-/ ---- ■ *
Woman gives up church rather than ‘sin’
- u ~—-—-—
/ sued the church and lived; that was what I lived
for.
Multaney
woman who sued church
By Trish Spencer
Staff Reporter
“Four years ago today, I was offi
cially put on church discipline,” for
being a lesbian, Beth Mullaney told a
group of about 70 people gathered at
the C ulture Center on Friday to cele
brate Women’s Week 1991.
Mullaney, formerly Beth Hall, sad
she began attending Indian Hills
Community Church in 1979 because
she was "looking for a church that
ht the Bible.”
ight years later, on Feb. 8,1987,
Mullanev decided to leave the church
that had become a home, rather than
"turn from the sin” she was commit
ting.
Mullaney’s sis was lesbianism, or
immoral conduct, as the church saw
it, she said.
Mullaney said she dated men in
high school, but the relationships
“never lasted for more than two weeks."
Eventually she became engaged to a
man. But that didn’t last eimer and
MuBaney found herself involved with
a woman.
“It was the weirdest thing for me,”
she said. “I didn’t know how to deal
withiL”
Mullaaey, who still was attending
the church, began church counseling
le cope with the problems she faced
being the child of an alcoholic parent.
-- „ —
Ultimately, she revealed to the woman
counselor, who she said had become
like a mother, that she was in love
with another woman.
In accordance with the church’s
beliefs and the actions of church dis
cipline. Mullaney said, the counselor
told her that if she did not turn away
Prom her behavior, the head pastor of
counseling would have to be told.
The pastor was informed of her
conduct, and on March 1, 1987, a
pastor of the church told a group of
evening worshipers that Mullaney was
engaging in immoral conduct.
Mullaney said the pastor asked the
church members to pray for her for
two weeks and to talk with her to try
to encourage her to turn from her sin.
At the end of the two weeks, on
March 15, Mullaney was officially
placed on church discipline. By this
time she had quit the church.
She described church discipline as
taking place in six steps. She said she
was taken through the fourth.
The six sups, Mullaney said, are
to personally confront a sinner, and if
he or she does not turn away from sin,
to take another church member along
to talk to him or her again.
If the sins continue, tbe sinner is
brought in from of the Board of Eld
ers, and if he or she still does not turn
away, the “immoral conduct” is an
nounced to the body of the church.
The fifth step states that physical
sickness will overcome the sinner,
and the final step is death, Mullaney
said.
“The physical sickness and death
thing really scared me,” she said.
It also helped motivate her to take
legal action against the church in June
1987.
‘*1 sued the church and lived; that
was what I lived for,” MuHancy said.
She said she did not sue the church
to make it say lesbianism was accept
able, but for breach of confidentiality
and counseling.
On the fourth day of the triffl,
Mullaney decided to settie out of court
She said she felt she had accom
pli shed what she had set out to do.
Although Mullaney viewed the
outcome of the trial as a success, she
said it took medication, counseling
and time to finally bring her to accept
herself.
Lincoln houses system
Satellite teaching expands course availability
By Khd Spurlock
Staff Reporter
Lincoln is host to two nationwide satellite
teaching programs used recently in a congres
sional lobbying effort.
The two programs are a Japanese language
course taught to high school students nation
wide and the AG*SAT system that offers two
classes to college students.
Members of Congress saw the Japanese
language course beamed from Lincoln to stu
dents across the country and programs on the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln-based satel
lite agricultural network. The programs were
shown in an effort to increase funding for
educational public television.
The programs were designed to expand the
range of courses available at some schools.
Tim Cook, a Lincoln instructor who teaches
one of five Japanese language classes, said the
program is an efficient means of linking stu
dents.
Cook said that with the increasing popular
ity of the Japanese language in the last few
years, there are not enough Japanese instruc
tors to fill the demand for courses. With satel
lites, he said, one teacher cam be finked to
hundreds of students across the country.
The Japanese program, which first started m
January 1989 as a pilot program and was per
manently added in September 1989, reaches
more than 1,145 students in over 300 schools,
Cook said. Twenty-two of those schools are in
Nebraska.
Cook said half of the students taking part in
the program are from rural communities, and
the satellite program may be the only way some
students can leam Japanese.
The only real disadvantage of the satellite
program is that instructors cannot see if stu
dents understand and are not able to answer the
students’ questions immediately, Cook said.
Randall Bretz, program and operations
administrator for AG*SAT Corp., said that
because agricultural colleges can’t always find
teachers for aH courses, the agricultural satel
lite program helps to fill empty faculty slots.
UNL headquarters two credit courses of
fered through satellite television in 15 states.
Those courses, which began in January 1991,
are sustainable agriculture — taught at Iowa
State University to 200 students — and food
science — taught at Penn State University to
100 students, Bretz said.
He said the program offers several advan
tages. Students can hear and learn from some of
the leading faculty members around the nation
and from other students as well, he said.
Bretz added that in agriculture, students
may learn only about their state, but with a
satellite programs they can get a broader expo
sure to problems and solutions nationwide.
A disadvantage of the satellite is that there
isn’t enough interaction between the instructor
and the student or the student among other
students, he said.
But officials are working to increase student
interaction, he said, by providing three meth
ods of communication —calling directly to the
studio or to the faculty member’s office, faxing
questions to the instructor who will address
them and sharing information with most insti
tutions of higher learning by a nationwide
computer network.
POLICE REPORT-1'
Beginning midnight Thursday, March 14
9:56 a.m. — Harassing phone calls, McCol
lum Hall.
3:57 p.m. — Bike parts stolen, Veterinary
Basic Science Building, $30.
Beginning midnight Friday, March 15
9:53 a.m. — Car scratched, 17th and R
streets.
12:12 p.m. — Hit-and-run auto accident,
Schulte Field House, $300.
12:19 p.m.—Windshield broken, 19th and
S streets, $200.
2:17 p.m.—Glasses stolen, Oldfather Hall,
SI 50.
Beginning midnight Saturday, March 16
12:51 a.m. — Vehicle drove across lawn,
Harper-Schramm-Smith complex, loss
unknown.
1:20 a.m. — Vehicle ran into curb and
handrail, 15lh and U streets, $350 damage
to vehicle, $100 damage to handrail.
3:58 a.m. — Man arrested for driving while
intoxicated, 26th and Holdrcgc streets.
3:34 p.m. — Juveniles throwing rocks at
railroad cars, 1815 Y St.
5:55 p.m. — Two-car non-injury accident,
Sandoz Residence Hall parking lot, $350.
Fluency
Continued from Page 1
erty said. This soon fades away, however, as
the student adjusts to the accent, he said.
Regent Margaret Robinson of Norfolk said
some T. A.s from foreign countries treat women
differently from men in class.
“Boys get answers from T. A.s — not girls..
.. It’s a matter of the T. A.s’ culture, but it’s not
acceptable at UNL,” Robinson said.
Liberty said students who have continuous
problems with instructors can talk to depart
ment heads and request transfers to other sec
tions or drop the course.
The fluency problem is being corrected by a
program developed three years ago requiring
T.A.s to take a fluency test, he said. Only about
62 percent of T.A.s pass the test, he said.
The other 38 percent are not appointed to
teaching positions. And, of the 62 percent who
pass the test, only one-third end up teaching, he
said.
Libcrly said not every instructor had taken
the test and that it would lake about two years
to test all teaching assistants.
Professors are not required to be tested,
Liberty said.
“But the university is highly selective in the
interviewing process of professors,” he said.
Salary
Continued from Page 1
president of administration and director of
Eersonnel, said that if the regents would not
ave approved the requests, the unions would
have had to present the requests to an arbitrator
or “special master.”
The special master would determine the
final amount of salary raises by comparing
salaries of peer institutions.
Russell said the special master would have
seen eye to eye with the unions proposed
- increases because UNK and UNO based the
amount of the request on the criteria the special
master uses.
The unions at UNO and UNK determined
the amount of the increases Jan. 15 to comply
with state regulations. Gov. Ben Nelson pro
posed a budget on Feb. 15. The increases were
determined with the hope that Nelson’s budget
would allow for them, Russell said.
“Before, the management never agreed (on
salary amounts), so we let the budget process
govern the negotiation process, but now we
must lei the negotiation process be out in front
so the governor can consider this in the budget.
“However, this lime the budget is not re
sponding to our requests,” he said.
Nelson only proposed a 3.75 percent faculty
salary raise for next year, and a preliminary
proposal from the Nebraska Legislature’s Ap
propriations Committee suggested a 4 percent
raise.
NU Regent Don Blank of McCook said the
board had to approve collective bargaining
salary agreements despite the governor’s pro
posed budget.
“The board recognizes that the salaries in
the agreements exceed the amounts currently
proposed in either the governor’s budget rec
ommendation or the Appropriations Commit
tee’s preliminary rccommcndauon,” Blank said.
‘‘Under Nebraska law, however, those are not
factors the board may consider when negotiat
ing in good faith with the bargaining units.”
Because the University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln is not unionized, faculty salary increases
will not be decided until the Legislature ap
proves a budget. B
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