The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 11

And let no man pint it asunder Interracial marriage: Again, a case where God's words are misquoted A number of ministers here In town were puzzled. STROUDSBURG, Pa. They were married a week ago. Her dress was white lace: wore his too, although the president of the county clergy association stood up for Butler, blaming the young couple for making their complaint public and noting that clergy are under no obligation to marry anyone. If a restaurant owner told Brian Army uniform.

They met last year, when her best Wend was dating his. In the wedding pictures, they are both handsome people. She Is white; he Is black. Those facts seemed unimportant to both 3 of them until the week before the I jT "'is. If and Angle that it was nothing personal, but that he did not serve Interracial couples, or a real estate agent told them It was nothing personal, but she didn't show houses to interracial couples, we'd be talking lawsuit.

But Butler is supposed to represent the word of God. and that Anna Quindlcn it. ViHt wedding. After the minister met the groom, he told them that, no matter what the Invitations said, they would not be wed at the Wesleyan Church. "He said It was nothing personal with said the former Angle Harms, who became Angle Storm" 1 God's words are chosen.

There are Catholics who say It Is God's will that women be forbidden to enter the priesthood, and Episcopalians who believe it Is God's will that women be permitted to enter theirs. It is not uncommon today to have dueling world views, with each claiming that God is on Its side. It's guilt by association, and it can bring discussion to a screeching halt There are also the quiet people, the ones who rarely speak of their Inspiration and who use It only to guide their own behavior, not to control that of others. There are the nuns ministering to families with no homes who don't make a big deal out of It but who will say when asked that they're following a call from God. There are the ministers who operate soup kitchens and small shelters because the word of God they follow calls for charity.

It is extraordinarily potent, that three-letter word, which appears In our courtrooms, on our currency and, of course, in our churches. Freedom of religion provides those who earn their living by It with certain protections; they are not Imagined to be above the law, but beyond It, Inclined by profession to do the right thing. Or at least that's the theory. Butler can refuse to marry anyone, according to the letter of the law. According to the spirit, he makes all the difference.

The word of God: It is a sure way of lending a powerful Imprimatur to a stand, opinion, even prejudice. Opponents of abortion in Wichita have said they represent a law of God that overrides the laws of man, that they are spiritually obliged to block clinic entrances and harass staff members. Those horrified by homosexuality sometimes give chapter and verse on why gay people are sinners the chapter Is Leviticus 18, and the verse Is 22. Leviticus 19:19 forbids wearing garments woven with two different kinds of thread, but so far there's no organized opposition to poly-cotton blends. There's a certain selectivity sometimes about how after the couple found an llth-hour clergyman.

"He just said he would never perform an Interracial marriage. He said, 'Angle didn't tell me what the situation I didn't think there was a situation." The Rev. Samuel Butler hasn't talked publicly about this since he told The Pocono Record that he had personal and scriptural reasons for his action, so I don't know what section of scriptures, if any, forbids Interracial marriage. The head of the national Wesleyan Church, a conservative branch of Methodism, says there Is no policy against the practice. And I've hunted through the Bible, from Genesis to Apocalypse, and come up cold.

should have a very good reason, having to do with the soul, not the skin. In cases like these, when God and good seem much farther apart than a single you have to wonder whether human beings are hiding their own opinions and prejudice beneath the cover of an omnipotent mask. (Quindlen Is a columnist tor 77w New York Times.) ussians long for Coup-watching: Betting a winner it; we misuse it JJl Art Buchwald ttwn Sm, 173 Liberal was a bad word in the last presidential campaign, and the winning candidate trashed those who defend our civil liberties. Might we care more about liberal values as we see Soviet citizens cherish them? THE most important tning to know about a coup, such as the one they Just tried to pull off In Moscow, Is when to recognize the new leaders. Lapidus, a coup expert told me: "It's a question of knowing if the takeover will succeed or not If you are fairly sure that the new rulers have events under control, then it's better to recognize them early.

If you think that they will fail, hang on and don't take their calls." "That's exactly what I did In the Soviet coup," I told him with satisfaction. "But I couldn't make head or tall of it because the new guys looked exactly like the old guys. Did you think that the hard-liners would fail?" "I did," said Lapidus. "All you had to do was look at pictures of their wives. There wasn't one who could hold a candle to Raisa." "That's one way to judge if a coup will work or not But there must be more to coup-watching than that" Lapidus confided, "There most certainly is.

You have to ask: Who is behind it? I did that When they appeared on television I said to myself, "These guys look like Communists, and no Communists have a chance of surviving in the USSR these "Outstanding," I cried. "Most people are not that politically aware. What made me hold off sending a telegram was that the coup leaders were very physically unattractive compared with Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In order to rule a country these days, people want their leaders to have IN a week, in the twinkling of an eye, history has been unraveled and a great country transformed. We celebrate democracy's victory over an embedded tyranny.

But what has happened Is not a reason for Americans to be smug: not If we think about how faithful we have been lately to our own values. Law was a major theme In the resistance to the coup. The Russians who stood bravely against it called It "anti-constitutional," and that became a crucial concept After the coup failed, the plotters were charged with criminal offenses and all who worked with them made subject to investigation. To pay such respect to constitutionalism and law is remarkable in a country where those Ideas have been a bitter joke for more than 70 years. It is a dramatic demonstration of the longing for rules that bind the governors as well as the governed.

The United States has a written Constitution that for 200 years has 'been enforced by Judges. It 'guards our guardians. So we be- lieve and boast But have we faithfully respected that tradition? Hardly. Just a few years ago, men close to the president conspired to violate laws passed by Congress. It would be hard to think of anything more plainly "anti-constitutional." Oliver North made It clear that he would not let the Constitution stand in the way of he deemed the national interest In a constitutional state, the law should surely have called those men to account The president should have had to answer to an impeachment inquiry.

But voices have mocked the attempt to bring the conspirators to Lapidus smiled, "That's exactly what I told Secretary of State Baker." "I'll bet the countries that Immediately recognized the hard-liners are embarrassed." "They are. Gorbachev has received telegrams from all over the world, Including Cuba, which say, 'Disregard previous congratulations to coup government new set of congratulations to follow." "I can't believe that these men would risk their government pensions for a lousy three days In power." "It Is hard to fathom. Any two-bit dictatorship in South America could have done a better job." "Do you see future coups happening In the Soviet Union?" I asked Lapidus. "I don't think so," he said. "The men who tried this one will be sent away to places like Siberia and Outer Mongolia to break big rocks into little rocks and think about what they could have been if the coup had succeeded." "That sounds like terribly harsh punishment Will the guards give them anything to read?" "Only the telegrams of congratulations from those people who got on the bandwagon too early." (Buchwald is a syndicated Justice.

George Bush has evaded any meaningful Inquiry Into his role. And the public has hardly seemed to care. Another Important element In the Soviet events has been the demand for dispersion of authority. After the tragic experience of the Leninist system, people understood that centralization of power opened the way to tyranny. Madison and the other framers of the American Constitution knew that long ago.

That Is why they created a system of divided powers. But in recent years, their system has been distorted as presidents have made an unrelenting grab for power. How far the tendency has gone was clear in the run-up to the Persian Gulf war. The White House claimed that the president could go to war without approval by Congress. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, a veteran of Congress and an ordinarily sensible man, endorsed that anti-constitutional claim of power.

An important factor In the quick collapse of the Soviet coup was the public's access to information: to Boris Yeltsin's defiance and others'. The makers of the coup moved at once to suppress all but official newspapers and broadcasts. But glasnost had gone too far. The news got out People tuned in to foreign broadcasts. Afterward, government and the public moved to seize the files of the KGB.

They understood, as had the victors over Communism in the coup, which said it might be "a Potemkin coup intended to get the West to shower a restored Gorbachev with aid." The second Soviet revolution has been a triumph of liberalism: of faith in human beings and the possibility of change for the better. The plotters of the coup were men of the hard right who wanted to prevent change. Against the odds, they and then their whole system were overthrown. It Is a somewhat Ironic point given the state of American politics. Liberal was a bad word in the last presidential campaign, and the winning candidate trashed those who defend our civil liberties.

Might we care more about liberal values as we see Soviet citizens cherish them? (Lewis is a columnist for The New York Times. Eastern Europe, that secrecy Is the handmaiden of tyranny. Americans should hardly need lessons In the Importance of free speech and open government We have the First Amendment But we also have a recent tradition of presidential demands for more and more secrecy. And we have a statist Supreme Court that last term, said one who takes government money can be told by the government what to say. The Soviet drama, finally, made a point about what we call conservatism and liberalism in politics.

Liberals tend to be optimists about the potential of human beings and the benefits of reform. Conservatives, historically, are pessimists. Their skepticism was perfectly reflected in The Wall Street Journal's first editorial on By GENE ANDREWS AFTER reading comments by Franklin Road Academy headmaster Bill Campbell in the i newspaper concerning our Confederate flag, I must respectfully decline to participate In the dedication 'of FRA's new sports complex. Tallies Bids sflamdl ffoir Pixie Ex-coach says Franklin Road Academy has betrayed Confederate heritage by lowering the Stars and Bars If the battle flag of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, which defended the hill where the FRA sports complex is located, is not welcomed where It once stood guard against an invading enemy, then I would not wish to be there either. Campbell Is wrong when he says that "FRA has never displayed the would allow us only one version of history theirs or one version of patriotism theirs.

My ancestors who joined the Confederate Army on Christmas Day in 1861 in Stewart County had never even seen a black person until they went to Dover, to enlist. Gen. Stephen D. Lee, who defended the hill where Franklin Road Academy is located, was one of the founders and the first president of Mississippi State University, one of the early leaders in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the one who gave them this commission: "To you sons of Confederate veterans, we submit the vindication of the cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name It is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations." Good luck to the coaches and to all the young men and women of the athletic department. Don't forget your Southern heritage nor those who defended your campus on that cold, rainy, December day.

But the day that the Confederate Battle Flag was removed from its place of honor at Franklin Road Academy was also my last day on the hill. (Andrews served as a teacher, athletic director, head footballhead track coach at Franklin Road Academy for 11 years. A Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, he is a mepiber of the Sam Davis Camp 129), Sons of Confederate Veterans.) miles to the west it was Lee's corps that withdrew from the defensive perimeter (the FRA sports complex site) and made a last-ditch, rear-guard stand at the Intersection of Tyne Boulevard and Franklin Pike. This allowed Hood's defeated army to escape certain capture during that cold, rainy, freezing December night Campbell says he wants "everyone to feel comfortable" turning his back on the heritage, courage and dedication of those individuals struggling in what they knew by December of 1864 was a lost but just cause of Southern Independence, a cause they would not abandon for the sake of "our image." This is not the Franklin Road Academy that I worked for during my years on the hill. There are many today who would attack our Confederate colors in the name of race.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who is able can read the letters, diaries, journals and publications of the 1860s and see that the war began as an attempt at independence by the newly formed Confederate States of America. An invasion of our homeland by the United States aimed to force us back into a union of federal dictatorship. Even the Northern soldier didn't see slavery as an issue until "Dishonest" Abe Lincoln issued his political proclamation which did nothing to free the slaves in the North or border states where he had the power to end slavery. The proclamation was used simply as one of Lincoln's many political schemes to keep England and France out of the war on the side of the young Confederacy.

According to the 1860 census, less than 20 of the Southern population owned even a single slave; in the Confederate military, the count is less than 5. No one who suffered and died the way 250,000 Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines did, would carry on through four years of intense hardship to protect a rich man's Institution. 1 have never felt that being pro-Confederate meant that, one automatically had to be anti-black. I am not so narrow-minded as the liberal bigots who ANDREWS flag as part of the school's Image." Before his arrival, the Confederate flag was a very proud part of the school's image and heritage. The Confederate battle flag and the nickname "Rebels" specifically chosen because of Confederate IGen.

Stephen D. Lee's defense of Peach Orchard IHill Dec. 16, 1984, as part of Gen. John B. Hood's right wing at the Battle of Nashville.

I Lee's corps, In hastily dug trenches, withstood intense close-range artillery fire throughout the day and repulsed every Union assault on the hill with heavy enemy losses. When Hood's line was broken at Shy's Hill, two.