From: crs@milton.u.washington.edu (Cliff Slaughterbeck)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Clinton & Gore
Date: 3 Sep 92 03:57:49 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

chip@horse.ssc.gov (Chip Hawley) writes:
>
>Clinton is, alas, a Southern Baptist.  However, his wife Hillary attendes
>a Methodist church.  From what I HEAR, several leaders within the SBC are
>recommending "church discipline" for his support of abortion and gay
>rights.  This may be quite interesting since his local church would be the
>only organization that could "discipline" him, and it may not take kindly
>to "interference" from other churches or leaders, Southern Baptist or not.

I may be wrong about Govenor Clinton's beliefs, but I would like to clarify
his stand about homosexuality (at least as I understand it).  I believe
that he does not necessarily accept homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle,
but does not believe that it is in any way a justifiable cause for
discrimination against those individuals who practice it.  He is more
concerned with the civil rights of lesbians and gays than worrying about
condemning them from a moral standpoint.  About a month ago, Gov. Clinton
was in Seattle and appeared on a local talk show and was asked questions from
the audience.  The television station doing the broadcast had made an effort
to bring local personalities who were in the news to ask "tough" questions.
I don't believe that Clinton knew ahead of time who would be there and what
questions would be asked, although I am certain that his staff tried to 
prepare him for issues that might come up.  One of the audience members
was a Colenel in the US Army who had been decorated for service during the
Tet Offensive in Viet Nam.  She recently openly admitted that she was a
lesbian, and was discharged as a matter of policy by the armed services.
She asked Gov. Clinton if he would continue the policy of discharging gays
and lesbians from the armed services.  Gov. Clinton replied by saying "No."
He went on to explain his position was not based on espousing homosexuality
as an acceptable lifestyle, because to him, that wasn't the issue.  To him,
the issue was using people to the best of their ability, something the Army
clearly wasn't doing in this case.  He quoted several studies as well as
the Secretary of Defense Dick Chaney (sp?) that said there was really no
justifiable reason for keeping the discriminatory policy in place.  At
no time did he say that homosexuality was an acceptable lifestyle, and 
several times he gave strong hints that personally, he didn't think it was.
Other people may have had other experiences, but that is the position that
I have seen him take.

The other moral issue raised in the talk show that may be of interest to
s.r.c readers was euthanasia.  Some of you may recall that Dr. Jack
Kevorkian's suicide machine was first used by a woman from Oregon.  The
TV station brought in her brother who asked what Gov. Clinton thought about
euthanasia.  The question clearly caught him off guard, as he sat just 
shaking his head and saying "I don't know...I don't know...I don't know".
He was clearly moved by the question, but didn't have a slick plished
response to give.  He asked for more details about the man's sister.  He
(the man) responded by telling the audience that his sister was beginning to
suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and wanted to die with dignity rather than
to suffer through the horribly dehabilitating disease.  Clinton was 
sympathetic and replied that he had an aunt and an uncle who passed away
from Alzheimer's.  He finally did respond after some thought that he could
not support that form of suicide (as opposed to pulling the plug on an
otherwise dead person, etc).

****************************************************************************
Cliff Slaughterbeck           * 
Dept. of Physics, FM-15       *   Hey Matt!  The diffusion pump is full of
University of Washington      *   water again!
Seattle, WA 98195             *
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