University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 3, 1987
11
Bremer
Continued from p. 1
respect for Bremer
"There is an openness and freedom about the environment at the forum that is just beautiful." Clark said. "I think Bremer is largely responsible for that atmosphere."
Clark and Bremer agree that they share similar concerns, although different philosophies motivate them.
A pastor who expresses agreement with a secular humanist is likely to be considered a liberal. Bremer also opposes the death penalty, takes a pro-choice position on abortion and doesn't condemn homosexuality
But he doesn't like the liberal designation. He said convictions for this kind of behavior had little value.
"We don't want a watered-down biblical faith," he said, "but rather a faith that allows us to live out its implications in relation to our neighbors."
Bremer decided to become a minister while he was a student at Ottawa University. After he was accepted into divinity school, he performed his military service.
"As a matter of conscience, I could do that again and be faithful to Christ."
He earned a master's of divinity degree in 1961 and a master's of sacred theology in 1962, both from Yale. He pastured a parish at Blue Mound and Selma, Kan., 1962-64; East Topeka United Methodist Church in Topeka; United Methodist Church in Topeka, 1969-79. He received a doctorate in ministry in 1976 from San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Bremer came to the University of Kansas a year after ECM was founded in 1978. He said his role as campus counselor helped students as well as to teach them.
Bremer's ministry reaches hundreds of students each year. Attendance at his Sunday evening worship services ranges from 15 to 35 students, 22 students were enrolled in his study seminar this semester, 20 to 25 students participated in his two weekend retreats this year, and ECM Friday night movies draw 30 to 70 students.
"Students are in the searching stage of spiritual progress," he said. "They are asking the radical questions: Is there a God? Is there a purpose for my life?"
"My kind of ministry doesn't view that questioning as sin, but as a healthy, normal part of the process of spiritual maturing. Campus ministry has a special responsibility to help students face the radical questions."
Bremer enjoys the university atmosphere and recognizes its chal-
"Students' danger is that they may become Ph.D.s intellectually but kindergarteners spiritually," he said. "One of the great challenges is to gain a spiritual maturity adequate to
As Bremer counsels students through difficult times, he has an intuition to form from personal experience. He is 25-year marriage ended in divorce in 1983.
give guidance to using our knowledge and power wisely."
Bremer said that after his wife became active in the feminist movement, she decided she no longer wanted to be part of a traditional marriage. They have two daughters, ages 27 and 25.
"It was devastating to me," Bremer said. "I was reasonably happy in the marriage. But I also know that when human efforts are not sufficient, we have to be willing to accept God's grace for our lives."
With limited family obligations, Bremer is able to approach his mini- mentee with a single child.
Jean Hendricks, pastor of Lawrence Mennonite Fellowship, which meets at the ECM building, said. "He gets really emotionally involved and puts so much personal
energy into what he's doing. He's working from a deep sense of internal commitment."
Mark Knewton, Caney senior, said, "He's a really good pastor because he understands people and their problems."
Love of God and love of neighbor
tamera frequently returns to this them
Grear said, "What impresses me is that he doesn't go out and try to force his beliefs on anybody. He's a stabiling influence. He sets an example."
"For me, Christianity proclaims an alternative vision, a life that is dedicated to the service of others and the love of God," he said. "I feel privileged to work with students in their process of spiritual formation."
Officials relieved by bypass vote
Bv TODD COHEN
Staff writer
Douglas County and Lawrence officials expressed relief yesterday after the U.S. Senate reversed itself and overrode President Reagan's veto of a bill that included money for a proposed southern Lawrence trafficway.
Lawrence Mayor Sandra Praeger, who had lobbied personally for the bill, said. "I'm relieved. It's been a lot of work."
Chris McKenzie, county administrator, said, "It's a very significant hurdle, and we're very pleased to have this behind us."
Reagan last week had vetoed the bill, calling it a budget-buster, and offered an alternative, slimmed-down version of the bill. He also eliminated the traffic-flow money.
After the Senate tentatively voted Wednesday to sustain the veto, McKenzie said that the project wouldn't die if money were not allocated but that the veto probably would slow its development.
The local officials also said they
were not angry that Kansas' senators, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole and Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, had voted to sustain the president's veto. Praeer said Republicans Dole and Kassebaum thought they had an obligation to the president.
County Commissioner Nancy Hiebert said, "The political realities for Senator Dole as minority leader are understandable. But I can't say enough for Congressman Jim Slattery."
Slattery, who represents the Lawrence area, voted for the override when it came before the House on Tuesday.
Hiebert said now that the $7.2 million is on its way, work on further environmental and engineering studies can move forward. Construction could start before the end of the year, she said.
However, the project still faces opposition from local environmentalists who charge that the trafficway would harm the Baker Wetlands, a wildlife refuge that is home to the endangered Northern Crawfish frog.
One of the environmentalists, John Simmons, said he was disappointed by the Senate's action. Simmons last year created Agnes The Frog as an anti-trafficway write-in candidate against Hiebert.
But Simmons said the fight was far from over.
"Just because they have the money doesn't mean they can build the road." he said.
Simmons said the next step for opponents was an April 20 public hearing in Lawrence on a draft environment statement for *Wayne Wiley* and *WAYNWAYS FORUM*.
The trafficway would run south of Lawrence to link Kansas Highway 10 with Interstate 70. It would border the wetlands for one mile.
United Press International supplied some information for this story.
Hayden's hopes ride on death penalty bill
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Gov Mike Hayden said yesterday that he remained hopeful the Senate would pass a bill today to reinstate capital punishment in Kansas, but if it failed, "We'll keep working on it."
On the eve of Senate debate on an issue important to Hayden's political prestige, Hayden admitted that he wasn't sure the House-passed bill would win Senate approval. He said he was counting on senators who supported it in the past to do it again.
"If we don't get it, I'll continue to work for it, because I support it," said Hayden, who virtually assured voters during his campaign in the fall that he would deliver a death penalty law.
"I'm hopeful it will pass. I've seen a lot of counts," he said. "None of the counts I have seen showed 21 noes or 21 veses.
were 24 votes for it, and except for one, they're all the same senators.
The informal polls cited by Hayden have showed between 17 and 19 votes for the death penalty, said sources in the parties. The bills need 21 votes to pass.
"The last time they voted there
Hayden cautioned senators that they should vote the wishes of their constituents. "The worst thing a person could do on an issue such as this," he said.
He said he thought some Democrats who voted for capital punishment in the past were saying they would vote against it this time for political reasons, to try to embarrass him.
Among Republicans who formerly voted for death penalty bills but have said they planned to vote against this President Ross Doyne, R-Cordonia
"We'll have to wait and see what Senator Doyen does," Hayden said.
Surrogate to keep up legal fight
The Associated Press
RED BANK, N.J. — Surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead, stripped of the right to see her daughter again, vowed yesterday to continue her legal battle for the child. She said she'd never stop loving the little girl known as Baby M.
"We love each other very much." Whitehead said Tuesday. It was her first public statement since Judge Harvey R. Sorkow issued the country's first ruling upholding a disputed parenting contract.
"I believe that there is something so wrong and so harmless unnatural about the surrogate practice that our clients have to practice," return Sara to rp." Whitehawk said.
The biological father, William Stern, was custody and Stern's wife, Elizabeth, was allowed to adopt the child
The case, which brought worldwide attention to surrogate parenting, was sparked by Whitehead's refusal to honor the $10,000 contract in which she agreed to be artificially inseminated with Stern's sperm.
Whitehead's attorney, Harold J. Cassidy, said the appeal, probably to the New Jersey Supreme Court, will cite at least 15 grounds for reversal. He said another law firm and two law assistors have joined Whitehead's case.
Cassidy said he first must block Sorkow's ruling and halt the adoption, the change of name and the termination of Whitehead's parental and visitation rights to the baby. A hearing was set for today.
Cassidy said the appeal would content that surrogate motherhood was "indecent and the worst form of abuse" and asked for being for the gratification of another.
Sorkow's ruling said that surrogate parenting didn't exploit women. The judge also said the practice wasn't immoral, and didn't amount to baby selling because the father couldn't buy "what is already his."