OPINION Wadnaaday, Saptambar IS, 19SS
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeremy Fitzpatrick. .Editor, 472-1766
Kathy Steinauer..Opinion Page Editor
Wendy Mott. Managing Editor
Todd Cooper. Sports Editor
Chris Hopfensperger.. . .Copy Desk ChieJ
Kim Spurlock. Sower Editor
Kiley Timperley. .Senior Photographer
Take care
Students should shun churches that prey
Many college freshmen have just left home for the first -
time, which makes some of them homesick and quite
vulnerable.
That is exactly the reason why all students, but especially
freshmen, need to be aware that cults exist, even in Lincoln, and
they need to be careful.
Cults can be inviting because they offer structure for college
students who may be feeling lost at a university as large as the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The Rev. Ron Gholston, a former sector leader of the Boston
Church of Christ, said cults were also attractive because members
seem moral, caring and sincere.
But some cults, such as the church Gholston once belonged to,
may have “discipler” relationships between church members and
new members. The new members must submit to anything the
discipler wants. Obviously this relationship is extremely danger
ous.
Any action like this in a church should be an immediate signal
that the church is suspicious. This example may be extreme, but
any place that believes one person has the right to control anoth
er’s decisions is questionable.
Some cults, Gholston said, restrict members from questioning
orders and leaders. But the right to inquire about church and
religion should be a fundamental one because asking questions is
»wav.atteramt»bo>»OAc’s faith.
• A church is for worship, not for following other church mem
bers’ ideas and practices. Any church that does not allow ques
tions and forces some to follow the orders of others is shady. All
students should be warned of the danger of cults and watch out for
these warning signs.
Enough’s enough
Tourist killings expose gun control need
Margaret Ann Jagger had been in Florida for less than a
week when she discovered the lack of strict gun control
laws in the United States.
Jagger, 35, is from England. She was wounded and her boy
friend, Gary Colley, was killed Tuesday when they pulled into a
Florida rest stop for a nap.
Two youths approached their car, knocked on the windows and
demanded money. Jefferson County Sheriff Ken Fortune said
Jagger and Colley were shot when they tried to back their car
away.
Jagger called the police from a booth nearby. Her call was
recorded and played on CNN. “He’s dying! He’s really dying!...
Please help!”
Colley was the ninth foreign tourist to be killed in Florida since
October. Thursday, a German tourist was shot to death on the ride
from the Miami airport to his hoteL
Violent death has become commonplace in the United States,
but this is not true in other Western democracies. The difference
is frequently the lack of strict gun control laws in this country.
Each time another human being is murdered, there is public
outrage and media attention. Rarely is there concrete and suffi
cient action from the government to stop the problem.
It is time for comprehensive federal legislation strictly regulat
ing the use of all firearms. Stricter gun control is long overdue.
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S'afT editorial* represent the official policy of the Fall 1993 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the
university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent
the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of
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4 I II I Ji Vto
Equality
I feel I woke up in a nightmare. The
Anglo-American is Satan Incarnate.
American history is as close to En
glish history as it is to African history, j
Go into the bookstore and look at j
ethnic studies, nothing about the |
Anglo-Saxon ethnic background. ,
Look in gender studies, not a single ,
book directed toward the male gen
der. Saunter over to the magazine
rack; plenty of magazines to aid worn- i
en in the “self-fulfillment” search.
Men’s magazines? Business — suc
ceed or be nothing; sports—succeed
or be nothing; music—succeed or be
nothing.
As the Anglo-American male fiz
zles into a minority in the United
States, the cry for retribution for past
oppression rings loud. But will that
ring fall upon understanding ears that
| will find the line of equality or be
perceived as a battle cry to exact
vengeance?
Joe Hering
freshman
general studies
‘Important issue’
I take issue with Paul Koester’s
views. From where I stand, pizza de
livery is an important issue. Com
munes and naming Crayola colors
also are important. It all depends on
what a writer can do with the particu
lar issue that he or she chooses.
Also, Mr. Koester has to accept
editing as a part of the process. A guy
writing in more than 20 times a se
mester should, in fact, expect to be
edited.
Todd K. Burger
senior
English
LB110
LB110 is a bill that respects the
right of women to be fully informed
about what will occur during an abor
tion. In the course of preparation for
other surgeries, the patient is informed
fully of tne procedure and all compli
cations that could arise no matter how
small the odds. The information is
given in a session with either the
surgeon or an assistant. Following the
session, there is a period of time in
which the patient can reconsider hav
ing the procedure with full knowl
edge of what is involved. Information
is the most important part of LB110.
The information given to women in
cludes fetal development and alterna
tives to abortion, in addition to the
possible complications. LB110 plac
es abortions under the same obliga
tions as other surgeries.
Women do not need to fear that
advocates of life go to abortion clinics
to take down license plate numbers
and harass them. That is not the pur
pose of right-to-life organizations,
rhese groups focus on protecting the
sanctity of life not only in the womb
>ut throughout the cycle of life. These
arganizations focus on providing help
ind information to the public.
Cara Catlett
:o-prcsidcnt, UNL Students for Life
senior
political science
Salaries
This is in response to my having
read thatour“top” administrators have
again voted themselves a pay increase
while the rest of UNL sits quietly in
the wings (DN Sept. 13). Well, not
me!
Maybe this is my “angry stage**
since having a two-income household
cut to one, but it really got to the very
core of my well-being when I read
that those in the $100,000 category
were going to receive an increase of
$1,100 to $2,300. What a difference
an increase like this would make to
those of us in the $20,000 bracket that
are having to scratch to make proba
bly the same kind of house payment
that the well-heeled make also. All I
can do is meet the mortgage payment
and the utilities and keep myself nour
ished. No need to worry about any
thing left over, but that's OK. If we
need we can always get a second job,
huh?
1 might bring to your attention that
this campus is desperately in need of
classrooms. How about spending this
“extra” wage money for something
that would benefit the entire campus?
Chancellor Spanier wishes to make a
parking lot into a green park. This is
a perfect location for a building that
could house multi-purpose class
rooms. Let’s get real, folks, and put
some of these funds to some really
good use. If you can’t be fair in salary
increases, at least look to those areas
on this campus that need real help.
Dorothy McEwen
department of anthropology
‘Terrorvangelists’
With the advent in society of a I
multitude of subcultures including I
poverty, homelessness, unwed and I
teen-age parentage, intercultural re- 1
lationsnips and homosexuality, the }
Christian Church has been seeking to
advocate, a version,,of,Christianity i
designed to reach these “lost souls. ’
Fortunately, most churches do this in
a responsible fashion whereby they
try to answer the needs of society.
There is nothing wrong with this
approach, as long as the message is in
context with scripture and it made
aware that the freedom to choose is
left to the individual. My problem lies
with the new breed of soothsayers, or
shall I say doomsayers, that has
cropped up as a result — the
“terrorvangelists.” These people seek
to bring judgment and condemnation
against anyone who fails to accept
their narrow-minded viewpoint. They
seek to bring down those elements in
our society that they deem to be sub
versive, in violation ofwhat they term
“God’s natural order.”
The terrorvangelist fails to see that
a person has an inviolate right and
freedom to believe and behave as he
or she sees fit, as long as it does not
infringe upon the right of others, and
is answerable only to himself or her
self and the “being” that person con
siders a “Higher Authority," be it
God, Allah, the Great Earth Mother,
or quite simply, none at all. The
terrorvangelist uses the public forum
to foment this ideal through a fire
and-brimstone, hell-and-damnation
preaching that berates and attempts to
deny its listeners to the freedoms that
being a human being allows. The
terrorvangelist must realize that the
place for such speaking is in the church,
not in a forum that is meant for intel
ligent, well-reasoned discussions.
Otherwise, the ridicule and persecu
tion of suchpeople will persist.
Coming from a Protestant Chris
tian viewpoint, if somebody must in
sist on inflicting his or ter opinions of
God on the public, it must be done so
it answers the auestions, meets the
needs and appeals to their search for
meaning in life. In public, one must
teach ratter than preach and speak
only in context of Scripture rather
than religious doctrine.
If someone needs to know Jesus,
do not introduce a biased condemner
who only accepts you if you believe
and behave in a certain way.
John W. Copeland
freshman
criminal justice