Turkey. Keep your eye on Turkey. As we watch the ever-changing world landscape where some see religious law as the cure-all, its important to see what Turkey will be doing.I was captivated watching the massive red sea of protesters Sunday in the capital city of Istanbul where that strategic nation sits in the balance between remaining secularists or going the way of a sectarian and officially Islamic nation. How ironic where a country whose population is reportedly 99 percent Muslim could muster such an enormous protest by as many as 750,000 people who dont want a theocratic government like Iran or Saudi Arabia or many Middle Ages lands. That is not to say Turkey doesnt already have some deeply troubling practices including political imprisonments, torture, human rights violations of minorities, repression of non-Muslims and minority religious expression. Amnesty International finds Turkish women suffer widely and that as many as half of women have been victims of domestic violence, and abuse goes widely unreported. Protesters waved their red flags in the massive gathering Sunday, and in a huge demonstration two weeks before, to put presidential candidate Abdullah Gul, current foreign minister, on notice that they wont accept a new president who does not respect the current secular way of government. Gul is the presidential candidate of the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) that has a large majority in parliament, which elects the president. News reports said the protesters want parliament, instead, to choose a president without theocratic designs. Despite the opposition, the AK party has insisted it will move ahead with Guls candidacy. Gul was chosen as the partys standard-bearer last week in the first step toward choosing the next president, but it is being legally challenged by opposition parties. Elections are in November. The Los Angeles Times reported that Turkeys powerful military, which considers itself keeper of the secular system, has issued its own strong warning as well.Gul, meanwhile, rejects the peoples concerns and says he only wants to pursue a conservative-democratic agenda. History is crammed with those who arrived into office as conservatives but governed as fascists. Their zeal and righteousness dont necessarily differ that much from the hard-line religionists who dont see that much difference between religious obedience and police state order.A sizable number of books have been published in recent years alerting the American nation to the havoc caused primarily by the religious rights relentless quest to install a de facto theocracy here on the claim that it is a Christian nation. One definition of theocracy is government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In many theocracies, government leaders are members of the clergy, and the state’s legal system is based on religious law. Theocratic rule was typical of early civilizations.In Turkey, the Justice and Development Party is credited with presiding over dynamic economic growth since taking power in 2002 and observers say that even if Gul were not the candidate, the party surely would field the winning candidate anyway. The Times reported that a second round of parliamentary voting will be Wednesday.Current Prime Minister Tayyip Edrogan is calling for national unity and Turkey urgently needs to protect the progress it has made in the economy and in government, which previously was beset with weak coalitions and corruption. The nation has been working toward winning acceptance into the European Union. The conservative National Reviews Michael Rubin told of the debacle of Turkeys government identity. In April 2004, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called turkey a model for Iraq and a Muslim democracy living in peace with its friends and neighbors. Rubin said those words were infused with well-meaning Washington-style political correctness, but they raised hackles in Turkey. And he quoted a Turkish professor: "We are a democracy. Islam has nothing to do with it. By calling us a Muslim democracy, Powell endorsed the (ruling) AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi). If I called the United States a Christian democracy, what would that say to you?"With the sea of red in Istanbul people seeing red at the prospect of a bona fide theocracy Turkish leaders hopefully are getting a strong message the one groups set of religious doctrines dont make good public law.

Journalism is about all Ive known vocationally, and its a culture and calling that is as special as any in any other field. On Friday, the Tribune and its sister publications officially honored and said farewell to our publisher of more than 10 years, Karen Wittmer. She is retiring at the ripe young age of 55. If the rest of us could be so lucky to call it quits and move on to favorite pursuits…On Tuesday, Terry Horne takes over as publisher. Most of us have not met him and wonder what he will bring to the landscape and enterprise.As near as I can count, Karen was the eighth daily newspaper publisher I have worked under in 35 years of daily newspaper work. None has demonstrated more chutzpah and grit. Over the years that Thomson and Freedom news chains have owned our papers, Karen has been at the helm. She knew the industry and advocated fiercely for the Tribune with corporate. Her language could be salty, abrupt, tense. She was self-effacing and no-nonsense.Many of us recall that when Karen arrived, the Tribune rented a large hall at Mesa Visitors and Convention Center, and Karen & Co. came dressed in military fatigues. She threw quite an afternoon party. She delivered a rousing speech to us in the trenches. It was like a declared war on our foe across town.The ID lanyard I wear to work still includes the medal dog tag engraved with Tribune Troop. My rank is designated as editorial on the back side, and there is a serial number along with my name. The Wittmer tenure makes up 10 of my 23 years with these papers. With turnover of staff, I, little by little, would become our papers institutional memory and sort of keeper of its history. I rank No. 4 in longevity for all those on the news side of the Tribune. (And out of 27 Tribune people pictured on a division of labor management personnel chart, published in 1985, I am the only one still employed here. At that time, I was managing editor of the Tempe Daily News, one of three papers in the group, when we were owned by the Cox Arizona Publications.) When Karen arrived in December 1996, I was the daily Town Crier columnist for four of our five area newspapers at the time. By September 1998, I had returned to being the religion editor, a duty I had 1987 to 1994. To Karens credit, I was able to continue a fairly wide range of community work sometimes on behalf of the Tribune. I was touched in 2003, when she selected me for Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerces annual Sterling Awards the Tribune employee recognized that year for a record of community service and outreach.Karen and I exchanged a lot of e-mails over the years. I appreciated her once suggesting I was a kind of conscience at the Tribune, mostly for my range of columns and commentaries, especially during my years as the daily Town Crier. We had some good conversations seated at Tribune-sponsored tables at community events. We both have a deep abiding interest in the future of our cities and have not been afraid to voice them. Her leadership of East Valley Partnership stands out. Karen took me to the woodshed once for quotes I gave a Valley weekly newspaper about a previous Tribune ownership. Her words reminded me of how an Army drill sergeant once talked to me on day he was in a foul mood. Thats why I still wear my Tribune Troop dog tag.We lose something special when the name Karen A. Wittmer disappears May 1 from the list of Tribune corporate leaders on page A4 and the bottom of the first editorial page. Some 10 1/2 years of remarkable years of Arizona newspapering come to an end. I thank her for all the gallons of ink she bought to let me tells some stories in the Tribune.

A lawsuit should not have been necessary to force the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to give in and allow a Wiccan pentacle on the grave marker of a deceased soldier. But legal pressures and a lot of expert convincing have made it possible for five-pointed stars to join 38 other religious symbols as acceptable for the slabs at cemeteries. Crosses in various adaptations, along with the Star of David, Islamic crescent and other unique patterns have long been allowed.Given its ingrained conservatism, the military typically lags behind the culture at accepting changes like that. Military personnel are not as ready to give legitimacy to things pagan — witches, priestesses, casting a magic circle, covens and rituals in the moonlight. But surely almost all religions, examined critically or looked at in the abstract, could be questioned as embracing some far-fetched beliefs and strange practices.It took people like Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, to press the veterans bureaucracy to allay fears and to convince them of the importance of consistency and fairness. To forgo more litigation, the military accepted a settlement filed in U.S. District Court for the Western Division of Wisconsin. Families of several Wiccan soldiers filed suit last November to win the right to have Wiccan symbols on government-provided markers in Circle Sanctuary, a 200-acre Wiccan nature center west of Madison, Wis. In the lawsuit, Circle Sanctuary vs. Nicholson, Lynns organization said that to deny Wiccan men and women their own symbols violates the U.S. Constitution. Some Department of Defense statistics estimate that some 1,800 Wiccans are active in American military units.This settlement has forced the Bush Administration into acknowledging that there are no second-class religions in America, including among our nation’s veterans," Lynn said Tuesday. Oddly, the same military had already permitted Wicca to be a religious preference pressed into service personnels dog tag IDs.So far, it hasnt accepted Wicca when it comes to chaplain services. The military, which still wont allow openly gay human beings, didnt take to this Wiccan thing easily. Richard Katskee, Americans Uniteds assistant legal director, noted that, in the past, a religious group would petition the military for approval of its symbol and get the go-ahead in a few months. Wiccans request took 10 year and a lawsuit. Wiccans say a general ignorance of their religion and a mistaken notion that they worship the devil were factors for the long effort.Americans United said the 30,000 pages of documents from which the Veterans Affairs worked contained President George W. Bushs 1999 remarks on Good Morning America regarding Wiccans quest to be allowed to worship at Fort Hood, Texas. Then governor of Texas, Bush stated, I dont think witchcraft is a religion. John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which often joins in legal fights for First Amendment rights, noted, I was just aghast that someone who would fight for their country and die for their country would not get the symbol he wanted on his gravestone. Its just overt religious discrimination.The Associated Press said 11 families are waiting for grave markers with the pentacle each of the five points representing earth, air, fire, water and spirit. Families hope their markers will be ready in the time for the Memorial Day weekend, May 26-28. The symbol is already shown as an acceptable symbol on the Veterans Affairs web site: http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hmemb.asp.The nature-based religion that once pervaded northern Europe and the British Isles predating Christianity and Islam, for example — is earning its place, begrudgingly, in the American military. Chalk it up as freedoms gain. One more step out of darkness and fear.

The year is winding down at Arizona State University, and the All Saints Catholic Newman Center is just one of the multiplicities of entities around campus scrambling to get in their events before students begin scattering for the summer. Tuesday morning, they held a 75th anniversary breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Phoenix and thanked members and friends, told their story and urged continued support.All the buzz in recent weeks at the Newman Center has been talk of a radically new construction plans to replace the aging 1962 center. Investors are in serious talks about erecting perhaps a 20-story tower on the strategically placed parcel at the corner of College Avenue and University Drive, familiar to all for its red-brick, steepled church erected in 1903. It would go up with a number of skyscrapers on drawing boards for downtown Tempe. So much remains in ideas and proposal, but the tower is seen partly as a residential hall for Catholic students. It could create a Catholic community of as many as 500 students living on that site. Last summer, we in the media reported on the Newman Center poised to put up a two-story office and new chapel project for $5.7 million on its .8 acre, leaving the old church intact. Even with its many weekend Masses, students cram into the 45-year-old chapel, meant to seat 250, with standing-room-only at times. More than 400 squeeze in and others may trail out the door. On Tuesday, the Rev. Fred Lucci, Newman Center director since 2006, reminisced about the deeply supportive and loving congregation more than 25 years ago when he was an ASU student. That experience led him to seminary and the priesthood. The 1984 ASU graduate said some exciting and dramatic prospects may be coming into focus, and if investors tradeoffs for the property can be agreed to, the approximately 13,000 Catholics on the ASU campus will one day have an even more remarkable place in the heart of the campus. The Newman Center is easily ASUs oldest and largest campus ministry and has a strong reputation nationally. It was started as the Newman Club by 25 students who gathered in 1932 in St. Marys Church for prayer, study meetings and social activities. That was back when it was a teachers college of 827 enrollees. Today, the center has broad programming that includes religious studies, retreats, service work projects, community outreach to the poor, travel, social events, speakers and close interaction with many Catholic families who call the parish without borders their own church. All talk about an intimacy, a more progressive brand of Catholic thinking, a tradition of active faith in the face of intellectual inquiry.On Wednesday night, many will gather with the Rev. Thomas DeMan, a Dominican priest who was the centers director 1973 to 1980. He will officiate at a Mass in the Old Church at 6:30 p.m., followed by a potluck Altogether, 17 men have been Newman Center director in the 75 years. Good, effective campus ministry has many goals: a meaningful place for worship, a faith family in the midst of academia, a place to cultivate ones spirituality, a venue for meeting those like-minded or others expanding their faith consciousness, and a vehicle to do service work and ambitious projects for those in places like hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and the poor in El Salvador. Students swear by it: Theyve been drawn closer to God at the All Saints Newman Center. They get religious grounding that launches lives of sound Catholic living and leadership.With all the remarkable transformation that is planned for downtown Tempe, look for this Catholic island to flourish.

One of the nations leading evangelical Christian voices is calling on Christians to be more responsible in the blogosphere. As I review the Christian blogosphere, I see a lot that doesnt look certifiably Christian to me, writes Sheldon Smith, president and editor of the biweekly paper Sword of the Lord.In a recent issue, he writes that many Christians are posting rumors, assailing good people and are attacking character without integrity and with no accountability. While the Christian community long has had its outlets for commentary about issues, Smith says the Internet and the proliferation of blogs, with free-wheeling opinions and shielded identities, are letting anyone make reckless comments. And hes troubled that Christians are part of that. We should be ever mindful of representing the Lord well in all things, he says. Smith said he is finding it too easy for anyone to castigate and vilify Christian leaders, churches and colleges with impunity and with absolutely no accountability to anyone. While he says making sure scandals are exposed, the Internet is being used to quickly turn one persons grudges into a tempest. It is often my thoughts and your thoughts which are given with no other purpose than to smear good people, Smith asserts. A student booted out of a Christian college can get on the Internet and blast the college and say how wicked the administration is, and build up sympathy, while the schools hands are tied by privacy rules. That student will build his case with 29 other cases like his own where students were dismissed in a heavy-handed and un-Christian way. Therefore, the college is now (according to him), a wicked place. At the same time, that student conveniently fails to come clean on why he was dismissed cheating on tests or drinking or other kinds of infractions. Or hell say it was only one time and got no second chance. Then, Smith says, the other bloggers pile on, and the next thing you know, the aura of suspicion hangs over that school like a dark, shameful cloud. Its all just too easily done by one disgruntled ex-student with a computer and bitter spirit, Smith says. When did a Christian get a license to go on a crusade against someone or some place because they did not get their way or a fair shake? the Sword editor asks. He makes seven suggestions. Here is a quick list: 1) the Christian blogosphere should adhere to the same principles that have governed journalistic integrity and Christian demeanor; 2) scandals should be exposed, but suffering in silence has merit, and one should stop trying to poison the stream from which so many others are drinking without ill effects; 3) gossip is not a Christian activity, and the offended should resolve conflicts with the offender personally and privately first; using a blog to blab without trying redemption is a disgrace to the testimony of Christ: 4) do your homework and know what you are talking about first because Christian integrity demands accountability of all of us; 5) it is neither faithful nor fruitful, neither pious nor prudent to tell everything you know even if it is true; 6) some things are issues of sufficient public interest and should be reported, but writing calls for accountability and putting your name with your words; and 7) Christians ought to be Christian in using the blogosphere.Smith gives Christian bloggers the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they simply have not considered the impact of their actions or thought things through. Maybe they are simply having fun stirring controversy. He urges them to pause, catch their breath and rethink how they are spending their time.The blogosphere is mostly about molehills, not mountains, Smith asserts. But a lot of people are being smeared without mercy over the molehills. Thats shameful!

I have been watching a bus stop on the north side of West Broadway Road just west of Extension Road in Mesa. For a week now, a common white molded plastic chair, like those found on patios and beside pools, has been the only available seating beside the bus stop pole. Its at one of those Valley Metro bus stops without benches or shading. Sometimes, there is a person seated in that single chair waiting for the bus. Other times it is tipped over, with or without people waiting for the Metro. How did that chair get there? And why is it able to just stay and stay without someone swiping it or it being removed by Valley Metro for not being a part of the bus stops standard setting?But what a great idea! That common chair that can be gotten on sale for $5.99 this week at CVS Pharmacy, for example, gives someone an unexpected seat along a busy street while waiting for a bus. Compliments to whoever donated it. If I were to speculate, the chair came along with someone who had to catch the bus who never knew how long the wait would be and didnt want to stand long. What is next to be donated to a bus stop like that? Perhaps, an umbrella that can just be opened by users and closed and left for the next person. Or bottled water. Or books or a Bible. Maybe a portable radio. Nose tissues. A jigsaw puzzle for people to progressively put together. In airports, I frequently look for the abandoned newspapers, even magazines, on seats to read while awaiting a flight. Often I will pick through the newspaper sections and claim what I want. I regard those who leave publications behind as people giving a gift to those who follow later. So I am somewhat offended when the airport cleaning folks come past and sweep up ever kind of reading material and put them into the garbage. That abruptly ends the lifecycle of each publication.On Saturday morning, my wife and I are going to two used book sales one starting at 7 a.m. at Dayspring United Methodist Church, 1365 E. Elliot Road, Tempe. Then well be in line at 9 a.m. at the Tempe Public Library, 3500 S. Rural Road, for the Friends of the Librarys spring book sale (even though their reminder postal card says autumn sale.). We have far more books that I will ever begin to read, although my wife wolfs them down with vigor. But well buy more books more of those recycled books. And well try to find shelving somewhere to hold them. Just looking at a bookshelf is a walk down memory lane, past titles that represented precious times of good reading. Examining books for sale often triggers our memories of having read those books on our own.My favorite book sale is the VNSA Book Sale every February at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. I get in line as early as 5 a.m. to be in the first wave of people let into the huge exhibit hall, and I fight the crowds and lose track of time as I gather books to own. Its said to be one of the Wests greatest used book sales. Coveting books is a wonderful addiction. Yet it is wise to be able to cull shelves and move them on to other potential readers and give new value to them. Several years ago, one of our Tribune metro editors took a job in New York and was beset with the weighty job of either packing hundreds of books or unloading them. We all watched her come day after day to the Tribune with boxes of prized books. She carefully shopped them around to writers and editors, giving them away thoughtfully to people as if she were looking for good homes for orphans. I took several boxes. Admittedly some are still in boxes in a shed. But they are great books.With publishing houses producing new titles as a breathtaking rate, it would seem we are going to be buried in books as a civilization. Meanwhile, Ill keep watching that plastic chair at the bus stop at Extension and Broadway and admire that such a thing can actually happen.

My U.S. Army years came sandwiched between my four years of undergraduate university life and graduate school. In all three experiences, I was thrown into a mix of strangers of diverse backgrounds, many of whom I would never choose for friendships or socializing. With each tenure came confronting my share of jerks, some of whom never posed any threat, a few who self-destructed or moved on to who-knows-where.Theres so much to absorb from the Virginia Tech massacre. I cannot fathom the depth of the discussions on every American campus the woulda, coulda, shoulda. Certainly, millions of students are doing mental reviews of people in their spheres of campus life, wondering which ones could be lurking or capable of going off like Cho Seung-Hui. Campuses are pressure cookers. It comes as a kind of leap of faith to join a college community and face the tough academic demands and even be accepted. Fitting in is a real issue.One week, our country was fixated on the racial and sexist comments of radioman Don Imus, yet getting a much needed national examination of the way we talk and think. Then abruptly, without warning, came a national ferocity of mass killing in residence halls and classrooms at a Virginia university of high repute and with enviable campus community qualities. Good investigative work is quickly showing Chos profile and trail of trouble. Theres a litany of stories from people who saw his meanness, anti-social actions, stalking, dark writings, sullenness, weird ways of wanting to take pictures of girls legs under classroom desks with his cell-phone, his psychiatric evaluations, et al. And all the wondering at why the systems failed. Of course, on a daily basis, desperate people do heinous things to others one and two victims at a time, drawing all too little calls to make systemic changes to our mental health services in this country. Violence in America has become too common, and the Virginia Tech bloodbath only affirms a world opinion that were a Wild West nation where gun powder settles things.We cannot emphasize enough that there is something seemingly and dangerously inherent in the American society that differences can be settled by force and that our rights to bear arms cannot be compromised. (Its always been my view that the Second Amendment was put there to give citizens the arms to overthrow an evil government and preserve freedom).So much needs to come out of the Virginia Tech nightmare: American school campuses at all levels that have effective security and alerting systems without feeding the frenzy and wallets of the very real fear industry in this country. Campuses need to develop better ways to early intervene when students display troubling behavior. Sharing of information, without Big Brother means, needs to take place. Students need to feel more free to come forward when they feel vibes about people or encounter strange conduct. Personality screenings and counseling would help. Campus ministries have long been havens and places to go for students dealing academic, social pressures, broken romances or other upheavals. Ministries need to rededicate themselves to be balm in the pain and storms of campus life. On a larger level, mental health must be given respectability as legitimate illness that requires adequate money for research and treatment. Legislatures must renew their commitment to supporting mental health services with a realization that insanity, depression, bipolar conditions, schizophrenia, psychopathy, paranoia and other aberration lead to untold consequences and even mayhem. The Virginia Tech events marginalize news out of Iraq on Wednesday that at least 183 people died from four bombings in Baghad — 127 alone in a market bombing. It was business as usual so contrary to the woeful words of Iraqi war apologists like Sen. John McCain that military action is bringing progress to the process of bring freedom to Iraq. Imagine what our years of intervention there have done to create crazed people who will do still more desperate things to others in the years ahead. How many returned U.S. servicemen with post-traumatic stress syndrome will some day attack their families or others and get a small story in the back of the paper. Whats to stop others from replicating Cho Seung-Hui has done and go out big? Theres just a whole lot of heads need to get together to figure out how to properly get into other peoples heads and give them help. The mind continues to be the last frontier.

Rattles was in the headline of Chris Markhams front-page article Wednesday about efforts of members of the Sri Venkata Krishna congregation to build a permanent home. Hindu temple plan rattles Chandler area, it said. Rattles seemed like a discordant word we cannot often apply to Hindus.Last May, I wrote about how Hindus had purchased a 1,500-square foot home in north Tempe and had converted it to the Ramakrishna Monastery, affiliated with the Vedanta Society of Southern California. As quietly as Hindus pray and hold rites, I am certain there are still people in that neighborhood who dont have a clue that there is a monastery there.Markhams article told how the Chandler Krishnas want to erect a 7,500-foot religious and cultural center with a 12th century design on a lot in what has long been a horse-property neighborhood near Dobson and Galveston roads. The temple is said to be modeled after a Hindu temple in Udupi, India, and it would be spiritual home for 30 to 40 families. A member said the temple would not normally have gatherings of significant numbers of people as churches have, but often just about 10 people or fewer. A half-dozen times a year, during special festivals, up to 200 families may show up. What church of significant size doesnt have that many on a regular basis?A facility manager and two priests will live there full time, and when the founder in India comes to town, hell stay there. The article said more than half the 60 who turned up for a neighborhood meeting to explain the plan indicated opposition to the temple. They dont want anything that isnt residential in the hood. Raghu Nanden from the congregation noted surprise at the opposition and reiterated that there wont be that many Hindu folks around that often. The project has a ways to go through the citys approval process.More than 40 people offered comments after the story on the Tribune website. Its heartening that many came to the support of the Krisnas, saying that such religious diversity is healthy and Hinduism is a peaceful religion. People in neighborhoods always complain about what will be next to them, one person opined, adding that complaints can be justified if the city rezoned it after neighbors had bought their land. The person added that Hinduism is a very peaceful religion, which promotes peace at all cost and isnt known for bombers. Other said a temple would be a benefit compared to a convenience store or liquor store. Some said the objection is just typical human fear of the unknown. Others went to their reference books and to online sites for information to share about the religion. But the negative comments were predictable and often cruel. One said the religion is racist and beset with the social caste system, and something you have to be born into. One writer said hed been to India and called it a dump, then insisted that if people were polled, most would say they dont really want to integrate 1,000 different cultures into this country, but thats whats being shoved down our throats. As always, there were advisers on where the temple should be built. One said it could be next to the huge flying saucer religious complex in Mesa, alluding to the Living Word Bible Church, which has three round, brown domes. That writer suggested the Hindus would get along great with them as neighbors and Mesa could become sort of a religious Mecca for all.An Apache Junction writer said the Hindus would be welcomed to bring their project there. Sri Venkata Krishna is not the first congregation in the area to face early opposition to its plan. Certainly, if zoning is in order and its site plan meets the tests of the city, it will likely go forward. That their religion is one most know little about wont likely be a factor in the outcome.

That Vice President Dick Cheney is not even wanted as a commencement speaker at conservative Brigham Young University in Utah these days underscores how far the current national administration has fallen into disfavor.Its nothing short of breathtaking to see photos of demonstrations on BYU campus in Provo students holding signs protesting Cheneys potty mouth and so much heavy-handed influence in the woefully planned and executed war in Iraq. Love Your Enemies Unless Theyre an Enemy Combatant reads one protest sign in a New York Times photo. Cheney is killing our troops states another. According to the Wednesday story by Martin Stolz, the White House had made a request to administrators of the private university associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a chance to speak at their spring graduation. The announcement of Cheneys coming was made two weeks ago and has set off political debates and petitions that are not that common at sedate BYU. That the request was made to BYU may demonstrate how the White House goes about trying to find non-hostile venues for speech-making these days. Beyond military academies or places like Bob Jones University, Regent University or Liberty University, it must be hard work locating friendly landscapes where a Bush or Cheney would not confront protesters before and during appearances. In other times, schools of higher learning had to stand in line to get the nations president or vice president to honor their commencements by appearing to deliver the address. But even conservatives have been left with the mouths hanging open at how this duo has governed and delivered disastrous surprises with unintended consequences over the past six years. Whats so newsworthy about the BYU issue is Cheney would come in June to the nations bastion of Republicanism Utah. There 49 percent of registered voters say theyre Republicans (although that number had slid 6 percent from January, the Times said.). That compares to 18 percent Democrat. Stolz reports the students at the university of 28,000 have focused on Cheneys integrity, character and behavior, from using an expletive in a U.S. Capitol encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to his role in the CIA leak related to agent Valerie Plane to his powerful shaping strategy in the muddled war in Iraq that was launched with faulty intelligence. A BYU spokeswoman has been quick to say that inviting Cheney was not an endorsement of the Bush Administration, and some say it is a chance for the vice president to see what BYU really is. That the well-traveled Cheney from next door in Wyoming doesnt know about the school may be seems to be a stretch. In the petition counts, Stolz said there were 3,600 students and alumni asking for a more appropriate speaker to be booked, while about 2,000 signed a petition in support of Cheneys coming. The incident is giving BYU students an opportunity to remind the world that they not only adhere to strict standards but they expect the same from national leaders, even if they may share the same political party. One professor, Warner Woodworth, 65, a political independent, said Cheneys appearance just feels too much like sleaze and not the right values for BYU. We espouse honesty, chastity, integrity, ethics, virtue and morality, and he does not epitomize those values. Look for Cheney to speak amid restrained protest, get polite applause and go on his way with the same confidence and arrogance that carries him through his shadowy tenure.

The Roman Catholic Church virtually regards itself as another name for Christianity. One and the same. Not only is it the model from which all other Christian faiths have deviated, it is seen as the de facto voice of Christianity and keeper of the flame.Though not alone in claiming apostolic succession to Christ, Catholicism has great age and a massive population on its side and thus the leverage to wield inordinate authority in Christendom. Catholic leaders sometime function as if non-Catholics dont meet the test of being true followers of Jesus. Restrictions on the Eucharist are one way that is manifested. I sensed that tone when I heard about the new Catholic web site called PewSitter.com. which is being called the Voice of the Catholic Lay Faithful. In its press release on April 9, the organizer said, Pewsitter.com was established to give the Catholic lay faithful a voice in the matters of the church. Some Catholics would say, If it was only that easy to have a voice.In response to Vatican IIs call for the full (our emphasis) and active participation of the laity, Pewsitter enables and encourages the laity of the church to submit news articles, events and even audio/video copies of their favorite homilies to share with other Catholics, it said in its announcement. But how does that really give lay people a voice? It certainly does not suggest lay Catholics are going to have decision-making voice in greater storytelling. Certainly the web site is crammed with links to an incredible number of articles and commentaries about the Catholic Church, but nothing that would question authority or point out flaws in leadership or policies.Pewsitter.com also encourages the laity to share the concerns, praise, opinions and thoughts with the church hierarchy, it notes. Though we recognize that the church is not a democracy and that matters of faith and morals are not open to debate, feedback provided by the laity regarding issues, problems and shortcomings, as well as praise and complements (sic) for good wholesome, positive and spiritual event will assist the hierarchy in accomplishing the mission to which they have been entrusted — spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. James Todd of Pewsitter calls it a new paradigm that provides a mouthpiece for faithful Catholics. Pewsitters will promulgate this information to the universal church, with the objective of bring about positive change within the church and the culture at large, he said. I told Todd, in an e-mail, that this could be interpreted to be a network of informers, spies and watchdogs to report any missteps or independent ideas to the bishop and the hierarchy all the way to the Vatican, less a priest strayed from Catholic orthodoxy. Though the church is populated by people who are all sinners, the church itself has Christ’s guarantee that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, Todd said in his reply. It also has the power to loose and bind. Therefore, Pewsitter is about being faithful to the church that Christ founded, as has been handed down through 2,000 years of apostolic succession.He then more directly answered my question: If by challenging the system, you mean trying to assist in correcting things like the sexual abuse scandal — absolutely. However, if you mean challenging the church’s teaching on matters of faith and morals, the answer is a resounding no. Within a world that has jettisoned moral values that only a century ago were unthinkable, the church’s teachings stand as a beacon of light, in a culture of death.Surely there are Catholics who toe the line entirely. There are those known as cafeteria Catholics whose consciences and own thinking cause them to follow some teachings and reject others. And there are nominal Catholics who, for whatever reasons, choose not to be observant. I asked several priests about PewSitters.com. The Rev. Christ Carpenter, former priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Mesa, now living in southern California, was willing to comment. Though he has not heard of the group, he said, I have known several individuals who would likely be candidates for membership. In my years of experience, I’ve learned that those who define themselves as orthodox rarely have a clue about what the church really teaches. They are self-righteous and are pursuing their own agendas, not necessarily the church’s. While in church and attending Mass, they should be praying and worshiping, not judging and critiquing. They are doing God a disservice.PewSitters is looking for volunteers in all 189 Catholic dioceses to feature the Catholic news of the day so what they report can be shared on line. Yet how that gives the truly faithful a voice in the matters of the church remains to be seen. The web site is signing up volunteers for the website, but it carries this litmus test: Only faithful Catholics that are in union with Rome should apply.