan encourages brief
letters to the editor from all readers and
interested others.
Letters will be selected for publica
tion on the basis of clarity, originality,
timeliness and space available in the news
paper. Submit all material to the Daily Nebra
skan. Room 34. Nebraska Union, 1400
R St.. Lincoln. Neb. 6K5XX.
There are
other nations
besides U.S.
A friend of mine says most people in
the United States don't care about what
happens in other countries. I have to
agree with her. ,
Of course, she happens to be an Aust
ralian foreign exchange law student, so
she is somewhat biased. But then again,
who isn't.
Ann (her real name) said many of
the Americans she has spoken to have
little or no idea about what is going on
in other countries, and don't really care.
(. ir Bob
) X Glissmann
Most of the press coverage of foreign
events is set in this context too. I tried to
reinforce this notion by watching tele
vision coverage of Soviet President Brezh
nev's death and the selection of his suc
cessor, the former CIA (oops, I mean
KGB) director Yuri Andropov. NBC
had a half-hour program on this topic
Monday night, but unfortunately for my
theory, they talked about how the change
could affect Russia's economy and how
people in Western Europe and Israel
felt about the change.
But on the whole, I still think most
of us believe that an event in a foreign
country isn't important unless it affects
the United States.
This could have a lot to do with our
proximity to other countries. European
countries, on the other hand, are so close
to one another that the people in those
countries seem to have a greater stake
in what goes on a few hundred miles away.
That would be a good excuse for us
not being up on events, but we're right
north of Mexico, which has all sorts of
trouble. And we're not too far from
El Salvador or Nicaragua, which aren't
exactly boring places to be right now.
Nevertheless, there is that sense of physi
cal separation between South America
and North America (Australia has an
even stronger argument on this point,
but Ann said she thought the average
Australian was more aware of world
events than the average American. So
figure that one out.)
You can always say, though, that
simple knowledge of something without
a resultant action isn't exceedingly valu
able, but I don't want to get into that.
I've never even taken a philosophy course.
Anyway, UNL offers a lot of solutions
to the problem of world ignorance. There
are classes in Asian Studies, African Stud
ies, Ethnic Studies, International Studies.
Modern Languages, Western European
Studies and various courses throughout
the schools and colleges that address
issues in those countries.
Continued on Page 5
Parents wait for daughter who didn 't come home
It must be the most numbing, grief-bringing feeling
in the world. You raise a child from the time she is a
baby. You provide for her, teach her about life, worry
about her at night, try lo steer her in the right direction.
She becomes a part of you.
One morning she walks out the door as usual.
You never see her again.
Bob Greene
It happened to William and Else Habinyak of Park
Ridge, Ili. Their daughter Elza, 21, lived at home with
them, she was a student at the New-Way Barber College
in Chicago. This fit in with a family plan; the Habinyaks
operate a barber shop and a beauty salon located side
by side in Morton Grove, 111., and when Elza finished
school, she was going to join them in the business.
On April 13, 1981, Elza had breakfast at home, said
goodbye to her parents and went to the barber college
She attended classes all day. She left the barber college
late that afternoon: that much is known. She did not
return to her parents' house, that night or any other
night. In the more than a year that has passed, they have
not seen her.
"All I can think is that someone took her from the
barber college," said her father. He was born in Yugo
slavia, and still carries a thick accent. "I was at the school,
and nobody knows nothing. But somebody has to know
something."
Habinyak and his wife have virtually given up their
lives since the day Elza disappeared. They spend all of
their free time trying to find their daughter. Habinyak
has contacted all local police agencies and has spent
$6,000 on private detectives. He has come up with
nothing.
"She never said anything about leaving," Habinyak
said. "That morning she said goodbye to us like she
did every day. We said 'Be careful' like we said every
day. She said 'Yes, I know.' She walked out. We never
saw her again.
"She didn't take any money with her. She didn't
take any clothes, other than what she was wearing.
She had a checking account, and no checks were written
after that morning. She had a savings account, and no
money was taken out of it after that morning. She just
vanished from our lives."
After questioning various street sources, police in
vestigators and private detectives theorize that she left
home voluntarily, with a man a man involved with
drugs and petty crime. They do not believe Elza is dead.
They believe she is still on the streets - at this point
whether voluntarily or not, they cannot say.
"It appears to be definitely voluntary, at least
initially," said Elroy Bernet, a police officer who is
working on the case on his own time. "She has been
seen alive. Whether she has been given narcotics at some
time, and what has happened after that, we don't know.
"The mother and father are very emotionally upset,
as you can imagine. They can't understand why the
police can't find their daughter. They're from the old
country, and they imagine the police stopping every;
one of the street and saying 'Where are your papers?
or going house to house looking for Elza.
Continued on Page 5