c. 1998 Religion News Service

Poll: Clinton scandals lift voter concerns over morals

(RNS) White House scandals have propelled moral issues to the top of the agenda of American voters and could help Republicans win big in the November election, according to two leading pollsters.

A late-August survey _”Battleground `98″_ conducted by pollsters Ed Goeas, a Republican, and Celina Lake, a Democrat, found that President Clinton’s personal standing among voters has dropped 19 percent since January, when stories about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky first emerged.

According to the poll, 56 percent of those surveyed approved of Clinton’s handling of his job, while just 26 percent said they approved of Clinton’s personal conduct. The job approval rating was down 6 percent.

Just 25 percent said they approved of both Clinton’s job performance and his personal conduct. Thirty-nine percent rated the president unfavorably both in relation to his job performance and personally.

The pollsters told the Washington Post on Tuesday (Sept. 8) that moral indignation at Clinton stemming from the Lewinsky relationship and other scandals is likely to favor Republicans in November.”There are indications that Democratic voters, demoralized by President Clinton’s problems and seeing little incentive to vote for politicians and a system teetering on the brink of moral bankruptcy, may choose to stay home on Nov. 3, while Republicans may turn out at average or higher than average levels to help cure the moral ills of politics,”said Lake.

Lake cited focus group findings of senior citizens attitudes by way of example. She noted that seniors, because of their propensity to vote, often have a disproportionate impact in low-turnout elections.”In our focus groups this year, seniors have been particularly upset by scandals, including the campaign finance reform scandals. Values are now their top issue … but seniors give Democrats and Clinton negative marks on values.” The survey polled 1,000 randomly selected adults Aug. 23-25 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

A poll commissioned by moderate Republicans in July, prior to Clinton’s admission of his relationship with Lewinsky, found that the GOP could lose its majority in the House of Representatives should it focus narrowly on personal moral issues, such as abortion and homosexuality.

Mormon president distances church from modern-day polygamists

(RNS) President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has told CNN’s Larry King that modern-day polygamy in Mormon splinter groups is in no way condoned by his church.

In a rare TV interview, Hinckley said on”Larry King Live”Tuesday (Sept. 8) that”these people who practice polygamy are not members of this church. Any man or woman who becomes involved in it is excommunicated.” Mainstream Mormons, including church leaders, practiced polygamy until 1890, when it was banned as part of Utah’s acceptance as a state. However, even today, polygamy _ though outlawed in Utah and other Western states with large numbers of Mormons _ persists among small Mormon splinter groups unconnected to Hinckley’s church. Some 30,000 polygamists reportedly exist in Utah and other states.

The issue became a hot potato in Utah this summer when Gov. Mike Levitt acknowledged that his Mormon ancestors had practiced polygamy and that the polygamists he knew as a child were”decent and hard-working.”His comments followed allegations of child abuse and incest in one polygamous group and reports that Utah officials had not persecuted polygamists for some 45 years.

In his comments, Hinckley said polygamists are lawbreakers accountable to civil, not church, officials.”The church can’t do anything”about polygamists operating outside its ranks, said Hinckley.”We have no authority in this matter, none whatever. We have nothing to do with it. We are totally distanced from it. And if the state chooses to move on it, that’s a responsibility of civil officers.” Hinckley also said that calling such polygamists”Mormon fundamentalists,”as is sometimes done, is”erroneous and misleading”because they have no connection to his church, by far the largest of the various Mormon groups with a worldwide membership of about 10 million.

U.N. report says poor most impacted by pollution

(RNS) A United Nations report says the gap between the world’s haves and have-nots is widening, and that the poor are bearing the brunt of growing worldwide environmental pollution caused in large part by the consumption habits of the rich.

The U.N. Human Development Report said 20 percent of people living in high-income nations consume 86 percent of the world’s goods and services. The poorest 20 percent consume just 1.3 percent.

The 228-page report said that in the United States 16.5 percent of the population lives in poverty, even though the nation leads the world in per capita consumption. In Sweden, less than 7 percent live in poverty.”Poverty is not just a matter of not having enough income, but also of being robbed of opportunities to participate and contribute to the life of a community,”said Saikiko Fukuda-Parr, a U.N. Development Program official.

The report urged”more sustainable”patterns of consumption in noting the increasing worldwide environmental degradation, and it said the poor suffer most from pollution.”All over the world, poor people generally live nearest to dirty factories, busy roads and waste dumps,”the report said.”Though the rich create most of the damage, the poorest in the world suffer most of the consequences,”Richard Jolly, the report’s chief author, told reporters in the Hague, where the report was released Wednesday (Sept. 9).

For the fifth consecutive year, the report rated Canada as the nation in which the”average person”is most likely to enjoy a decent standard of living. France, Norway, the United States and Iceland followed.

Five African nations _ Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone _ were the lowest rated nations.

The report also noted that despite the problems noted, all of the 174 nations surveyed had made at least some progress in infant mortality rates, childhood malnutrition and literacy rates.

U.N. human rights chief chastises China on treatment of dissident’s wife

(RNS) A prominent Chinese dissident’s wife waiting to see United Nations human rights chief Mary Robinson was dragged away by police as the woman waited outside Robinson’s Beijing hotel.

Moments later, Robinson chided Chinese officials for their human rights policies, saying that while the country is to be commended for its efforts to eliminate poverty, the”right to development”is based on”respect for all human rights.””I want to see Miss Mary,”Chu Hailan screamed as Chinese police pulled her through the Hilton Hotel lobby. Chu was waiting to ask Robinson to help in winning the freedom of her jailed and ailing dissident husband, the Associated Press reported Wednesday (Sept. 9).

Robinson, the former president of Ireland, said she later spoke to Assistant Foreign Minister Wang Guangya about Chu and was assured she had been released.”I know her (Chu) concerns are very serious concerns,”Robinson said.

Update: Presbyterians won’t buy artist O’Keeffe’s property

(RNS) After several rounds of negotiations, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) has opted not to buy a 12-acre parcel of land in New Mexico once owned by famed artist Georgia O’Keeffe and surrounded by the denomination’s Ghost Ranch retreat and conference center.

Under terms of an agreement reached Sept. 4, the denomination gave up its option to buy the property in exchange for $350,000 from the Burnett Foundation, a Texas-based organization interested in preserving O’Keeffe’s legacy in the Southwest.

Presbyterian News Service, the denomination’s official news agency, said the five-person PCUSA negotiating team also agreed to provide an easement for a private road to the adobe O’Keeffe house.

For its part, the foundation agreed to restrict the use of the house to O’Keeffe scholars.”We are pleased to have arrived at an agreement that protects the integrity of both the Georgia O’Keeffe property and our program at Ghost Ranch,”said John Detterick, executive director of the denomination’s General Assembly Committee.”We believe this arrangement adequately meets the needs of both the church and the arts community.” The legal dispute was sparked when the Burnett Foundation offered Juan Hamilton, a companion of the late painter and current owner of the 12-acre O’Keeffe property, $3 million even though the church held first refusal rights.

Many of O’Keeffe’s most famous paintings were done during her years in the adobe house, which has panoramic views of the New Mexican desert’s cliffs and buttes.

Lutheran congregations report income of more than $2 billion

(RNS) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s 10,889 congregations had incomes totaling more than $2 billion in 1997, an increase of $133.4 million, the denomination has reported.

Of the $2 billion, $1.4 billion was received in regular, unrestricted offerings _ up 3.9 percent over 1996. So-called”mission support”funds _ the money passed on by congregations to the national church _ was $123,573,865, up $2,646,555 from 1996.

The average regular giving per confirmed member increased from $401.39 in 1996 to $423.23 in 1997, the church said.

Quote of the Day: Dr. Barry Zirkin

(RNS)”This is not curing a disease and it’s not curing a societal problem. There is no reason for haste and every reason to be cautious.” _ Dr. Barry Zirkin, head of the division of reproductive biology at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, commenting in the New York Times Wednesday (Sept. 9) on reports that researchers at a Virginia fertility clinic have perfected a way to sort sperm and enable couples to choose the sex of their baby.

DEA END RNS