Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, November 18, 1999
Nation
Gay marriage costs Methodist pastor his robe
Church says wedding violated church law
The Associated Press
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — A United Methodist pastor who set off controversy three years ago by holding a lesbian wedding was defrocked yesterday for officiating at a marriage of two men.
The case against the Rev. Jimmy Creech was the second test of a United Methodist ban on homosexual marriage.
A jury of 13 Nebraska ministers imposed the penalty after unanimously convicting Creech of violating church law.
A defiant Creech, 55, predicted after the verdict that it would widen the wound of the soul of the 9.5-million-member church
The punishment could have ranged from minor sanctions to a penalty even more severe than the loss of his ministerial credentials: banishment from the church.
Acting as his own attorney, Creech had refused to enter a plea, saying that would legitimize the church law he was accused of violating, and he pronounced the trial corrupted, contaminated and illicit. He implored the jury during the 90-minute trial to refuse to reach a verdict.
"I believe the law that prohibits pastors from celebrating holy unions with gay and lesbian couples is an unjust and immoral law," he said. "Our beloved United Methodist Church has been infected with bigotry. It's bad theology."
He could appeal his conviction to national church officials.
Creech was tried for marrying two gay men in North Carolina last April. On the
eve of his trial, he presided at a recommitment ceremony for the two men, Larry Ellis and James Raymer.
Creech first touched off a controversy within the church when he performed aunion ceremony for a lesbian couple in hisOmaha congregation in 1997.
After that trial, Creech was not reappointed to his pulpit but remained a member of the clergy.
After a trial, a church tribunal decided not to act against him, leaving it unclear whether a ban on performing same-sex commitments carries the weight of church law. The church's Judicial Council has since ruled that it does.
The first test of the United Methodist Church's ban on homosexual marriage came in March when the Rev. Gregory Dell of Illinois was found guilty of breaking church law and suspended for blessing
the union of two Chicago men
Before Creech's trial yesterday, 74 of his supporters were arrested for trespassing as they locked arms and sang hymns in front of Trinity United Methodist Church, where the proceeding was held.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, an evangelical minister from Topeka, known for condemning homosexuals, stood with a few other demonstrators.
"We're following brother Creech around like an ugly dog," Phelps said.
Earlier this year, leaders of the 2.6-million-member Presbyterian Church rejected a measure that could have led to the ordination of non-cellate gays and lesbians.
And on Tuesday, Georgia's Southern Baptists voted for the first time in their 177-year history to expel two Atlanta-area churches for allowing homosexuals to serve as leaders.
Y2K to cost U.S. $100 billion, government says
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The government pinned a staggering $100 billion price tag yesterday on the nation's repair bills for the Year 2000 technology problem, or $365 for each man, woman and child.
For all that, the Commerce Department predicted the impact of Y2K computer failures on the economy would be merely something like a tangled shoelace for a world-class marathon runner.
In a new report, the government said America's booming economy was sufficiently stable, large and resilient and that failures — even those overseas — would not seriously affect the nation's $9 trillion gross domestic product.
"Any glitches that pop up next year should not hurt our economic growth." Commerce Secretary William Daley said. "I am not going to lose any sleep."
The $100 billion figure for total repairs from 1995 through 2001 was generally in line with other estimates but still is an enormous amount. Private analysts last month put the figure at $114 billion.
It is roughly the same as the total spent last year by seven of the largest federal agencies, enough to buy almost seven 747
jumbo jets and just more than the personal fortune of Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates.
Commerce Undersecretary Robert J. Shapiro said some Y2K precautions — such as companies adjusting inventories to hedge against possible supply problems could affect the pattern and timing of economic growth.
Those rising expenditures, for example, could add to growth during the last three months of 1999 but likely would slow it during the first months of 2000 to compensate.
Shapiro also said consumers who decide to stockpile food, water or other supplies could drive up prices in the final six weeks of this year.
Another government report, being released today, predicted only a slight risk of serious or widespread disruptions in the nation's food supply. Consumer hoarding and weather-related problems could cause spot shortages, but food companies have made remarkable progress in getting their computerized systems ready, the report said.
President Clinton's top Y2K expert, John Koskinen, also cautioned yesterday that several hundred thousand smaller companies
nationwide have not performed any repairs and apparently intend to fix problems after they occur.
Koskinen warned that business owners will find long waits for technical support and new equipment in the earliest weeks of the new year, and some of them may lose their customers and go out of business.
"We are getting close to it being too late to start," said Kokkinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.
Daley's generally optimistic remarks mirror statements made during past months by top U.S. financial leaders. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, for example, has warned that stockpiling and inventory hedging against possible failures could cause more trouble than the Y2K elitch itself.
One critic complained yesterday that the Commerce report focused too much on repair costs and snap-
proprietially painted a bright, sunny picture of this stuff.
"This country's highest level of risk right now is due to the complacency of arrogance, believing this thing is solved because we spent enough money," said Howard Rubin, who works on Y2K for the United Nations and on Y2K for the Cap Gemini consulting firm.
The new report said spending on Y2K repairs climbed from $5 billion in 1995 and peaked last year and this year at about $30 billion each. It was predicted to drop next year to about $5 billion.
The federal government has said previously it will spend $8.4 billion on Y2K repairs.
"The greatest cost to our economy is behind us," said Daley.
He acknowledged that $100 billion was absolutely a lot of money, but added that the potential cost of not doing anything was far greater.
Trump launches campaign Web site, not yet sure if he will run
Site was constructed by the Web master of Jesse Ventura
The Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — New York developer Donald Trump launched a campaign Web site yesterday run by Gov. Jesse Ventura's Web master in another sign of their allegiance and Trump's presidential intentions.
"Donald J. Trump may be the experienced, decisive can-do businessman America needs as president in the new millennium," the site reads.
At the site, www.donaldtrump2000.com, visitors can read about Trump's plan to eliminate the national debate, his background, make a donation or volunteer.
Roger Stone, head of Trump's presidential exploratory committee, said the site was definitively a sign that the developer would enter the race for the Reform Party presidential nomination.
Phil Madsen, the creative force behind Ventura's Web site, said his goal was to develop "E-team Trump," an online community. He performed a similar feat for Ventura, mobilizing 8,000 subscribers in the final days of the 1998 gubernatorial campaign.
Stone said, "The single most important thing we'd like to do with our Web site is provide information to the American people on Trump's national debt reduction plan."
Trump also will be trying to decide whether to run.
him make that decision is to see how many Americans register their support," Stone said.
"One of the things that will help
If Trump runs, he will be competing against experienced and established backers of form e r Republican Pat Buchanan, who is now seeking the Reform Party nomination.
"Trump is not running as a
Trump: may make bid for Reform Party nomination
Democrat or Republican so we're going to have to create an organization out of nothing." Madsen said.
If he runs, Trump will need to petition for ballot access in the 29 states
and Washington, where the party isn't automatically listed on ballots.
The Web site and the hiring of Madsen are signs that Trump is putting together an organization. They also are indicators of the closeness of Trump and Ventura, and the coolness to Buchanan in the Ventura faction of the Reform Party.
"Given the choices between Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump, I'll take Trump in a heartbeat," Madsen said.
Madsen said he informed Ventura of his decision to work for Trump and got his OK. He does not, however, consult with the governor, he said.
"I am not a conduit for Gov. Ventura to get to Trump," Madsen said.
Stone also is considering hiring Ventura's 1988 campaign manager.
Doug Friedline, possibly as a national political director. Friedline said he's interested.
"I think Mr. Trump is starting to become a serious candidate. Thirty days ago I don't think he was a serious candidate." Friedle said.
Stone said Trump found Ventura's aides a good fit.
"In many ways Trump and Ventura are very similar," Stone said. "They are larger-than-life characters from outside of politics. They are both controversial. They are both outspoken. In taking on the established political order, they are taking on long odds."
And the Trump camp likes another thing about the nation's only Reform Party governor.
"Ventura won," Stone said. "There's a model there. There are some lessons there."
Sprint, MCI file for approval of merger deal, await clearance
The Associated Press
MCI
WASHINGTON — MC. WorldCom and Sprint filed for approval of their proposed merger with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday and defended the deal as an appropriate answer to today's changing marketplace.
Officials from both companies said they expect the deal to pass regulatory muster and hope it will be cleared by the middle of next year.
The two businesses pressed their view that the deal is not a marriage between the No. 2 and No. 3 long-distance companies, but more broadly a merger between the No. 4 and No. 7 telecommunications businesses.
The companies want to position themselves to offer a combination of long-distance, wireless and high-speed Internet services with the deal, announced in October and originally valued at $115 billion.
"Two or three years ago, this would be very hard to get done." Sprint general counsel J. Richard Devil said of the merger.
But the companies think there are enough competitors in the market now, with some 600 long-distance carriers, and no obstacles to new businesses getting in.
Company officials said they anticipated antitrust regulators reviewing their case also would consider what the state of the market will be in a few years. With at least one of the regional Bell companies on the brink of receiving permission to enter the long-distance business, it could alter the landscape of competition even further, they said.
"I think people will have an open mind. I think we have to persuade them," said Michael Salsbury, MCI general counsel.
But both agencies this weekend stressed that no decision has been made vet on the transaction.
When the deal was announced FCC Chairman Bill Kennard said the companies would bear a heavy burden to show how consumers would be better off. Joel Klein, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's antitrust division, also promised at the time that the deal would get a very serious and thorough review.
Devlin acknowledged that concerns have been raised about the amount of control the merger would give the two companies' over the Internet backbone — the massive data pipelines that crisscross the nation carrying computer traffic.
"Sprint is prepared to address that issue." Devlin said.
Some analysts have speculated that Sprint might have to shed some of its backbone for the deal to receive approval.
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